Particularize Out Of Books Girl Reading
| Title | : | Girl Reading |
| Author | : | Katie Ward |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 340 pages |
| Published | : | January 5th 2012 by Virago Press Ltd (first published May 1st 2011) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Short Stories. Writing. Books About Books. Art |
Katie Ward
Paperback | Pages: 340 pages Rating: 3.54 | 2426 Users | 289 Reviews
Representaion In Pursuance Of Books Girl Reading
This was an excellent book and you might wonder why I haven't given it five stars. Many people have given it five stars and they are right. I, however, am mean and stingy with my stars. Girl Reading is Katie Ward's first book, and I am quite certain that she will give me some five star material soon. She is probably writing something five-staresque as we speak.Girl Reading is really a collection of short stories posing as a novel. I think I can see a trend there - does it mean that publishers are finally starting to embrace short stories, the eternal bastard child of the publishing world?
I hope so.
Katie Ward based her stories around different work of arts depicting women reading. And we're talking a journey from 14th century to the year 2060. It is often a problem with short story anthologies that while reading you are abruptly taken out of one story and thrown into another one. Surprisingly, the transition in 'Girl Reading' is astonishingly seamless, and that despite different characters, times and locations. This was what I found most impressive about the book.
The stories are simply beautiful. Katie Ward can knock out most other debut writers out there in the first round and her imagination is vivid enough for her to take on David Mitchell. She writes about paintings which show women reading or writing and it gets very clever and metaphysical.
In the last story all the stories come together and make sense (or don't at all, depending on how smart you are).
My only tiny complaint (you know I had to) is that the book doesn't use inverted commas for dialogues. I honestly and truly do not understand this new fashion. It seems to me as if they are trying to make the book more impenetrable and confusing to create the impression it is more 'literary'. Really unnecessary, this book is probably too clever for its own good as it is.
Anyway, note her name down, Katie Ward is my new darling.
Declare Books As Girl Reading
| ISBN: | 1844086879 (ISBN13: 9781844086870) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Out Of Books Girl Reading
Ratings: 3.54 From 2426 Users | 289 ReviewsCrit Out Of Books Girl Reading
This is really a series of short stories disguised as a novel. The theme of art featuring women reading is repeated in each of the seven stories and more clearly defined in the final story; however, it is not prominent enough in some of the chapters to really warrant packaging this as a novel rather than short stories.I think it is a cynical attempt to sell more copies of this book by pretending that it is a novel not a short story collection.The writing is flawed in other ways - there are noI loved the premise of this book. Fictional tales weaved from looking at pieces of art and imagining the circumstances surrounding its creation. Unfortunately, it took me a while to warm to the author's style. Her writing is quite pretentious, foregoing speech marks and other basic grammar in what appears to be a warped attempt to make the book more literary. I could never warm to this style, however I did enjoy the last few stories much more than the previous ones. This is surprising for me, as
Ive been putting off writing about my views of this book as I really didnt enjoy it and only finished it because I was sent it to review. When I looked online after reading it I found that Im definitely in a minority as lots of readers, both famous and anonymous, are hailing it as the best thing since the literary equivalent of sliced bread. I really cant agree, as the emotion I felt most often while reading it was irritation. For a start its described as a novel, but it really isnt one. Its a
Okay, I really liked the concept. The writing was quite good. I liked how the stories weren't really connected, yet every now and then a painting from one story was mentioned in another story (and they're all mentioned in the last story, which takes place in the future). I liked that there were some real paintings, then some fictional photographs, which were based on real carte de vistes and Flikr photos. And I liked how there was a futuristic story to tie things together. But in the end, I just
Excellent read! Will read this again!
I'm sure many people will love this book, but I had to give up on it as it contained no speech marks, and that really annoys me! The dialogue and description just merge together, making it a confusing read.
Katie Ward's debut novel is a book of extraordinary scope and vision. Like Cloud Atlasor If on a winter's night a traveler, it consists of a number of stories, seemingly separate, but in fact intricately related, and in such a way that the book as a whole is very much greater than the sum of its parts. In this case the theme which links them is of an image of a girl or woman reading a text. There are seven chapters, eached based around the production of an image by an artist (Simone Martini
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