Reading Wrap-up 12/25
Jan. 5th, 2026 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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booknookLots of middling stuff in December with one notable exception:
Parrott, Ursula: Ex-Wife. Faber & Faber. 2024.
Discovered, once again through Lost Ladies of Lit (my favourite literary podcast by MILES) this novel from the roaring 1920s gets compared to The Great Gatsby a lot. In my opinion, this is the better book. Bold, outspoken, modern - Ex-Wife (despite the stupid title) is an excellent novel and I'd love for more of Parrott's work to get re-issued. Alas, I can't find anything anywhere. Such a shame!
Schweblin, Samantha: Little Eyes. Riverhead Books. 2020.
For years after Covid I couldn't touch dystopias, even though I've always loved that genre. I'm slowly getting back to those novels (very tentatively), but this was just not IT. It should definitely have been a short story. This isn't so much a novel as it is a collection of interconnected stories in the same world where smart plushies invade people's most intimate spaces. The novel wants to say so many things, but it never really goes there. Additionally, while I think the basic premise sounds plausible to a lot of people it simply doesn't hold up under scrutiny. I won't deny that something like this would appeal both to voyeurists and exhibitionists. But that's about it. The most shocking thing about this novel is the fact that it was on the longlist for the International Booker.
Bridle, James: New Dark Age. Technology, Knowledge and the End of the Future. Verso. 2018.
Bridle sometimes goes on the wildest tangeants (I now know more about Peppa Pig than I ever wanted to know) and his own interests show clearly (he seems overly interested in air travel), but overall this was a riveting and thought-provoking read. I thoroughly enjoyed following him on his journey through the history of technology.
Wood, Benjamin: Seascraper. Viking. 2025.
This novel is set in the 1960s, but it reads like it's the 1660s. Nice language and prose, but it sounds too much like a creative-writing-class for my taste with no actual plot to carry all these fancy words over the finish-line. The last 25% did not seem to belong with the rest of the book and stood out like a sore thumb. If you want to give this a go either way, I'd recommend the audiobook. Well read (and sung) by the author himself.
Whitehead, Colson: Underground Railroad. Doubleday. 2016.
My least successful Whitehead so far, maybe "only" because I'm not American and I couldn't really tell when he was being faithful to the history of slavery and when he was making stuff up. That considerably lessened my enjoymend and what I could take away from the novel. Also, he wasn't doing himself any favours with the many voices and POVs he used throughout. I've been looking forward to reading Underground Railroad for years now, but I must say that this - sadly - was a letdown.
Parrott, Ursula: Ex-Wife. Faber & Faber. 2024.
Discovered, once again through Lost Ladies of Lit (my favourite literary podcast by MILES) this novel from the roaring 1920s gets compared to The Great Gatsby a lot. In my opinion, this is the better book. Bold, outspoken, modern - Ex-Wife (despite the stupid title) is an excellent novel and I'd love for more of Parrott's work to get re-issued. Alas, I can't find anything anywhere. Such a shame!
Schweblin, Samantha: Little Eyes. Riverhead Books. 2020.
For years after Covid I couldn't touch dystopias, even though I've always loved that genre. I'm slowly getting back to those novels (very tentatively), but this was just not IT. It should definitely have been a short story. This isn't so much a novel as it is a collection of interconnected stories in the same world where smart plushies invade people's most intimate spaces. The novel wants to say so many things, but it never really goes there. Additionally, while I think the basic premise sounds plausible to a lot of people it simply doesn't hold up under scrutiny. I won't deny that something like this would appeal both to voyeurists and exhibitionists. But that's about it. The most shocking thing about this novel is the fact that it was on the longlist for the International Booker.
Bridle, James: New Dark Age. Technology, Knowledge and the End of the Future. Verso. 2018.
Bridle sometimes goes on the wildest tangeants (I now know more about Peppa Pig than I ever wanted to know) and his own interests show clearly (he seems overly interested in air travel), but overall this was a riveting and thought-provoking read. I thoroughly enjoyed following him on his journey through the history of technology.
Wood, Benjamin: Seascraper. Viking. 2025.
This novel is set in the 1960s, but it reads like it's the 1660s. Nice language and prose, but it sounds too much like a creative-writing-class for my taste with no actual plot to carry all these fancy words over the finish-line. The last 25% did not seem to belong with the rest of the book and stood out like a sore thumb. If you want to give this a go either way, I'd recommend the audiobook. Well read (and sung) by the author himself.
Whitehead, Colson: Underground Railroad. Doubleday. 2016.
My least successful Whitehead so far, maybe "only" because I'm not American and I couldn't really tell when he was being faithful to the history of slavery and when he was making stuff up. That considerably lessened my enjoymend and what I could take away from the novel. Also, he wasn't doing himself any favours with the many voices and POVs he used throughout. I've been looking forward to reading Underground Railroad for years now, but I must say that this - sadly - was a letdown.
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