I won the book Mountains of the Moon by I. J. Kay from GoodReads First Reads (along with another, which I'm reading now!) and I was really excited to read it. Here's why...
Synopsis (from GoodReads.com):
A highly original novel about a young woman’s journey from shattered youth to self-discovery.
After ten years in a London prison, Louise Adler (Lulu) is released with only a new alias to rebuild her life. Working a series of dead-end jobs, she carries a past full of secrets: a childhood marked by the violence and madness of her parents, followed by a reckless adolescence. From abandoned psychiatric hospitals to Edwardian-themed casinos, from a brief first love to the company of criminals, Lulu has spent her youth in an ever-shifting landscape of deceit and survival. But when she’s awarded an unexpected settlement claim after prison, she travels to the landscape of her childhood imagination, the central African range known as the Mountains of the Moon. There, in the region’s stark beauty, she attempts to piece together the fragments of her battered psyche.
Told in multilayered, hallucinatory flashbacks, Mountains of the Moon traces a traumatic youth and explores the journey of a young woman trying to transform a broken life into something beautiful. This dazzling novel from a distinctive new voice is sure to garner the attention of critics and readers alike.
My Thoughts:
Sounds pretty intense and interesting, right? I was so wrong...
I don't want to say it was "terrible" because it wasn't atrocious. However, I did not enjoy this book much at all. The hallucinatory and fractured way in which the story is told is so complex and multilayered that even when paying attention, it's nearly impossible to follow. Add (intentionally) misspelled words, (unfamiliar) British slang and fragments of song lyrics to the mix and it's a complete nightmare. Maybe it's just not my "cup of tea."
If I had not read the synopsis, I would have absolutely no clue what this story was all about. Even after reading it I feel the description is a bit of a stretch. If you are going to read this book, read the synopsis right before you begin the book and then again immediately following. It will help put everything together.
I will say this: the author is gifted with descriptions. Even though I usually had absolutely no idea what was going on in the story, I felt like I was there (where ever "there" is...) I wish I could say more about the story, but I couldn't really follow it so I'll just leave it there.
Final Word: D
It's a difficult novel, disorienting, but also just wonderful. There is so much life in it, so much delight. One reviewer--was it Guardian--talks about reading it twice. You have to give it time.
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