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A baffling and mind-numbing mix of precociousness, academic snobbery, unlikely characterization and murder mystery, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, in the end, gave me a headache. By the time I got to page 210 I was incredibly dismayed to realize that I had another three hundred to go before the end. I was equally defeated by Pessl's somewhat meandering and definitely overly stylized prose, and my own tendency towards marathon reading sessions.
Once I hit page 210 and realized that I probably wasn't going to make it through the book unscathed, I skipped around until I'd gotten a general feel for the ending. One that left me heartily confused because the book makes an abrupt shift and becomes something else entirely. Part of the problem is that lovely, stylized presentation that hooked me in the first place. It drags on the novel, becoming an exercise in excess. Too many clauses, too many adjectives, too many references, too many parentheticals, too much imagery that goes nowhere and says absolutely nothing. It is, of course, attributed to our heroine, Blue van Meer and her hipster-geekiness. However clever it may have seemed, it's wearing and I find it a sign of an out of control author who can't quite reign in her characters or her narrative. Or perhaps more accurately, under the guise of her precocious sixteen year-old heroine, Pessl is trying to show off and it doesn't translate well. In the end, the book became excessively tedious and my willingness to suspend belief came to an aching conclusion right around the time when Blue finds herself with the dubious nickname of Retch and Hurl, being dragged to dive bars, watching as her so-called "friends" picked up bubbas and fucked them in bathroom stalls. The book only became more improbable, narcissistic and disengaging. Somewhere in the neighborhood of page 140 I realized that I did not like Blue and that I didn't care if she ever figured out the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. I'd like to say the mystery that takes up the last half of the book, but by page 210 (at which point I mostly gave up), let alone 140 there is no real mystery of which to speak.
Finally, well before the death of Hannah Schneider (clearly the moment you're meant to be waiting for since it's set-up in the first two pages) finally occurs. I was even more confused by my haphazard reading of the book's last half and finally resorted to the internet to clue me in to what actually happens in the book. Like I said before, the book makes this shift and becomes something else entirely. I'm sorry that I didn't make it to the transformation, it might have been interesting, if highly unlikely as plots go.
The shift from teen emo fest to political intrigue and murder are far leaps and Pessl takes a long time to make it happen. It's a good time in the beginning, but it goes on for way to long. I get the feeling that the book could have been written in half the pages and to better effect. It's just too much of a good thing, I suppose.
I didn't *really* complete the book, but it'll be counted on my list of books read for 2009 because I skimmed enough to get the gist, if not a deeper understanding of events. Slate has a review that better explains the pros and cons of the books, and that I quite agree with.
Precocious Realsim by Meagan O'Rourke.
Once I hit page 210 and realized that I probably wasn't going to make it through the book unscathed, I skipped around until I'd gotten a general feel for the ending. One that left me heartily confused because the book makes an abrupt shift and becomes something else entirely. Part of the problem is that lovely, stylized presentation that hooked me in the first place. It drags on the novel, becoming an exercise in excess. Too many clauses, too many adjectives, too many references, too many parentheticals, too much imagery that goes nowhere and says absolutely nothing. It is, of course, attributed to our heroine, Blue van Meer and her hipster-geekiness. However clever it may have seemed, it's wearing and I find it a sign of an out of control author who can't quite reign in her characters or her narrative. Or perhaps more accurately, under the guise of her precocious sixteen year-old heroine, Pessl is trying to show off and it doesn't translate well. In the end, the book became excessively tedious and my willingness to suspend belief came to an aching conclusion right around the time when Blue finds herself with the dubious nickname of Retch and Hurl, being dragged to dive bars, watching as her so-called "friends" picked up bubbas and fucked them in bathroom stalls. The book only became more improbable, narcissistic and disengaging. Somewhere in the neighborhood of page 140 I realized that I did not like Blue and that I didn't care if she ever figured out the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. I'd like to say the mystery that takes up the last half of the book, but by page 210 (at which point I mostly gave up), let alone 140 there is no real mystery of which to speak.
Finally, well before the death of Hannah Schneider (clearly the moment you're meant to be waiting for since it's set-up in the first two pages) finally occurs. I was even more confused by my haphazard reading of the book's last half and finally resorted to the internet to clue me in to what actually happens in the book. Like I said before, the book makes this shift and becomes something else entirely. I'm sorry that I didn't make it to the transformation, it might have been interesting, if highly unlikely as plots go.
The shift from teen emo fest to political intrigue and murder are far leaps and Pessl takes a long time to make it happen. It's a good time in the beginning, but it goes on for way to long. I get the feeling that the book could have been written in half the pages and to better effect. It's just too much of a good thing, I suppose.
I didn't *really* complete the book, but it'll be counted on my list of books read for 2009 because I skimmed enough to get the gist, if not a deeper understanding of events. Slate has a review that better explains the pros and cons of the books, and that I quite agree with.
Precocious Realsim by Meagan O'Rourke.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-02 01:29 am (UTC)From:But I still found the author talented and interesting in spite of the tediousness. I probably will only read her next book if it's notably shorter - unless it gets great reviews.
The Slate article was spot on.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:08 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-28 01:26 am (UTC)From:(BTW I sent you a msg in your FB inbox...)