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A review by ginbott
Personal Days by Ed Park
3.0
In this novel Park uses three distinctively different techniques, dividing the novel into separate parts. While you could argue this works for an office setting, certainly the middle part feels contrived and unnecessary. The use of first-person plural mostly works, as does the more personal email-form used for the novel’s ending. If Park had decided to use one form of narration the novel might have benefitted as a whole.
The start-stop nature of the narrative does not allow the reader to bond with any of the characters, but it could be argued this is intentional. Starting relatively strong with the collective ‘we’, this style is never revisited after the first section and in later parts of the novel the reader only interacts with the characters from a distance, never again feeling part of the action. The characters are not well-rounded and mostly easily forgotten.
The daily grind these co-workers find themselves is presented to the reader in a witty and recognizable manner. However, once the actual plot takes hold the novel becomes confused in its intentions. Particularly towards the very end the credibility is stretched to within an inch of its life.
This novel has a strong start; Park manages to capture something true and familiar about office life with a real sense of humour. However, the plot feels contrived and does not demand much from the reader. There is something cliché and overworked about the storyline which deters from the initial enjoyment.
Park triumphs in terms of winning the reader over in the first couple of pages. There is a kind of ease, intelligence and sense of fun about his writing which is engaging. We are left with a light read not without merit, but in terms of story and character development the novel is not as strong as the very similar Then We Came to the End
The start-stop nature of the narrative does not allow the reader to bond with any of the characters, but it could be argued this is intentional. Starting relatively strong with the collective ‘we’, this style is never revisited after the first section and in later parts of the novel the reader only interacts with the characters from a distance, never again feeling part of the action. The characters are not well-rounded and mostly easily forgotten.
The daily grind these co-workers find themselves is presented to the reader in a witty and recognizable manner. However, once the actual plot takes hold the novel becomes confused in its intentions. Particularly towards the very end the credibility is stretched to within an inch of its life.
This novel has a strong start; Park manages to capture something true and familiar about office life with a real sense of humour. However, the plot feels contrived and does not demand much from the reader. There is something cliché and overworked about the storyline which deters from the initial enjoyment.
Park triumphs in terms of winning the reader over in the first couple of pages. There is a kind of ease, intelligence and sense of fun about his writing which is engaging. We are left with a light read not without merit, but in terms of story and character development the novel is not as strong as the very similar Then We Came to the End