I read Wittgenstein's Mistress way back in my early 20s and am still scratching my head over it! (LOL) Made it about 1/3 through The Wall before putting it on the "come back to" shelf because I found it so bleak. Some day, I may return. Wanderers is on my TBR list...
I'm with you on WM--but I became such a fan of his last four books that I stopped worrying about that one. Have you read ICE? She was a more or less conventional novelist (can't recall her name), stopped writing, started up again adopting the name of the character in her previous book. And became a different writer altogether. One of her bios remarks that Ms. Kavan was addicted to heroin for the final forty years of her life. Yup, that stuff'll kill ya, was my thought. Do go back to THE WALL, it's a very constrained and unexplained world she's now in, but the demands of daily life keep her going and that saves it from being entirely bleak, I think.
I haven't read ICE -- I'll check it out, sounds very interesting. For The Wall, a coworker gave it to me ages ago and I tried it during early COVID, and the timing was wrong. (LOL) I have noticed that with young kids around (and they were really young then), I have a much harder time with bleakness. As they get older, I'm hoping this will ease up.
About The Wall. Her life was a metaphorical trap—caught in the expectations and limitations of being a woman as caregiver, accepting those constraints—and what she does immediately after discovering she is entirely alone is to commit herself to caring for the cow and dog and cat... Three layers of confinement, the final one self-imposed. That was my take.
The POV character in The Wall is in her 40s, and has no husband around but grown children she doesn't like much. She is staying with a couple, who leave in the evening for the local town and never return. I just read Never Known Men, too.
I enjoyed Seascraper and I Who Have Never Known Men. Thanks for your note on jargon. Parts of my novel takes place in a workspace so I’ll check to make sure it’s understandable.
I enjoyed this! The cli-fi genre overlaps with what was called the "new weird", a postmodern blend of eco-horror and a certain haunted mood.
Curious what you'll make of the McEwan - I was immersed the first half of the audiobook then lost interest.
I read Wittgenstein's Mistress way back in my early 20s and am still scratching my head over it! (LOL) Made it about 1/3 through The Wall before putting it on the "come back to" shelf because I found it so bleak. Some day, I may return. Wanderers is on my TBR list...
I'm with you on WM--but I became such a fan of his last four books that I stopped worrying about that one. Have you read ICE? She was a more or less conventional novelist (can't recall her name), stopped writing, started up again adopting the name of the character in her previous book. And became a different writer altogether. One of her bios remarks that Ms. Kavan was addicted to heroin for the final forty years of her life. Yup, that stuff'll kill ya, was my thought. Do go back to THE WALL, it's a very constrained and unexplained world she's now in, but the demands of daily life keep her going and that saves it from being entirely bleak, I think.
I haven't read ICE -- I'll check it out, sounds very interesting. For The Wall, a coworker gave it to me ages ago and I tried it during early COVID, and the timing was wrong. (LOL) I have noticed that with young kids around (and they were really young then), I have a much harder time with bleakness. As they get older, I'm hoping this will ease up.
ICE is on my mental shelf of WTF novels.
About The Wall. Her life was a metaphorical trap—caught in the expectations and limitations of being a woman as caregiver, accepting those constraints—and what she does immediately after discovering she is entirely alone is to commit herself to caring for the cow and dog and cat... Three layers of confinement, the final one self-imposed. That was my take.
The POV character in The Wall is in her 40s, and has no husband around but grown children she doesn't like much. She is staying with a couple, who leave in the evening for the local town and never return. I just read Never Known Men, too.
I apparently forgot there was no husband. Ooops.
I enjoyed Seascraper and I Who Have Never Known Men. Thanks for your note on jargon. Parts of my novel takes place in a workspace so I’ll check to make sure it’s understandable.