What I've Been Reading
Firstly, what I have been writing is a comparision of two editions of Tennyson's poetry which, whilst not exactly riveting, I've managed to get into the flow of. As for the other:
Jigsaw Men by Gary Greenwood
Fun but unexceptional. I smell sequel so it may come out bundled as a normal paperback at some point in the future. Here's my review. (My tagline is shit, I couldn't come up with anything better).
Oryx And Crake by Margaret Atwood
As you would expect from Atwood this is very well written. I have important quibbles with it and I liked 75% percent (the Jimmy portion) of it a lot more than the rest but even taken as a whole it is recommended. I have lots to write about this book so a long review will follow. I will say that whilst John Clute and Cheryl Morgan have good reviews of it I will be fundamentally disagreeing. They didn't like it but Victoria Strauss did and I think I'll be disagreeing with her too.
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
Extremely well received Gulf War memoir by an ex-marine. It is perhaps what you would expect from a highly intelligent, well read man who wanted to kill people: heavily masculine, insightful, brutal, self critical. There are obvious parallels with Tim O'Brien's stuff but it is more extreme than that. It's a timely book (queasily so) and a good corrective to any properganda about "our boys". It's one of only three notable books to have emerged from the Gulf War (that I know of) and it's by far the best.
Jigsaw Men by Gary Greenwood
Fun but unexceptional. I smell sequel so it may come out bundled as a normal paperback at some point in the future. Here's my review. (My tagline is shit, I couldn't come up with anything better).
Oryx And Crake by Margaret Atwood
As you would expect from Atwood this is very well written. I have important quibbles with it and I liked 75% percent (the Jimmy portion) of it a lot more than the rest but even taken as a whole it is recommended. I have lots to write about this book so a long review will follow. I will say that whilst John Clute and Cheryl Morgan have good reviews of it I will be fundamentally disagreeing. They didn't like it but Victoria Strauss did and I think I'll be disagreeing with her too.
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
Extremely well received Gulf War memoir by an ex-marine. It is perhaps what you would expect from a highly intelligent, well read man who wanted to kill people: heavily masculine, insightful, brutal, self critical. There are obvious parallels with Tim O'Brien's stuff but it is more extreme than that. It's a timely book (queasily so) and a good corrective to any properganda about "our boys". It's one of only three notable books to have emerged from the Gulf War (that I know of) and it's by far the best.
