Thursday, April 14, 2011

Neverwhere/MASH

Neverwhere
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman (1996)
Considering the fact that all of my friends on Goodreads who have read Neil Gaiman's first novel, Neverwhere, gave it five stars out of five, I really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, that did not end up working out. I love fantasy, especially of the dark, mysterious kind, but I just could not get entirely into Neverwhere. All the main characters were boring, the villains were not even hatable in a likable way, the dialogue was pretty ridiculous and it seemed like barely anything happened in the story. All of that being said, the imagery was pretty cool and there were a few nice twists/faux twists. Seeing as this was Gaiman's debut novel, it was still enjoyable, and I can forgive some of his missteps here. I guess Neverwhere just seems to have been aimed at a younger or at least different audience than I was hoping.

MASH
MASH - Richard Hooker (1968)
A bit boring in places and not as good as I was hoping, MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors is the book that spawned the popular film and television series. What ensues are some humorous and memorable events (the football game chapter in particular was excellent) and some pretty fantastic characters. I think I was spending too much time looking for and focusing on the humor and characters to fully grasp the social and political commentary. Entertaining, but not absolutely great.

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