26th May 2011
Rob’s description of this as a ‘marmite book’ was an appropriate one. This was one of those books that provoked strong but very different reactions from within the group. On the one side were the ‘ayes’ (Mark Th and Steve in particular, plus Neil and Mark T) who all reported that they enjoyed the read. In contrast, the ‘nays’ (Rob and Ras) felt that it was badly written drivel with few, if any virtues. Chris seemed to sit between these two views.
There was clear consensus among the ayes on a couple of points. Firstly, the blurb on the back of the book is (typically) misleading as this is not a comic novel and certainly not a ‘side-splitter’. The book was seen as a satire on modern corporate America (Steve was very eloquent on this point) that wove in many aspects of modern life. At the same time, it was agreed that Milo’s journey is a sad one. He is a man with many privileges and zero skills, who falls from a very low height, losing his wife and job and being outdone by almost everyone he knows. There was also agreement that while it had been a very entertaining read, the low emphasis on plot meant that, once finished, it quickly began to fade from memory.
On the nay side there was early disagreement about what daily newspaper (not) to read but much closer agreement on what made the book so trying. It was very badly written to the point of being incomprehensible. Lipsyte is a bad writer with a poor command of the English language. The book has no plot at all and both the characters and their situations are impossible to believe in. The book does not resonate at all in England and is unfunny and frustrating. Ras observed at one point that only the Halidon was a worse read while Rob went so far as to compare Lipsyte’s writing to Jilly Cooper and find him wanting.
This marmite polarisation was perhaps the reason for a lively but slightly shorter than usual discussion with book matters concluded by 10.15 and more general conversation following on afterwards. The book discussion tended to remind the ayes of the things they had enjoyed about the book but had already started to forget (trendy Salamander childrearing, workplace politics, loft/cage living, hip 60s parents, business and marketing speak, surfing TV and the internet, cookery shows, student life etc) – and someone (Mark T, I think) commented on how many of the group were smiling at the recollection of these. It looked very much like this recollection also reminded the nays exactly why they disliked this stupid book in the first place.
5.58
