I read two books. Now I will say things about them.
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Data, A Love Story: How I Gamed Online Dating to Meet My Match, by Amy Webb. My sister-in-law’s sister mentioned this book, and so when I saw it at our library I got it. It’s about a woman who, as you can see from the title, was frustrated with online dating and figured out work-arounds to get what she wanted.
I thought it was a good story and that she had some good practical advice that would be likely to work. But I found her so off-putting I could hardly stand it. I wrote four paragraphs saying why, and then deleted them because if the book showed anything it’s that we all have types we’re drawn to and types we’re repelled by. And also, I felt like a lot of what I didn’t like wasn’t really HER, it was her showing off for her book. Like, if I got to know her when she wasn’t trying to impress us so hard, I might love her.
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The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I read this because I kept hearing so many different reactions to it. I liked it, mostly. I liked fairy tales and magic a lot when I was a child, and it’s fun to find something along that line for grown-ups. I thought the language kept slipping into “Look how beautifully I’m writing/describing! Look how I’m making the magic COME ALIVE for you!,” and also I haaaaaate second-person singular (“You go through a door. You wonder what you’re going to see,” etc.) but I just skimmed those parts. (Most of it was NOT in second-person singular.)
…I feel like I’m not successfully communicating that I really liked it. I did like it.
I understand. I’m always the one in book club who says “I can’t tell if I hated this or liked it” – I guess that means there was something to be liked and something not to be liked {shrug}
I liked The Night Circus although I also hate second person singular and circuses and magic – how then did I stil like this book?
I always love your book reviews! I wish I could read the four paragraphs you deleted, because usually you say things that I would probably think if I read that same book.
Have you read anything by Leah Stewart? She wrote “The Myth of You and Me” which came out maybe six or seven years ago, and her more recent books are “Husband and Wife” (which I just finished and loved) and “The History of Us” (which I am reading right now and liking). She’s just a good writer who writes about real-seeming people and conveys important concepts without any showing off.
I’m giving “The Night Circus” partial credit for the success of my most recent foray into regular exercise. It was the first book I loaded onto my Nook to read on the elliptical, and I discovered I couldn’t wait to get back to it every morning. I think that helped me avoid my usual “I’m writing so beautifully that you must stand back and admire” eye-rolling–in small doses, it was, well, magical.
I really enjoyed “The Night Circus” too. The whole time I was reading it, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted Tim Burton to make it into a movie.
I’m really interested to hear your (and your readers’) review of The Night Circus. I read and liked it too but . . . I’m not sure. I can’t really articulate it but I was disappointed somehow. Maybe I liked it but it was super hyped and I wanted to LOVE it and just . . . didn’t. Maybe it was the showy prose that got in the way of the narrative or – something. I don’t know. Hope someone else can explain it.
Weirdly I didn’t like The Night Circus, and I love 2nd person singular done well, but it is rarely done well. It should really only be used as a variant on first person – someone is telling you the story but it’s painful or difficult for them so they turn it around and pretend that their specific experience is universal. You might use it when telling anecdotes, or I’m not sure if that’s a regional thing. It’s relatively normal to tell anecdotes in the second person hereish. I wrote a story in the second person once, about an affair and the narrator character was so ashamed of the affair that she couldn’t use the word ‘I’ when she was describing it. That’s how it should be used. It shouldn’t just show up like a choose-your-own-adventure book in the middle of a novel.
Lord God I hated The Night Circus, but I am an impatient reader these days.
I loved The Night Circus and nominated it for my book club. In the book club discussion, though, we established that the author took a lot more time setting the scene and describing the circus than telling a story. It needs more plot. But it is very beautifully written and the world she creates really comes alive.