This past library run was a real strike-out so far.
I’d picked up My Lush Life by Douglas McEwan, ’cause I’d heard it was kind of like Patrick Dennis’s stuff, and I love, love, love me some Auntie Mame. It was, however, a tedious faux-biography that wore thinner and thinner as I read on. By WWII (just shy of halfway through), I gave it up as a bad job and put that book on the “to-be-returned” pile. This Amazon review pretty much says it all:
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing at best., November 4, 2003
By Hunter400 “hunter400” (New York, NY USA) – See all my reviews
What starts out as fresh and witty soon becomes tedious. There is no doubt that McEwan posses a wicked sense of humor. However instead of capitalizing on it the reader is “treated” to the same joke over and over and over.Is it funny? Yes. Is it worth reading? Probably not. Which is unfortunate cause the book has a tremendous amount of promise.
Would that I have checked out Amazon’s reviews before I checked out this book.
Ah well. On to the next book…
Yeah, another “not what I was expecting, and my expectations weren’t so very high.”
This time it was Erin McCarthy’s The Pregnancy Test. I was expecting a pedestrian, predictable, but comfortably enjoyable romantic-comedy, chick-flick-book, of which I am unabashedly fond. Instead, I got a tiresome bodice-ripper chockablock with long, drawn-out sex scenes composed of the most laborious language. In the story, our heroine is often impatient with her lover’s attempts to savor the moment; I as the reader, was equally impatient. I wished they’d just get on with the screwing, get it over with, and continue with the story. The sex scenes read gratuitously and gratingly. I expect the book would have ended up 25% shorter minus the sex scenes, and probably 75% more readable. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point in my 20s, I lost all patience for written “erotica” and this book definitely had me at the end of my chain. The story itself had potential to be amusing and charming, but the everlasting humpin’ & pumpin’ really got in the way of the narrative.
Laurie Notaro. . . I love her books, just read her first ‘novel’ ‘There is a slight chance I may be going to hell’. Pick it up, its chocked full of weirdness. And if you haven’t read any of her stuff before I would be amazed. . . ‘The Ididot Girls Action Adventure Club’ is her first. It is good funny quick reading to just make you smile. I’ve been damn voratious at the library this past year, but I don’t know if my book choices would translate to your style often, but I also got addicted to Tim Dorsey and Christopher Moore.