Thanks for the recommendation on this, ARX. I've bought a number of the books you recommended and started with this one. I enjoy supporting indie authors who are undiscovered and who write out of passion, so your reviews are helpful.
Re: the novel itself, I'll say I felt more mixed about it than your glowing review - but not necessarily from the writing, which was strong, or the banter, which was excellent and really captured young male friendships, or the era, which was a little nostalgic in a sense and captured the period well, but rather the mileau itself - to retrospect on an era of relative innocence (compared to where we are today, a blown out globohomo hellhole which itself will likely be considered relatively innocent to the world's more extreme upcoming horrors - yeah, I'm a ray of sunshine), the era feels shallow, materialistic and clueless - a world more or less without real conflict, and therefore shallower developing identities, and therefore on some level a little boring - the stakes were too minor.
Yes, the novel featured whimsical vignettes about a by-gone era and served as a coming-of-age tale without a political message (which I appreciated). I equated it it in some sense to South Park or Superbad, but which covered a wider range of topics and use of language than those were able to employ. I'm not sure how much nostalgia I have for this era -- even when living it, it didn't feel real in a sense, it felt simulated. It is through conflict that we can discover ourselves; the horrors of the world provide the impetus for character development.
But it's likely I'm looking at this the wrong way; for a change of pace, for something light and fun and entertaining and whimsical with great, sparkling language, it succeeded, which is a good thing.
Very interesting view you're expressing here about the book and I see the broad critique you're making of the era as being fundamentally hollow.
Going to have to sit with this because it's an interesting point about how differentially meaningful a certain era can be, depending on a person's viewpoint and position within that era.
Intriguing review. I'll have to check this book out. The genderized experiences of racism is something that's always fascinated me. These days, we're seeing more elevation of the WOC perspective, in which the primary villains from their personal experiences become white women as opposed to white men, even if the WOC acknowledge that the overall system is a white patriarchy.
I’ve just bought a copy of this, excited for it.
Thanks for the recommendation on this, ARX. I've bought a number of the books you recommended and started with this one. I enjoy supporting indie authors who are undiscovered and who write out of passion, so your reviews are helpful.
Re: the novel itself, I'll say I felt more mixed about it than your glowing review - but not necessarily from the writing, which was strong, or the banter, which was excellent and really captured young male friendships, or the era, which was a little nostalgic in a sense and captured the period well, but rather the mileau itself - to retrospect on an era of relative innocence (compared to where we are today, a blown out globohomo hellhole which itself will likely be considered relatively innocent to the world's more extreme upcoming horrors - yeah, I'm a ray of sunshine), the era feels shallow, materialistic and clueless - a world more or less without real conflict, and therefore shallower developing identities, and therefore on some level a little boring - the stakes were too minor.
Yes, the novel featured whimsical vignettes about a by-gone era and served as a coming-of-age tale without a political message (which I appreciated). I equated it it in some sense to South Park or Superbad, but which covered a wider range of topics and use of language than those were able to employ. I'm not sure how much nostalgia I have for this era -- even when living it, it didn't feel real in a sense, it felt simulated. It is through conflict that we can discover ourselves; the horrors of the world provide the impetus for character development.
But it's likely I'm looking at this the wrong way; for a change of pace, for something light and fun and entertaining and whimsical with great, sparkling language, it succeeded, which is a good thing.
Very interesting view you're expressing here about the book and I see the broad critique you're making of the era as being fundamentally hollow.
Going to have to sit with this because it's an interesting point about how differentially meaningful a certain era can be, depending on a person's viewpoint and position within that era.
Intriguing review. I'll have to check this book out. The genderized experiences of racism is something that's always fascinated me. These days, we're seeing more elevation of the WOC perspective, in which the primary villains from their personal experiences become white women as opposed to white men, even if the WOC acknowledge that the overall system is a white patriarchy.