2 or 3? 2 or 3?? 2 or 3??? 2 or 3?????!!!! Guess i will just start typing and by the end i should have my decision.
This was a book that has been on ALL of the “lists”– a “must read”, a “great debut”, winner or shortlisted for several awards– but i don’t think that it ever got there.
Sarah Winman sure made sure she had all of the elements: dysfunctional family? check! questioning the existence of God? check! misunderstood gay brother? check! movie-star lesbian aunt that is in love with your mother? check! sexual abuse? double check! lottery win? check! gay brother’s lover kidnapped by terrorists and gets his ear cut off? check! best friend in jail for murdering her abusive husband? check! dramatic and sad cancer death? check! 9-11 sequence with amnesia? check! quirky, flamboyantly gay uncle-figure and home-school teacher whose autobiography you are writing gets hit in the head with a coconut and instead of dying (like he expected) just regains his sight that he had lost from using a certain erectile dysfunction medication? check! excellent writing that at least made you appreciate the effort? hmmmmmm? characters you actually care about? uhhhhhh???
so much was there– i just don’t think it came together. gonna have to say… 2
