Book: My tango with Barbara Strozzi
Mar. 19th, 2011 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livAuthor: Russell Hoban
Details: (c) 2007 Russell Hoban; Pub 2008 Bloomsbury; ISBN 978-0-7475-9271-6
Verdict: My tango with Barbara Strozzi is clever but not the sort of thing that appeals to me.
Reasons for reading it: Russell Hoban has written some really interesting and original stuff, including Riddley Walker.
How it came into my hands: Library
My tango with Barbara Strozzi is doing that slighly surreal / absurd humour thing which I generally don't like anyway, and it's particularly difficult to pull off if you're also trying to create believable, sympathetic characters. Hoban does do a good job with the latter; I did care about Bertha and Phil and the development of their relationship, even though they're not particularly nice or admirable people.
But the humour really put me off. A major theme is rape and partner violence, and I'm not saying that topic can never be funny, and at least the humour comes from exaggeration and implausible events and bizarre juxtapositions, not from laughing at the victims, but I personally found it more unpleasant than amusing. In some ways it reads like an extended transcript of a (pretty high quality) stand-up comedy monologue, which again doesn't really fit with my sense of humour.
It's a small, easy to read book and the general wackiness makes it hard to predict where the plot is going. Also, one of the random elements is Buber's Tales of the Hassidim, which endeared it to me a little bit. I think it's probably a pretty high quality example of a genre I don't like.
Details: (c) 2007 Russell Hoban; Pub 2008 Bloomsbury; ISBN 978-0-7475-9271-6
Verdict: My tango with Barbara Strozzi is clever but not the sort of thing that appeals to me.
Reasons for reading it: Russell Hoban has written some really interesting and original stuff, including Riddley Walker.
How it came into my hands: Library
My tango with Barbara Strozzi is doing that slighly surreal / absurd humour thing which I generally don't like anyway, and it's particularly difficult to pull off if you're also trying to create believable, sympathetic characters. Hoban does do a good job with the latter; I did care about Bertha and Phil and the development of their relationship, even though they're not particularly nice or admirable people.
But the humour really put me off. A major theme is rape and partner violence, and I'm not saying that topic can never be funny, and at least the humour comes from exaggeration and implausible events and bizarre juxtapositions, not from laughing at the victims, but I personally found it more unpleasant than amusing. In some ways it reads like an extended transcript of a (pretty high quality) stand-up comedy monologue, which again doesn't really fit with my sense of humour.
It's a small, easy to read book and the general wackiness makes it hard to predict where the plot is going. Also, one of the random elements is Buber's Tales of the Hassidim, which endeared it to me a little bit. I think it's probably a pretty high quality example of a genre I don't like.
