Saturday, January 15, 2011

Alligator by Lisa Moore

Summary
Frank sells hot dogs on George Street in St. John's Newfoundland. He has a secret crush on Colleen, who's doing community service for vandalizing some bulldozers. Colleen's mom, Beverly is upset about Colleen. Madeleine, Beverly's sister, is directing a movie about Archbishop Fleming. Isobel, one of the actresses in Madeleine's film is seeing this Russian man named Valentin, who lives in the apartment above Frank's. Carol, the woman who lives in the apartment below Frank's thinks Valentin is up to something...

What I liked
The writing is poetic. The sentences are well put together and it is kind of nice to read because it flows really well. The storytelling is also well done, it's deep. It shows how all the characters are really real people and I like how it shows that people who don't even know each other are connected one way or another.

What I didn't like
Well, the first two chapters made me think there would be a love story going on but then it just didn't materialize. That was disappointing. And then it just went on and on for over three hundred pages jumping back and forth from one character to another without developing any kind of cohesive plot. And my, was it boring.

Conclusion
Well it's sometimes interesting and has some good characters and the writing is good. The last one hundred pages are decent, they've got some suspense and some action. But it's so tedious. It's like a dozen or more short stories all fragmented. So I'll give it 3/5 alligator-people metaphors.

2 comments:

  1. i thought it was disappointing too. i wanted something to happen. i mean, something good. why do writers think that good writing has to only have bad stuff happen? good things, too, happen in real life.

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  2. you're so right Janelle, dear. Romans 8:28 clearly tells us that doesn't it?

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