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Girl in a Blue Dress ...

6 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 17/01/2009 22:15

Just finished this one. I liked some things about it, and I'm wondering if any other MNers read it recently?

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FlossieT · 17/01/2009 23:23

You're Booker-reading, aren't you? I'll impatienty tap my fingers til you get to the Aussies then...

Haven't read this one yet, although I bought a copy - then the LRB review came out the same week (not complimentary) and I somehow haven't picked it up since. Is it worth reading?

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NotQuiteCockney · 18/01/2009 07:55

Which ones are the aussies? I've got the longlist (or most of it, not sure? Xmas gift), am churning through them (but stopped now, for the weekend papers).

It's ok. I dunno, I generally don't like Victorian things. The basic premise of 'it's a lot like Charles Dickens but not quite', I found a bit annoying, somehow. But the writing is good, the characters are ... ambiguous, you can see things either way ...

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janeite · 18/01/2009 15:11

I didn't like it much at all. I kept reading and reading and thinking "surely something will happen soon to make me engage with at least one of the characters" but it was like The Magic Porridge Pot - I kept turning the pages and the damn thing just wouldn't stop. I just thought it was tedious - a shame, as she can clearly write.

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NotQuiteCockney · 18/01/2009 15:25

Yeah, a bit more happening would have been good ... but I felt reasonably engaged with the main character, the evil husband, and the mistress, although to varying degrees ...

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FlossieT · 19/01/2009 21:56

@NQC: Steve Toltz and Michelle de Kretser are the Aussies. I was gutted The Lost Dog didn't make the shortlist as I thought it was beautiful. Anyway, I'll hang around here until you get to them...

I actually gave up reading the weekend papers when I was Booker-reading last year! It is surprising quite how much time it takes up.

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NotQuiteCockney · 19/01/2009 21:58

I've started Lost Dog.

I don't think there are a lot of Aussie writers I like. Um ... Peter Carey? He's ok, he gets published in Granta ... I read a long book once about someone going walkabout (I'm sure you can tell which one it was from that description ) which was alright.

I probably just haven't been exposed to enough of them.

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