Saturday, January 14, 2012

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer

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


                                             

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