Monty Pigeon
Striker
Heaven Has No Favorites by Erich Maria Remarque 8/10
Later novel by the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. A racing driver falls for a woman dying of TB. Well told story that also serves as a meditation on the nature of mortality. It was the basis for the Al Pacino film Bobby Deerfield.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James 2/10
What a load of old cobblers. Billed as the 'African Game of Thrones', it's a tedious slog with very little in the way of narrative drive. Reading it here in Africa was a bizarre experience, because it bears no relation whatsoever to the continent and folklore I've known most of my life. The longest 640 pages I've ever read, with some truly dreadful writing, eg: 'He smelled like the crack of an old man's ass'. (Curiously, if I were to write a book drawing on African folklore I'd be called out for cultural appropriation, even though I grew up here. Marlon James is a Jamaican who lives in Minnesota, and as far as I know his only visit to Africa was a week-long lecture junket to Nigeria.)
Later novel by the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. A racing driver falls for a woman dying of TB. Well told story that also serves as a meditation on the nature of mortality. It was the basis for the Al Pacino film Bobby Deerfield.
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Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James 2/10
What a load of old cobblers. Billed as the 'African Game of Thrones', it's a tedious slog with very little in the way of narrative drive. Reading it here in Africa was a bizarre experience, because it bears no relation whatsoever to the continent and folklore I've known most of my life. The longest 640 pages I've ever read, with some truly dreadful writing, eg: 'He smelled like the crack of an old man's ass'. (Curiously, if I were to write a book drawing on African folklore I'd be called out for cultural appropriation, even though I grew up here. Marlon James is a Jamaican who lives in Minnesota, and as far as I know his only visit to Africa was a week-long lecture junket to Nigeria.)
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