Akram Reda Reda itibaren Saint-Paul, Fransa itibaren Saint-Paul, Fransa

I found this book on the Guardians top 1,000 books list... For some reason, most of the books on this list appear to be of love affairs, poorly planned, badly executed and reflected in death. And so it is. Greene's book conjures up a depressing, gray, wet, post-war London, full of miserable people; bored to distraction, insecure and ambling slowly to self-destruction as best etiquette will allow. Where Greene shines here, is in getting the surging self-loathing of the protagonist onto the page, a vomiting, painful, horrible process; Being inside this persons head, as close as Greene gets you, is an unpleasant, visceral experience - one that I think is perhaps why this book is on a list of great literature. Read it and be glad you are not in the 1950's and therapy is freely available!

Do you know that feeling when you get someone the most amazing, perfect present and you want SO BAD just to blurt it out and tell them what it is because they can't open it fast enough or it's not their birthday yet but you are SO EXCITED FOR THEM TO EXPERIENCE THE AWESOME? That feeling? Yeah, that's what I've been holding back and why I read this book quite a while ago, but I wasn't allowing myself to review it as to keep from just telling you the whole goddamned story because it's a helluva good time. So, I'm going to try to tell you some things I love about this book without giving away the farm. 1) There is a lot of cursing. I love cursing. I curse daily. In fact, I was so swept up in the well-placed cursing that I found myself adding the word "fuck" in places where it wasn't even written. 2) There's some San Francisco. If you know San Francisco, you love San Francisco. You don't know what it is to love a city until you've loved San Francisco. And the descriptions of places that I'm familiar with are so vivid and I swooned because I miss The City. 3) I have a special place in my heart for writers and artists who take normal and typically welcoming or cute things and make them creepy. After reading this book, you will never hear laughter the same way and when someone's laugh is "contagious?" Fuck that. That shit's terrifying. 4) This book is FUN to read. I smiled reading it. I LOL'd (but not too much, mind you). For a good time, I recommend this book.