Good heavens the despair!

Wow. Hilarious, over the top, and totally vicious.

NICEONE!

How pretty! Why have I not read this before now?

I can only hope this grows on me like The Life Aquatic did, but I really haven’t thought about it since the weekend, so I must admit that hope is growing dim.

This was a sort of crazy Spanglish roller-coaster, a political satire perhaps, vitriol instead, maybe?

The characters, though painted broadly, came through loud and clear, and the resignation that I’ve often seen in those who lived in Latin America during times of similar crises to that of Trujillo…

I am not sure what to think of this book, but enjoyed the process of reading it.

I was hoping this book would be more scientific, more researched, more Naomi Wolfe. Instead it was a strange mix of that, and cri de coeur and rah-rah self help.

Still, it’s one of the only books I’ve encountered that really dissects some of the roots of the eating disorders that pervade today’s young women – the way the assurance that girls could be anything has transformed into pressure to be everything, to have everything.

There were many parts I recognized myself, and many parts where I wanted to strangle the author. I guess asking for perfection from this book would only be a perfect irony.

And yet…

I was a little disappointed by The Dutch Wife.

The first section of the book was tense and taut and riveting, filled with undercurrents of emotion and mystery.

Then it just got weird for a while, looser, more superficial, and at last tied up in a bizarre sort of … I don’t know, craziness?

I’m a little tired of the apocryphal narrator framing device, too. I mean, didn’t Life of Pi sort of entirely capture that field?

It’s not The Deviners, but Margaret Lawrence has the tools to get you deep under the skin of her characters. It’s Prairie Literature without the desperation – it’s there, but she never loses sight of the hope and the drive and the will to be something better than stuck on the plains at the mercy of the elements.

A heartbreaker too, as Morag slips into her age and illness.

It’s not a terribly exciting game but it has some fun aspects. Unfortunately I’m completely stuck about halfway through the kitchen missions. Bah.

It’s a quick, quirky read, a little sentimental, and ultimately of little substance. Good for the beach, I’d say.