After reading Little Bee and appreciating the writing of Chris Cleave I came across another of his novels. Once again he writes in a female voice in Incendiary, the story of a British woman who writes a letter to Osama Bin Laden after suicide bombers have blown up a soccer stadium in England, a stadium where her husband and son where attending a game. The book is framed as a letter about the life he took away from her, and it's not a pretty picture.
Not much sunshine and happy endings here as one might expect after reading Little Bee. The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, nor her husband or son, has occasionally strayed during her marriage (because of 'nerves' she says) and in fact during the tragic soccer match she was... how do i put this delicately.. literally in the middle of a liason with someone when the explosion occurred. In our book group we had some critical comments about how he treated some of his female characters and I would have the same issues with this character and the depiction of her and how she has lots of sex (!) in this story...
After the loss of her family she is a shell of a person, sleeping with married men, finding comfort where she can. London is in turmoil after the attack and her life goes downhill as well.
Yes, a depressing book. Don't know if I'd recommend it but I did read on the book jacket that they've already made a movie out of it with Michelle Williams as the main character and Ewan mcGregor as her co-star. Beth, I think you'd approve of the casting.
Off to Rhode Island tomorrow so this short and a a bit all over the place.. Don't forget to send book recommendations my way.. Have a great summer y'all!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment