The Novelist by Jordan Castro

This was what the literary world did now, I reminded myself, they celebrated stupid novels for stupid reasons.
Not very compelling single day single consciousness pov of someone not writing.

 

Independent People by Halldór Laxness

 

Finally bearing down and reading this. It's a slog but worth it so far. Like the incident where the farmer chases down a reindeer and jumps on top of him and they ride down the river together, farmer nearly freezing to death.

And the wife killing the ewe who's been left behind as her company, then eating it.

Brutal. Only entertainment is coffee and reciting ancient poetry. My kind of people.

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

 

Good but not that exciting.

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

 

same old Jackson Brodie story. Atkinson seems to churn them out effortlessly, but there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. Understand the Jackson Brodie TV series, CASE HISTORIES,  is interesting.

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

 

Short, punchy, sort of modern What Maise Knew, about a privileged, neurotic, highly intelligent adoped Korean girl.

The Slip by Lucas Schaefer

 

Engaging, ambitious first novel about identity, adolescence, boxing, mystery. Does go on for a bit though.

The Antidote by Karen Russell

 

Meh. Too long. Historical-ish sci-fi-ish novel about a tiny farming town In Nebraska during the 1930s, with the Great Dust Storm as its central calamity. A praire witch, a female high-school basketball player and her farmer-uncle, and a WPA black photographer from Wash DC solve a crime.

Russell's language can be exquisite - but the narrative takes forever to wind up, or down, or any which way.