Found a peanut…it was rotten
Adam Ross' book, Mr. Peanut, should have been titled Mr. Penis. I read this book because it was hyped up all around town here in Nashvegas--Ross is a local author and newly formed celebrity. Mr. Peanut was released to incredible acclaim--the New York Times said Ross is a "sorcerer with words."From Publisher's Weekly we hear: "Ross's depiction of love is grotesque and tender at once, and his style is commanding as he combines torture and romance to create a sense of vertigo-as-romance. It's a unique book—stark and sublime, creepy and fearless—that readers into the darker end of the literary spectrum won't want to miss." I'm going to have to call FOUL on this one.
First of all, it's not just a man's book, but a misogynist's book full of phalluses and sex-starved/obsessed men. Not one man in the book (and there are many), thinks of sex in healthy way or treats the women in his life as anything less than meat. The woman are all crazy--two are literally bedridden on purpose, petulant, perfectly healthy women who "take to their beds" like southern belles with the vapors. All of the women employ the incredibly strereotypical "If I have to tell you what's wrong, then never mind" female mind$&%@$ crap. The book attempts to weave together a slew of murder mysteries. Then it's a flashback to a 1950's real murder of a doctor's wife and we get the exact same story told from three perspectives. The point of view in the book shifts from omniscient to limited third. There are strangely weak allusions to video game design. It's all very strange without a purpose, really, and Ross has tried too hard and failed.
This is the most negative review I've ever posted, but frankly, I'm mad that I spent so many of my reading hours on it. I've GOT to start putting away books I hate. When will I ever learn?
Filed under: Uncategorized
It's RESOLUTION time! Aren't you just pumped? I'm totally psyched out of my MIND to set my new resolutions. Actually, no, I'm not, because I've got pounds to lose and laps to swim and self-improvement galore that needs doing, but hey--I've got a lot of reading to catch up on, too. I have a different kind of reading goal for this year. Instead of trying to beat last year's total number of books read, I'm going to try to BACK off reading. That's right. I've spent too many hours of 2011 with my nose in a book. This is dangerous territory for me, a READER, but it's a cold, hard fact that my life has become unbalanced with all this time in books. What have YOU been spending too much time away from?