Okay, so maybe I’m missing something here. But, I’ve read several finalists and winners of the Man Booker Award and have been profoundly disappointed. Apparently the award goes to the best fiction writers internationally, but I have to wonder what the judges are thinking. I recently finished Snowdrops by AD Miller. Let me tell you why I think that book should have never been recognized as good fiction:
1) There’s no plot. The story rambles on. If you took it chapter by chapter and described what happens you’ve have something that looks like: Chapter 1 man meets two girls, chapter 2 man goes out with two girls, chapter 3 man sleeps with one girl, chapter 4 it snows in Russia, chapter 5 man gets duped by two girls. Please!!!
2) The main character is an idiot. I like strong protagonists. This character is not only weak, but he’s also an idiot. He gets duped by two Russian girls and by a Cossack, and he doesn’t even know it. The reader knows it. When he finally realizes he’s been duped, he still plays along in a state of denial. As a result a very nice old lady gets killed (likely) and he loses lots of money (which he doesn’t seem to care about). Does the reader get any satisfaction at the end? Is there any just reward, even awareness on the part of this idiot? No way! All he says is he misses Moscow and Masha (a girl who duped him). Why would anyone want to be in this person’s head for 200 plus pages?
3) The format is strange. The author is telling the readers what happened in the second person as if he’s telling a story to some other person called,'”you.” This technique, while it sometimes works, did not work in this book. I went back several times to see if I missed something. I know if I’d been the “you” he was telling the story to, I’d have dumped this guy in a heartbeat.
4) He made several beginner writer’s mistakes. Here’s the most glaring to me: The man smelled of cat hair. Okay, I may be prejudice here, but I’ve never smelled a cat hair. I’ve smelled cats and cat urine, but cat hair? If you even put your nose in a cat, you won’t smell the cat hair. Actually cats smell very good.
Booker finalist or not. . . this book is not worthy of your time to read. If you beg to differ, please let me hear from you.
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