Wednesday 21 April 2010

Fragile Feet

Better late than never, I have finally finished Ali Shaw's The Girl With Glass Feet - which I heard about because Simon S chose it as one of his books for Not The TV Book Group. I had nearly finished when I discovered that (a) Ali is a man, and (b) he worked for the Bodleian Library, like yours truly!

I don't think it's necessary for me to write a proper review, because there is such a good discussion over at Savidge Reads, so instead I shall offer you a link to that discussion and tell you that I liked the book a lot, with some reservations. Indeed, I shall give you a very, very short review, and tell you to pop over to that discussion.


I liked:
--the quirky ideas: glass feet! cow-moth-things! a bird that turns things white!
--a generally impressive and engaging writing style
--Shaw didn't just use a crazy idea for novelty value, it was well developed and quite beautiful

I didn't like:
--jumping around between narrative strands and not quite knowing where we were, or what the time setting was
--the dialogue felt a little clunky sometimes - too many 'ums'

A quotation:
"She could feel the encroachment of the glass like an animal feeling the tremor before an earthquake."

These quick reviews could be the way forward! I can go to bed now...

4 comments:

  1. Glad that you enjoyed the book Simon and that you ended up reading it in the end hee hee. I get what you mean about the 'um's' too.

    I have to thank Gaskella who brought the book top my attention greatly and who I won a copy off. If you want to try another great 'modern adult fairytale' give Stella Duffy's 'Singling Out the Couples' its ace!

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  2. Glad you enjoyed the book Simon. This kind of contemporary novel with a quirky (not necessarily magical or fairytale) twist is probably my favourite kind of book, and I have been championing the book (even before I met Ali the author).

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  3. i have to say that the cover of the book looks really amazing though...

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  4. Simon - got there in the end!

    Annabel - we must confer at some point! Quirky-but-not-macabre modern fiction is probably my *second* favourite kind of book, after 1930s domestic novels. DO let me know suggestions (and can I recommend Edward Carey and Barbara Comyns? Comyns not contemporary especially, but wrote in the 1950s and 1980s)

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