Book Review - Better as Audiobook
I thought the premise of this book sounded interesting. Two brothers, dealing with losing their father and the resulting grief, add in several love interests and set it in Ireland. I felt certain this would be a great book. Goodreads starts their book description this way, “An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family - but especially love - from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.”
It may have been good if I had listened to someone narrate the book. I really was pulled in for the last 75 or so pages because the characters were making real progress on solving their issues. Yet the first 333 pages were not that easy to get through.
I found it very difficult to follow the long paragraphs dense with information and dialog that had no quotation marks. The words just kept coming from Rooney with little or no breaks. Even the most compelling stories can benefit from shorter paragraph length.
The author's choice to dispense with quotation marks made it difficult for me as well. Some of the content simply could not hold my interest, so I would skim some sentences looking for dialog. Dialog really helps move a story along, and this one needed it set out to keep me actively reading.
Rooney does a great job portraying the two brothers as an awkward 22-year-old chess whiz (Ivan) and rather full-of-himself older attorney (Peter). I can’t say I liked either character very much. The relationships the brothers have with women was interesting, and I wished those stories were further developed. I wish the editor had structured the print version of this book differently. Perhaps on my next long drive, I will listen to it to see if I like it more.
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