Thursday, 6 February 2014

A Year in Books: Various Pets Alive and Dead - Marina Lewyka

I was really looking forward to reading this as I've heard good reviews of it and it has been sitting in my 'to be read' pile for a while. The premise is about a hippy couple who bring their children up in a commune but they tehn grow up to reject this and live polar opposite lifestyles. The parents decide to marry much to their children's surprise and disinterest after all this time.

The dead pet refers to a squished school hamster which the sister blames the brother for. This is not a big spoiler as it happens very early on in the book.

So far, I'm not really finding that it is 'fizzing' along, or that each chapter has a 'laugh out loud' moment as promised. I'm actually finding it rather pedestrian and the characters bland if I am truthful. I started reading it a couple of weeks ago but my audiobook has been more engaging at bedtime. It's not a bad book so far and I maybe just need to get into it a bit more. Time will tell.
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5 comments:

  1. Life with Ragdolls6 February 2014 at 04:41

    Sounds a little "childish" and "adultish" (is that even a word?), but sounds okay to me. Good luck!

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  2. Marigold Jam6 February 2014 at 07:59

    Is that the same author as the Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine? If so I enjoyed that but not her later book about the strawberry pickers but I haven't tried this one.

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  3. Jennifer Hays6 February 2014 at 23:19

    It sounds very different but I like the premise. I hope it gets better. :)

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  4. Mairéad11 February 2014 at 17:46

    Like Marigold Jam I enjoyed the Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine but failed to finish the other one whose name escapes me.

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  5. Unknown29 August 2015 at 08:09

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