Play Book Tag discussion

I had such high expectations for this book based on how much I enjoyed Magee’s debut, The Undertaking. Whilst I didn’t dislike this book, it felt very literary and the writing was almost too poetic for me, such that I didn’t get the same sense of place and connection with the characters as I had been hoping for. I liked the political side of this book and wish that there had been more of that and we had learnt more about The Troubles, but the book was a bit too much of a slow-burn which didn’t draw me in, and I found the ending to be quite frustrating.

I set this book aside after less than an hour, and moved on to another book. I just couldn’t stay connected. Art+politics +islands, + literary and poetic- this combination could be magical or a train wreck. I plan to give it another chance later on. The artist’s internal dialogue is interesting. At first it just made him unlikable, but I was starting to see the humor in it. I haven’t read much about The Troubles, so I might want to read something else about it first. It was in the news all the time when I was a kid, but it never made sense to me.

NancyJ wrote: "I set this book aside after less than an hour, and moved on to another book. I just couldn’t stay connected. Art+politics +islands, + literary and poetic- this combination could be magical or a tra..."

I agree that there was just too much going on. Unfortunately it didn't really focus on The Troubles as much as I had hoped - I've not read much about this period of history in fiction other than in a thriller and, like many other periods of British history that do not portray Britain in the best light, it wasn't covered when I was at school. The only time I've studied Irish history was when I was at university in Germany, and it was really interesting to see how it was taught there with much more distance from the events than it would have been taught here in the UK. I've heard lots of good things about Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, so I will hopefully get to that soon and see how it compares with what I already know.

This is a book that I tried twice to read and each time, had to stop. Though the premise was most interesting, I found myself dozing off each time.