Do You like book I'll Go To Bed At Noon (2005)?
Okay, I had really high hopes for this book - about alcohol addiction and a Man Booker Prize finalist. However, I had to read the first chapter twice just to get the family structure down and I was still confused. Then I realized there were two main characters with the same name - Who does that??? I tried reading this a few times with an incredibly open mind but found it hard to follow, pretentious, and very annoying. I actually put it in the garage sale bin that is growing in my garage. I NEVER not finish a book. This one I didn't - I got through the second chapter and that was it. Maybe I didn't give it a fair shake, but honestly, after reading the first chapter twice to try and get the gist, I really didn't care anymore.
—Melissa Lee-tammeus
What on earth was the Man Booker committee thinking with this one? The only prize-worthy thing about this book is the title; other than that, I can't imagine why this book was put on the long list, much less the short one. Nothing happens here at all -- a family composed mostly of alcoholics acts mean to everyone, fucks up, commits crimes, and then a bunch of them die. That would be fine in the hands of a writer who had something to say -- what Jonathan Franzen could have done with this! -- but Woodward uses this promising-enough raw material to write nothing more notable than a few episodes of Eastenders. Now, I quite like Eastenders, and this narrative was pretty good, which is why I gave it two stars instead of one. But a Man Booker nominee? WTF? The characters are poorly drawn and hackneyed, and the writing itself is a bore. Really, don't bother.
—Laura
Sad little story about a bunch of alcoholics before alcoholism was a commonly known disease. I didn't like any of the characters: none of them were compelling or sympathetic protagonists. You sort of hope for the best for both Januses but don't care that they end up the way they do. In fact, it seems fitting that most of them end up the way you might expect them to.The writing wasn't especially beautiful, but it kept me engaged until the very end -- an impressive feat considering I didn't care about any of the characters and the novel wasn't plot driven. I think there's something to be said about that. It felt like a straightforward description of an alcoholic family without any judgment or bias. I found it worth the read, though I haven't read anything else like this to compare it to.
—Kathy Ahn
