This novel is told in point of view from a mother of a teenager who murders seven of his fellow high-school students and two members of staff. As I expected, it didn’t make for a comfortable read but it’s original and unusual as well as thought-provoking. It made for even less comfortable reading when as I was on the last few chapters, the tragedy at Virginia Tech took place.
I found this novel a tough read. The first few chapters in particular were hard going – I read the first 50 pages or so and then had to re-read them because I felt I hadn’t absorbed very much. It got easier once I had managed to adapt to the writing style. I found I got quite frustrated by Lionel Shriver using a lot of words I had never heard of and weren’t to be found in the Oxford Minidictionary in my bedside cabinet. I don’t mind if there are one or two words in a book that are new to me, but one or two on every page is a little excessive, and I think I’ve got a reasonably wide vocabulary. It almost seemed like she’d looked through the dictionary trying to find unusual words to try and incorporate into her book. The style and vocabulary I thought also made it less believable to have been written by a wife to her husband, you just don’t write personal letters like that.
After playing my violin so much over the past two weeks (and not being used to it), I’ve this week been suffering with pain in the top of my back, shoulders and arms. It started on Tuesday, which is the first night I was able to properly relax in nearly 2 weeks, and I didn’t sleep well that night because of the discomfort. On Wednesday I was so stiff it was a task to even brush my hair! I’m much better now, but I think that’s partly because yesterday I treated myself to a wonderful back massage at Klinkal 1 Alternative Health and Beauty Centre. Very soothing…
I actually feel disappointed that we’ve finally finished watching ‘Six Feet Under’. This series is possibly one of the best television shows I’ve ever seen. The last few episodes were particularly moving and I kept thinking about them for days after. It’s extremely rare that a television programme affects me in that kind of way.
‘Six Feet Under’ takes you on a emotional rollercoaster – sometimes it’s very funny, sometimes it’s sombre. It’s often poignant but also, in places, shocking. It’s television for open-minded, intelligent, grown-up’s, which unfortunately seems all too rare these days.
For anyone who doesn’t know anything about 6FU, (as I think it didn’t get the attention it deserved when it was on television), it’s follows the lives of the Fisher family, who run a funeral home business. Every episode begins with a death, and the consequences of the death is woven in varying degrees into the plot for that particular episode. It’s not at all as morbid as it sounds.
I’d definitely recommend the complete series boxset.