I have begun to brave the realm of non-genre literature of late and, after reading a novel which has soundly cemented itself as one of my most favourite novels, I have added this rather young, post-modern writer to my ‘list’ of authors to purchase when circumstances allow.
I gave his first novel a try one weekend and tried not to dwell too much on the fact that it was written when he was younger than I am now (this was not very successful).
Can you call something a coming of age tale when the character is already an adult and, in the end, seems to have come to an understanding about life but may not be a bigger or better man for it? Or when his decisions, even his better ones, result in the loss of things which have always been, and clearly are, important? And were there hipsters in the ’80s? I can answer none of these questions, although I’m assured that the answer to the last one is ‘no’.
This first novel is worlds different, in tone and quality, from the later masterpiece that I’d already read, but it’s also worlds better than most first novels I’ve read, and indeed avoids the pitfalls I associate with first novel syndrome. It touches on themes that I suspect are important to the author – sexuality, self-discovery (for good and for ill), and Jewishness (this last may not be a theme, but Jewish protagonists and Jewish characters in general seem important).
Apparently it was made into a terrible movie; just reading the Wikipedia article made me angry, made me baffled as to why you would bother adapting a novel if you were going to completely remove and reconfigure one of the central conflicts (the protagonist torn between his love for a beautifully quirky girl and his attraction to a fabulous, witty gay friend somehow becomes two men in a love triangle for one amazing woman) and God I hate Hollywood and modern filmmaking sometimes.
On the plus side, the worst part about the novel was learning about the awful film adaptation, and the novel itself contained zero Nazis or World Wars, which I have found my reading over saturated with as of late.
prelapsarian
advancedclass
