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Title: Breakfast in Babylon by Emer Martin ISBN: 0-395-87595-1 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Joyce Carol Oates meets Wm. Burroughs
Comment: I also could not put this book down. It has many laugh out loud moments; some excruciatingly correct observations about people; and a very refreshing, because female, take on the underside of the world. I felt very engaged by the characters. Ms. Martin did not try to make me sympathize with one over the other, as one reviewer suggests. Hilarious, believable and sympathetic characters do nightmarish things. This novel is most of all about men and women, and the ways that they treat each other. It will leave you saying the Lord's prayer beginning, "our mother," and asking yourself, "am I a Christopher at times." This book is so full of ideas that you can't wait to get back into it, like Burroughs or Hunter Thompson; you know that you have a universe of creativity and character and otherworldliness in your pocket. This is from a very talented writer, and I am set to begin More Bread Or I'll Appear. I leave a star off, because I am conservative about the meaning of five star novels. Caveat: not for weak stomachs.
Rating: 5
Summary: a classic
Comment: I have come back to this book time and time again, the voice is so clear and the range of characters so cleverly drawn and so real as to be breathtaking. I wanted to kill Isolt so many times, each time she stumbles into the trap, I know she is young but she is not blind, I find her one of the most fascinating protaganists of the last decade. Christopher is the dark satan, a wonderfully drawn portrait of abuse, poverty and dellusion. It is he I was sorry for in the end. His life was too cruel and arbitary for happiness to be his destiny. I hope more people read this book. It is an underground classic and will be remembered as one of the great books this century. I've no doubt it is a book I will pick up thoughout my life just to revel in the sheer poetry of entanglement, despair, and wierd salvation.
Rating: 3
Summary: Meandering tale of Meandering People
Comment: This novel by Emer Martin ain't all that and a bag of chips...fish and chips if you will since she's Irish. I read this one aloud with meine frau, and although we kept engaged for the description of European cities the story and characters just don't stand out as one's we cared too much about and were never brought to the point of empathy much less sympathy.
As you know from the reviews, it's about a group of indigents that are indigent not because they have to be, but because they want to be, it's the easy thing for them. When they go to panhandle, it's kind of like showing up for work every now and then, gaining enough money to score another hit. It will make you think twice before doling out money to your next street person, not knowing what the money's going for. Although this is fiction, it no doubt reflects some reality, and cheapens the truly needy. It's a valiant attempt for a first novel and by a twenty-eight year old Irish author no less, but I would steer you away. Try something by James McInerney instead.
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Title: More Bread or I'll Appear by Emer Martin ISBN: 0385720092 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 06 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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