This book starts out well, humorous, well written, cynical and ultimately disappointing. Jeff in Venice 'the Biennial is in full swing, disillusioned hack writer Jeff Atman meets a beautiful woman and they embark on a passionate affair. In Varanasi, a man searching amid the chaos of India for something lost joins thousands of pilgrims on the banks of the Holy Ganges. He intends to stay for a few days but ends up remaining for months, gradually letting go of everything he has known.' Two very separate halves that do not connect - you expect the stories to interweave but they don't.
Generally felt to be pretentious - we were sure that there were many literary allusions - but we missed most of them. The sex scenes were well written - which isn't an easy thing to do.
Words used to describe it: pretentious, boys wanking, noo (sic) beat, enjoyable but cobbled together, annoying, disjointed, lazy, cop out, too clever by half.
Marks out of 10 between 3 - 7
Next book
A Town Like Alice by Nevile Shute
Next Meeting
Thursday 23 February
@
Rona's - 31A Pallister Road, W14 - In the super shed!
Subsequent meeting dates:
22 March @ Giles's
April @ Amanda
May @ Mandy
