Has anyone read Umbrella (Will Self)

7 replies

whimsicalname · 09/04/2013 20:58

I've read other stuff by him, and I'm not a complete div, but it looks impenetrable. Is it? Is it worth it?

OP posts:

maillotjaune · 09/04/2013 23:42

Yes, do read it. I was expecting to hate it but it was beautifully observed and I was tempted to read it again once I'd finished it.

It took a while to get my head round the changes between different narratives but I hadn't read the blurb and so wasn't expecting it. I was sorry when it ended.

CoteDAzur · 10/04/2013 17:43

I recently read Will Self's The Quantity Theory Of Insanity and will soon start Umbrella. Marking my place.

MumOfTheMoos · 17/04/2013 22:17

I've started it and I generally like Will Self but I am finding it pretty tough going (e.g. I have gone off and read Instructions for a Heatwave and Life after Life on my kindle in the last week but am procrastinating with umbrella).

I am putting it down to having a one year old - he only just started sleeping through this week. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

CoteDAzur · 12/05/2013 21:07

I'm reading Umbrella now - 35% in and only just starting to get into it. If anyone has actually read it all, I'd like to hear if it gets any more coherent later on.

maillotjaune · 13/05/2013 19:36

The style is pretty consistent all the way through - I loved it from the first "I am an ape man" but it certainly needs close attention.

Are you enjoying the story or is the way it's written too off-putting?

CoteDAzur · 13/05/2013 20:12

Well, stream-of-consciousness writing is surely consistent so far but the book is more comprehensible now (at 40%) than it was at the beginning - one storyline continues for at least several pages, and when we get back to it some pages later, it continues more or less from where it's left off.

I'm enjoying it now, yes. But the "style" isn't all that great and it's getting in the way of the author expressing himself properly imho.

if you liked this book, you must read J G Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition. Will Self is a big fan of Ballard's and that is the book he clearly wanted to write when he sat down to write this one.

maillotjaune · 25/05/2013 19:20

What else is good by Will Self then? Have read Great Apes and My Idea of Fun recently, and although I love the way he writes I don't have a strong enough stomach for another one like My Idea...

Cote have you finished Umbrella? I have tried Ballard in the past and not got very far, but will put on my list of writers to revisit.

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