As it currently stands:
Stress Level: Elevated
Empty Fridge Level: Starvation
House Dirtiness Level: Positively Disgusting
Annoyance at Freshmen Level: Severe
Ninja Threat Level: Risking Absurdity
Wizard Threat Level: (Thankfully) Negligible
..and to top things off, my dog ate my laptop. (Well, not exactly. Let's just say there was an incident with a ball on a rope and a tall glass of water and now I'm a snobby Mac owner who hasn't yet figured out basic commands like "highlighting text." Whatever. It happens.)
What I'm trying (and, thanks to four hours sleep last night, probably failing) to say is things are nuts, so I'm going to keep this short. I'm sure you won't mind.
Finn, by Jon Clinch, is a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Pap Finn as the primary protagonist. Beginning with a flayed corpse floating down the Mississippi, the novel is clearly much darker than the original, quite risky in that it depicts Huck as a mulatto, and - in my humble opinion - a much more interesting read than the novel that provided its inspiration. But to be honest, I'm a bit biased seeing as I hate "Huck Finn" almost as much as I hate American Idol and uncooked mushrooms, which is a bunch.
But although I found Finn's concept intriguing - even if not particularly original - and found Clinch to be a solid writer who certainly can turn a phrase, I didn't love it, it never begged to be picked up after being put down, and would have no idea who I'd recommend it to.
So, in a word: Meh.
Up Next: The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall (and the website I've linked to is pretty spiffy, so ya'll should maybe check it.)
Stress Level: Elevated
Empty Fridge Level: Starvation
House Dirtiness Level: Positively Disgusting
Annoyance at Freshmen Level: Severe
Ninja Threat Level: Risking Absurdity
Wizard Threat Level: (Thankfully) Negligible
..and to top things off, my dog ate my laptop. (Well, not exactly. Let's just say there was an incident with a ball on a rope and a tall glass of water and now I'm a snobby Mac owner who hasn't yet figured out basic commands like "highlighting text." Whatever. It happens.)
What I'm trying (and, thanks to four hours sleep last night, probably failing) to say is things are nuts, so I'm going to keep this short. I'm sure you won't mind.
Finn, by Jon Clinch, is a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Pap Finn as the primary protagonist. Beginning with a flayed corpse floating down the Mississippi, the novel is clearly much darker than the original, quite risky in that it depicts Huck as a mulatto, and - in my humble opinion - a much more interesting read than the novel that provided its inspiration. But to be honest, I'm a bit biased seeing as I hate "Huck Finn" almost as much as I hate American Idol and uncooked mushrooms, which is a bunch.
But although I found Finn's concept intriguing - even if not particularly original - and found Clinch to be a solid writer who certainly can turn a phrase, I didn't love it, it never begged to be picked up after being put down, and would have no idea who I'd recommend it to.
So, in a word: Meh.
Up Next: The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall (and the website I've linked to is pretty spiffy, so ya'll should maybe check it.)
Labels: authors A-E, books, fiction, historical fiction, ninjas, suspense
2 Comments:
I got cheap so I'm on the waiting list for Raw Shark Texts at the good old wood county public library. Until then, I'm reading Adverbs by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket). One of the weirdest, funniest, ambitious/non-ambitious, "novels" I've read in some time...
I'm about 150 pages into The Raw Shark Texts, Paul, and it's completely and awesomely weird. Adverbs looks pretty interesting too. I'd say we could trade when we're both done, however I'm a stressed-out mad woman right now and you're a relaxed man of leisure, so you might be ready to hit the library before I'm done reading my copy...
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