My experience while reading “ Girl in Landscape” was interesting because it did
not stay as a constant feeling – for most of the time I really disliked it (but only
because of the way it was formulated) but at others it would surprise me and
make me want to read more. I’m not at all opposed to the story, and quite
enjoyed leaning back and imagining this world that Lethem cleverly created. However I've actually never heard of anything called “coming-of-age” – novels and eventhough
it’s a pretty straightforward term; after reading about it, it was still hard
for me to understand the concept.
First time I started on the book I tried to listen to the audio version first, but it was very difficult to grasp the storyline with such a loud and annoying “soundtrack”. Consequently I fast gave that up and tried reading the book for real this time– with more success and less annoyance. It’s an okay book – I’d probably give it a 5/6 out of 10 – but if I have one, just one, pet peeve with books it is if the technical part of the writing is bad. The experience of reading a badly written good story (here, Girl in Landscape), is worse than reading a badly written bad story (for example, 50 Shades of Grey), or a good written bad story (like many books). To me at least, the experience is non-enjoyable and reminiscent of literature torture – just because I’m too stubborn to stop reading a book before the finish, and well-read enough to know quickly whether I like a text or not (because I'm not at all implying that I am a good writer).
That said, I have a weakness for voyerism, and Lethem's "Girl in Landscape" is full of it - from beginning to end there is a feeling that the reader is there to observe, just as Pella is observing everyone else all the time - and in return there is a distinct distance between the reader and the characters in the book, and between themselves. It seems like a cold world that they live in - whichever planet they live on.
Something I also noticed is, while I was reading I would switch from imagining night and day because it is so emphasized throughout the whole story and it’s really one of the few things that are new for Pella and not for me – and one of the few things that we have in common from both our worlds. Everytime the narrator introduced something new to the reader – which was all the time basically – like the fishpotatoes or when Pella finds out she can inhabit the housholddeer (or the concept of housholddeer itself), it was extremely interesting.. Still, my pet peeve did not allow me to fully enjoy the experience with Pella and her family.
First time I started on the book I tried to listen to the audio version first, but it was very difficult to grasp the storyline with such a loud and annoying “soundtrack”. Consequently I fast gave that up and tried reading the book for real this time– with more success and less annoyance. It’s an okay book – I’d probably give it a 5/6 out of 10 – but if I have one, just one, pet peeve with books it is if the technical part of the writing is bad. The experience of reading a badly written good story (here, Girl in Landscape), is worse than reading a badly written bad story (for example, 50 Shades of Grey), or a good written bad story (like many books). To me at least, the experience is non-enjoyable and reminiscent of literature torture – just because I’m too stubborn to stop reading a book before the finish, and well-read enough to know quickly whether I like a text or not (because I'm not at all implying that I am a good writer).
That said, I have a weakness for voyerism, and Lethem's "Girl in Landscape" is full of it - from beginning to end there is a feeling that the reader is there to observe, just as Pella is observing everyone else all the time - and in return there is a distinct distance between the reader and the characters in the book, and between themselves. It seems like a cold world that they live in - whichever planet they live on.
Something I also noticed is, while I was reading I would switch from imagining night and day because it is so emphasized throughout the whole story and it’s really one of the few things that are new for Pella and not for me – and one of the few things that we have in common from both our worlds. Everytime the narrator introduced something new to the reader – which was all the time basically – like the fishpotatoes or when Pella finds out she can inhabit the housholddeer (or the concept of housholddeer itself), it was extremely interesting.. Still, my pet peeve did not allow me to fully enjoy the experience with Pella and her family.
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