About book Ich, Molly Marx, Kürzlich Verstorben (2009)
I had to give some serious thought about whether to rate this book three stars (average) or two (below average), and I'm still not sure that three was the correct choice.The way I see this book developing is that the author wrote a run-of-the-mill romance novel, which was rejected by ten million publishers for having absolutely nothing innovative about it. So then she came up with a gimmick -- the narrator is actually dead! -- threw in some mawkish goop at the end, and got it sold.To me, the "mystery" was incredibly unbelievable, the narrator being dead thing added nothing to the story, and the ending, where the narrator more or less resigns herself to the afterlife, was nigh-unbearable.And the characters -- ugh. Ugh, ugh. Ugh.For a fairly short book, it took me a long time to get through this one (I read The Goldfinch faster), just because I wasn't drawn to it. And my copy of the book had the author interviewing herself (ahem, "Molly"), and the author got some of the details of the book mixed up. Now that's just sad.(She also said she didn't know who killed the narrator at the beginning, which I can totally believe, since it was such a silly and rushed explanation.)From this review, it sounds like I really should have given it a one-star rating instead of a three, but the book had... something... that raises it above awfulness. Some moments of charm and likeability that could have made it great, had they been more sustainable.I'd recommend it for: maybe beach reading, or long train rides? It might be better if it could be read in one gulp, instead of dragging on for a week. The Late, Lamented Molly Marx was a fine book with plenty of colorful characters, but slightly lacking in heart. The story was good enough to keep me interested about how Molly died and whether any of the characters killed her. As far as Molly's character, she was a lovely and opinionated narrator. Her struggles with marriage and motherhood evoked sympathy from me, but I also found some of her traits frustrating. There wasn't much of an investigation into her death, which seemed odd. This made her a multi-faceted character who intrigued me. I wish certain relationships and plot lines had developed a bit more. There wasn't a lot of build-up to the ending, which also wasn't that exciting. In only a handful of pages, the entire story concluded and I was slightly dissatisfied with it. Overall, this provided entertainment for me on a trip to San Diego, but wasn't a favorite.
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Loved this book and still have questions about the end. Would be a great book club read!
—Boohlybear
