Astonishing Splashes of Color, Clare Morrall
Book: 21
Title: Astonishing Splashes of Colo(u)r
Author: Clare Morrall
Genre: General fiction
One-sentence summary: Our synaesthetic narrator attempts to make her way through her teetering piles of issues, including mental illness, a miscarriage that has left her barren, and a host of family secrets.
Why did you get this book? The title rang a bell; it was shortlisted for the Booker, and that's the book award I trust most; it was (of course) on the bargain table at the Brookline Booksmith.
Do you like the cover? It's not bad, but I think given the visual imagery of the title they could have done a lot better.
Did you enjoy the book? I did, mostly because it's a pretty good page-turner and the writing is good. Morrall doesn't seem to know quite where she's going with her plot, or with her character, for that matter; there were several plot threads that I particularly enjoyed, but they kept unraveling and getting lost and then reappearing six chapters later. With a lot of editing and refocusing, this book could be parceled out, expanded and revised into three or four absolutely *killer* novels. But even as it is, it's good. I'm not 100% sure whether it's deserving of the Booker nom - unless the rest of the nominees were all really weak, I can see this deserving to be on the longlist but not the shortlist.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Yes, and yeah, I'll be interested to see where she goes from here. This is her first published novel (though she's written *five* novels that were never published! Lady, you have more perseverance and dedication than I have), and it does feel pretty first-novely. If she tightens things up some, I think her future books could be really great.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping.
Anything else? The title is a reference to the main character's synaesthesia, and I was all excited at first, thinking of how much
october31st would be likely to enjoy this book - but then that was another one of the plot threads that petered out. I mean, it recurred occasionally, and the first section is very strong in that regard, but I wanted to see it be more of a pervasive theme throughout. It didn't feel like a new/different way the character saw the world, it felt like a thing the author threw in when she wanted to make a point. I wanted to read a book with a synaesthete's perspective. Sadly, this is not that book.
Scale of 1 to 10: 7/8
Number of pages: 322
Total pages for the year: 6606
Title: Astonishing Splashes of Colo(u)r
Author: Clare Morrall
Genre: General fiction
One-sentence summary: Our synaesthetic narrator attempts to make her way through her teetering piles of issues, including mental illness, a miscarriage that has left her barren, and a host of family secrets.
Why did you get this book? The title rang a bell; it was shortlisted for the Booker, and that's the book award I trust most; it was (of course) on the bargain table at the Brookline Booksmith.
Do you like the cover? It's not bad, but I think given the visual imagery of the title they could have done a lot better.
Did you enjoy the book? I did, mostly because it's a pretty good page-turner and the writing is good. Morrall doesn't seem to know quite where she's going with her plot, or with her character, for that matter; there were several plot threads that I particularly enjoyed, but they kept unraveling and getting lost and then reappearing six chapters later. With a lot of editing and refocusing, this book could be parceled out, expanded and revised into three or four absolutely *killer* novels. But even as it is, it's good. I'm not 100% sure whether it's deserving of the Booker nom - unless the rest of the nominees were all really weak, I can see this deserving to be on the longlist but not the shortlist.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Yes, and yeah, I'll be interested to see where she goes from here. This is her first published novel (though she's written *five* novels that were never published! Lady, you have more perseverance and dedication than I have), and it does feel pretty first-novely. If she tightens things up some, I think her future books could be really great.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping.
Anything else? The title is a reference to the main character's synaesthesia, and I was all excited at first, thinking of how much
october31st would be likely to enjoy this book - but then that was another one of the plot threads that petered out. I mean, it recurred occasionally, and the first section is very strong in that regard, but I wanted to see it be more of a pervasive theme throughout. It didn't feel like a new/different way the character saw the world, it felt like a thing the author threw in when she wanted to make a point. I wanted to read a book with a synaesthete's perspective. Sadly, this is not that book. Scale of 1 to 10: 7/8
Number of pages: 322
Total pages for the year: 6606
