Oh man, I shouldn’t do this. I’m already half-cut and in no position to write, and yet here I go, alcohol or no. And that’s probably fine. I mean this novel is trippy in a good way. If I may use writerly language, Vonnegut, er, oh, I forgot all my writerly language. Look, this is a book about folk messing up. They mess up the American dream, probably and everything that happens is related to something else, characterwise. Which is both clever , rewarding, but also tiresome, But Kilgore Trout, the fictional novelist, meets his creator Kurt Vonnegut and I’m both confused and astonished. This is absolutely not the way to write good fiction, and yet it’s fantastic. Yes.
No. 12 of 100 books I intend to read and review in 2020.
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Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at his conversation school in Abiko, Japan, with his wife, he writes and illustrates textbooks for non-native speakers of English, releases Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, essays and a monthly newsletter highlighting good fiction published in English about Japan. Saku’s Random Book Club is his latest project to spend more time with books.
Patrick Sherriff 