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harrylydd's review
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
karentipsy's review
2.0
I'll preface this by saying that to this point I've loved everything I've read by Christos Tsiolkas. His writing is raw, gritty, brutal, and beautiful.
I've also met him and his passion for writing and his subjects made an immense impression on me. Plus he autographed a book and we had a bit of banter.
However.
This book feels like his personal journal combined with a decent story. The bits of the memoir where the narrator (a homosexual, middle aged male author named Christos Tsiolkas) talks about his smell and him masturbating are just a bit too Charlotte Roche-esque for comfort from someone I've met. It'd be kind of like your dad discussing his sex life with you.
I would love to have read Paul's story though. I wish this had been written as a full length novel and the rest left out.
Hopefully this is an aberration from an otherwise stellar author.
I'm not angry Christos, I'm just disappointed.
I've also met him and his passion for writing and his subjects made an immense impression on me. Plus he autographed a book and we had a bit of banter.
However.
This book feels like his personal journal combined with a decent story. The bits of the memoir where the narrator (a homosexual, middle aged male author named Christos Tsiolkas) talks about his smell and him masturbating are just a bit too Charlotte Roche-esque for comfort from someone I've met. It'd be kind of like your dad discussing his sex life with you.
I would love to have read Paul's story though. I wish this had been written as a full length novel and the rest left out.
Hopefully this is an aberration from an otherwise stellar author.
I'm not angry Christos, I'm just disappointed.
solarxse's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I liked the unconventional form of writing but it felt overly descriptive. So much so, that I found my eyes drifting to different sections out of boredem.
jim_b's review
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
henrymarlene's review
3.0
"I am not ashamed to love the beautiful."
This is a different kind of book. It is, in its purest form, about an author - the author of this book - who has left his partner and life in the city to write without distraction within a beautiful seaside retreat. He recollects his life, his childhood and years gone by as he starts to put together a story he has always wanted to write. An author, writing about an author who is writing the book he always wanted to write (very meta, awareness on many other levels). The author, in his writing, wanted to focus on beauty, love, and what he finds beautiful and what he loves. The sensual world, a world of touch, the physical, what he loves about the world. It is a mix of observation, experience, voyeurism and imagination. We see beauty through Tsiolkas' eyes, in expected and unexpected places. The use of nature is powerful. The sounds, the smells, the feel of the sand under the author's feet, the chill of the water. I could feel all the elements as I read, like the rain falling as the author ran from the beach to his car. This book is more a series of smaller stories, vignettes that intersect each other and complement each other. This style of writing may take more time to process, so many layers to manoeuvre.
" I am aware of the world beauty. And like Paul I will wear my shame till my end: For we know there are no worlds without love, neither filial nor compassionate."
This is a different kind of book. It is, in its purest form, about an author - the author of this book - who has left his partner and life in the city to write without distraction within a beautiful seaside retreat. He recollects his life, his childhood and years gone by as he starts to put together a story he has always wanted to write. An author, writing about an author who is writing the book he always wanted to write (very meta, awareness on many other levels). The author, in his writing, wanted to focus on beauty, love, and what he finds beautiful and what he loves. The sensual world, a world of touch, the physical, what he loves about the world. It is a mix of observation, experience, voyeurism and imagination. We see beauty through Tsiolkas' eyes, in expected and unexpected places. The use of nature is powerful. The sounds, the smells, the feel of the sand under the author's feet, the chill of the water. I could feel all the elements as I read, like the rain falling as the author ran from the beach to his car. This book is more a series of smaller stories, vignettes that intersect each other and complement each other. This style of writing may take more time to process, so many layers to manoeuvre.
" I am aware of the world beauty. And like Paul I will wear my shame till my end: For we know there are no worlds without love, neither filial nor compassionate."
bbarnett1302's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
bobthebookerer's review
4.0
This book hovers in a place between novel and auto-fiction memoir, and I thought slowly revealed itself to be much deeper than the slightly fragmented stories that the book seems to present at the beginning.
Indeed, the small fragments introduced and then built on early into the book then start to come together at the end quite interestingly. For example, early on, Tsiolkas muses on the idea of what a novel does, what storytelling is all about, and on writing a novel about beauty. He then goes on to explore his nascent sexuality as a child, and how there are echoes of that in his current life.
However, it then did something quite interesting, and almost deconstructed the idea of what a novel of beauty would be, showing us behind the scenes as he creates a character named after a porn star he had a crush on, and gives other traits and names to characters based on other people he knew.
This 'behind the scenes' look did not always work for me, but where it did, I thought there was something quite beautiful about the meditations on love, sex and desire that underpinned those stories.
This book can feel quite fragmented, and as if it jumps quickly between various narratives and times, and that can be somewhat jarring. But I believe there was something at the heart of the book that kept me wanting to read.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
Indeed, the small fragments introduced and then built on early into the book then start to come together at the end quite interestingly. For example, early on, Tsiolkas muses on the idea of what a novel does, what storytelling is all about, and on writing a novel about beauty. He then goes on to explore his nascent sexuality as a child, and how there are echoes of that in his current life.
However, it then did something quite interesting, and almost deconstructed the idea of what a novel of beauty would be, showing us behind the scenes as he creates a character named after a porn star he had a crush on, and gives other traits and names to characters based on other people he knew.
This 'behind the scenes' look did not always work for me, but where it did, I thought there was something quite beautiful about the meditations on love, sex and desire that underpinned those stories.
This book can feel quite fragmented, and as if it jumps quickly between various narratives and times, and that can be somewhat jarring. But I believe there was something at the heart of the book that kept me wanting to read.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
reachant's review
5.0
I LOOOOVE Christos Tsiolkas…just love him. His writing is sublime.
In 7½ Christos is writing about his own experiences of writing, of creating his art through the observations of beauty, and in this case, through shunning many of the contemporary topics of literature. He is simultaneously telling his own story, both current and historical, while writing his next novel. They are expertly woven together to make a wonderful story.
I have read two others of his – The Slap, in which every character is awful, and Barracuda, in which every character is awful! This was different – the characters were flawed but not awful.
Tsiolkas is not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, but he is definitely mine!
A tip of the hat to his reference to Fellini’s 8½.
In 7½ Christos is writing about his own experiences of writing, of creating his art through the observations of beauty, and in this case, through shunning many of the contemporary topics of literature. He is simultaneously telling his own story, both current and historical, while writing his next novel. They are expertly woven together to make a wonderful story.
I have read two others of his – The Slap, in which every character is awful, and Barracuda, in which every character is awful! This was different – the characters were flawed but not awful.
Tsiolkas is not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, but he is definitely mine!
A tip of the hat to his reference to Fellini’s 8½.
abbiestrain's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
benwhittall's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
the most wanky, pretentious, unnecessarily explicit and exhausting book I’ve ever read. Tsiolkas says he is writing a book about ‘beauty’ within the novel but only beauty I felt was the relief from finishing it. Also, if I had read one more page about him admiring a ‘youth’ in an uncomfortably disturbing, almost sexualised manner for the purpose of ‘character building’… girl I would have straight up thrown this book across the room.
If you have a firepit, consider using this as the fuel x
If you have a firepit, consider using this as the fuel x