Categories: book-review, ill
Tags: plea for sympathy, book review, ill
Date: 30 January 2007 20:06:34
This is the title of the book I was reading recently, that we discussed this evening in my book group. It's by Elif Shafak, a Turkish writer, and has won awards and all sorts.
It basically covers the daily lives of the inhabitants of a once-grand but now rather dilapidated apartment block in Istanbul which has a mysterious garbage-smell and bug infestation (we find out the source of the smell towards the end), and for nearly all of the book I really enjoyed dipping in and out of the different flats, getting to see the lives of the different individuals and families within them, and generally just doing the literary equivalent of people-watching. It's a lovely gentle book, which appealed to my inner nosiness.
I have to say though, the ending was without a doubt the most disappointing ending I have ever read in a book. With the rest of the book so good (this wasn't a universal opinion among the girls in the group, by the way, one person in particular really didn't like it at all), I was literally shocked at the rubbishness of the ending. It wasn't quite "It was all a dream", but there was a definite whiff of Bobby Ewing in the shower about it. What a massive let-down.
In other news, I have terrible toothache. I have kept on my London dentist rather than registering with someone up here, as he was so brilliant, and I've never needed any drastic dental work. I had planned on making an appointment at some point before going away in May to Romania, but I'm really not sure I can wait till I'm next in London (whenever that is). One of the girls in the book group has mentioned a dentist fairly near me whom she said was OK, so I might have to bite the bullet and register there. Sigh. I'm taking very strong painkillers in the meantime (they're working really well, it's the same stuff I took when I had my wisdom teeth out) but I can't do that indefinitely. Ow.