|
|
and Kindle e-books |
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
Kirkus review, November 2015.
A foreboding tale of a snow-covered London in despair, enlivened by encouraging characters and events.
Amazon Reader Reviews...
Imminent apocalypse sharpens our vision of the everyday
This end-of-the-world story is disturbing but also often heartening. The reader experiences both an urgency to know what happens next and, contrastingly, an invitation to slow down time and reflect with the writer on many private moments of being – for example what it feels like to be sitting in a pair of wet trousers, what it feels like to be desperately tired, what despair feels like.
The book’s strength is these close up, fine grained descriptions of each character’s state of mind, or rather state of body and mind. Often the writer is managing to capture every day moments and the observations which we all make but which are so familiar and ordinary they rarely find their way into literature.
For Londoners, or perhaps those who visit the city, the book will have a special meaning – it’s certainly depressing to follow the disintegration of the urban landscape which we generally assume will go on giving. However the depression is not overwhelming and it feels as though it is in the service of a valuable wake up call – there is perhaps an old fashioned moral tale embedded in this very contemporary novel.
Loved this.
It has really big, complex characters: a bumbling posh Mayor, an alcoholic Norwegian snow specialist, a migrant worker who may have discovered the meaning of life. They're all trying to deal with the snow storm that's covered London. It's very clever (the story seems to be told by a computer from the future), but it's very funny (there are loads of drunken misadventures) and at points it's deeply moving (lots of Oedipal longing and existential contemplation). It's really rare to find something so easy to read, but so full of ideas and beauty. It's very, very good.
Very engaging and original style
The author has an impressive ability to draw very detailed pictures of the state of minds and situations facing the characters making the reader feel psychological and physical motions they go through with particular acuteness. Most of the story being set in London adds an extra dimension of engagement for those who know the city. Captivating and thought provoking!It's very, very good.
This is great stuff. Refreshing too
Every detail is a macrocosm with the immediacy of a haiku. Beneath the funny exterior, there is a painful existential crisis in every snowflake. You feel like you're headed for a car crash after inhaling slo-mo. I actually hesitated each time I picked it up - worried for how it disintegrates - but it was too compulsive. Highly recommended. Weird how I find myself envying their apocalypse..
Gripping
Haven't been this gripped by a novel for a long time