The Outcast

I currently feel so ill I can barely move. Super!



11. The Outcast - Sadie Jones
I have been very mistrusting of Richard and Judy's Book Club since they recommended PS, I Love You (without a doubt the worst piece of literature ever written, ever, including the ten-page novel I wrote about two adventure-seeking dolphins I wrote when I was six) a few years ago, but I thought this looked alright.
It was excellent. In short, it's about a boy growing up in a village in England in the 50s, and what happens to him after his mother dies. The writing is just brilliant - I loved the pace, the characters were really believable and the description is really sparse but so effective. The atmosphere was excellent, too - very heavy and claustrophobic, it felt really authentic. Just a very good book.

Il ne vous reste qu'une photo à prendre

It's raining but my Italian is progressing nicely. Ho fame. Voglio mangiarlo. See?



10. Il ne vous reste qu'une photo à prendre - Laurent Graff
This is about a French guy in his 50s who goes on a weekend away to Rome with his girlfriend. While he's there, a man comes up to them, takes a photo of them and then says "You only have one photo left to take", gives him a card with his address on it and walks away, all mysterious and that. It turns out the guy has been chosen for this game with four other people; they go on a trip together and are only allowed to take one last photo, after which they are 'out'.
It's a good story and everything, but I thought the writer could have developed everything a bit more - the characters, the plot, and especially the setting. I like to read a book and feel like I was actually there, in the time and place, afterwards. I never got that with this, and I never felt much for the characters one way or the other. It was really nicely written though. Not a bad read altogether.

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs

I didn't read much last week. Instead, I baked two crumbles, went to the circus, played basketball and started learning Italian.



9. The Boy Who Kicked Pigs - Tom Baker
Another grotesque, illustrated tale by a celebrity of sorts that I bought for about three quid in HMV (see The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy). This is about a truly horrible child called Robert Caligari who develops a deep hatred for humanity and finally gets his comeuppance for all his evils deeds. It's demented, funny and well-written, but not as weirdly endearing as Tim Burton's stories are.