Dragon Journal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dragonjournal) wrote2012-01-21 10:57 am
dragonjournal) wrote2012-01-21 10:57 am
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Book Review: Lord of Misrule, Jaimy Gordon
I don't remember why this book was recommended to me. I'm not sure where I got the list from.
The book is about five people who live and work on a racetrack in West Virginia.
It's rare that I don't finish a book. However, the stylistic choices of this particular author have made it so that I didn't make it past the third chapter.
What I read of the book was very well done. I enjoyed the description and the feel of the setting. The prose flowed easily and the information didn't feel like it was dumped on us, it simply was there and the reader could enjoy learning it.
There was one thing though. No quotation marks. None. I often had to reread paragraphs to figure out that there was dialog being offered and that people were speaking. It seemed that the POV characters were describing the people's speech rather than hearing it and that made the book very frustrating to read.
The other thing that made me put it down? Dialect. I enjoy reading well used dialect in fiction. I use it for myself in my own writing. But when I have to stare at a word to figure out what it is (the best illustration of this is the use of the word "sumpm". Now, I can infer from context that it means "something" but I shouldn't be so confused that the context has to be read over and over to get it!) and keep rereading for context... unless I'm really into the book? It's just not worth my time.
I'm sure the idea is well thought out and once the plot really got going that I might have enjoyed it. But the dialog issue and the dialect use just made it so that I could not immerse myself into the world and enjoy it.
That's a shame.
The book is about five people who live and work on a racetrack in West Virginia.
It's rare that I don't finish a book. However, the stylistic choices of this particular author have made it so that I didn't make it past the third chapter.
What I read of the book was very well done. I enjoyed the description and the feel of the setting. The prose flowed easily and the information didn't feel like it was dumped on us, it simply was there and the reader could enjoy learning it.
There was one thing though. No quotation marks. None. I often had to reread paragraphs to figure out that there was dialog being offered and that people were speaking. It seemed that the POV characters were describing the people's speech rather than hearing it and that made the book very frustrating to read.
The other thing that made me put it down? Dialect. I enjoy reading well used dialect in fiction. I use it for myself in my own writing. But when I have to stare at a word to figure out what it is (the best illustration of this is the use of the word "sumpm". Now, I can infer from context that it means "something" but I shouldn't be so confused that the context has to be read over and over to get it!) and keep rereading for context... unless I'm really into the book? It's just not worth my time.
I'm sure the idea is well thought out and once the plot really got going that I might have enjoyed it. But the dialog issue and the dialect use just made it so that I could not immerse myself into the world and enjoy it.
That's a shame.
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