Monday, May 4, 2009

On Beauty

This book bored me. I read Smith's first book, White Teeth when it came out and thought it was boring. When On Beauty came out, everyone assured me that this book was much better than White Teeth. I disagree. Both books are well written but both of them had boring stories with boring, fairly unlikeable characters.

Basically there's this previously happy, but now seriously unhappily married couple. The husband is a pretentious and boring white professor and his wife is a sassy but kind of boring African American woman. He cheats on her. Their unlikeable adult children have semi-interesting plot lines that don't really get resolved by the end and .... Bored! I'm too bored to finish.

Also - do you like how short my reviews have become since getting pregnant? I don't have time to mess around peoples. I've got cribs to buy, naps to take, and panic attacks to have about the fact that very soon another life will depend on me. I don't have time for books that take 200 pages to suck me in; I need books to be interesting immediately.

Any recommendations for my next read? I've been chugging through A Widow for One Year by John Irving during my lunch breaks at work, but I'm really needing something lighter. Maybe something in the chick lit category? Something with a GOOD STORY.

3 comments:

cranky rae said...

Are the hormones the reason why you're straight trippin'?

Jo said...

I agree with White Teeth being boring. I don't want to read on Beauty beacuse of it. I also read Zadie Smith short story in The Book of Other People and that was pretty boring too!

Karen said...

Sorry you found this one so boring - I really quite liked it when I read it last year. But I do know where you are coming from - some of it was a struggle. I just finished The School of Essential Ingredients and really loved it - light but beautiful at the same time. But it is more of a character novel than a plot novel so not sure if that is what you are in the mood for right now??