#paulmurray

Cass has fond memories of her family when she was younger – playing with her father and younger brother, PJ, in the woods in the back of her home. But it is hard to reconcile those memories with her life now, with her father forever working at the car dealership, her mother either complaining or being completely absent, and her brother, well, he’s just annoying. Why can’t they understand that all she wants to do is hang out with her friend, Elaine, who is cool, beautiful, knows how to navigate being a teenager. Later, when we transition to the perspectives of each of the family, we learn the true story of each of them and how their lives lead up to one precarious moment.

This novel begins VERY slowly. The author lays down the bricks one by one to set the foundation for building the characters as well as the plot. He also rotates the perspective of the characters, while mostly still writing in third person, varying the grammar/punctuation with the character, which provides a unique voice and tone for each of the characters. We hear about events from each of their perspectives, learn new details and explanations. Each brings a new “aha” moment, a new enlightenment that gives the story a deeper meaning.

I suppose the question is does it have to be as slow and plodding as it is? Perhaps not, but because it is, it is more and more gratifying when you get each of the “aha” moments. Each one carries with it a reveal, a connection, a wiring of one plot point to the other that makes sense of the whole picture. It is like putting together an enormous puzzle, one piece at a time, which can only be done slowly and methodically. If done haphazardly, one might never quite get it right.

But the story itself is complex, tragic, and ultimately beautifully rendered.

So, if you’ve got the patience and the time, and you’re after an intense and complicated plot with deeply complex characters, this novel is absolutely worth your while. Just keep at it – I believe it’ll be worth it!

This is the most well-written book that I didn’t like very much. The writing is witty and clever, even making me chuckle throughout. The vocabulary is great and you can hear the accents of the characters in the wording.

The story is about Charles, who is a wealthy young man who has left college and is doing nothing but laying around his mansion, when he learns that he is actually is no longer as wealthy as he thought. Suddenly, he’s thrust into the world and has to survive and get – say it isn’t so! — a job. His sister is an aspiring actress who is the only person in the world he actually cares about and the story develops around their relationship.

Unfortunately, this main character, Charles, is a loser for whom at least I felt no attachment. I am still trying to figure out if he is utterly snobby and self-absorbed or if he just has Asperger’s, because he is completely unaware of the feelings of anyone around him and it is so extreme that it makes him not credible as a character. I think that this is part of the point of the story, but I only learned that so late in the book that it was just too much work to be worth it. So it is hard to continue to read this story about someone you don’t care about. (His sister is really not much better either. On the other hand, his sister’s boyfriend, Frank, who at first Charles dislikes or rather, disdains, is the only character I really did like. He’s actually the only endearing character in the story.)

It seems the writer has great potential but needs a better story and better characters to work with. Too bad…

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray (migrated from bookblogger)