Joe Dunthorne

If you are a regular reader of my blog or of my reviews, you know my love for Tin House books. I tend to enjoy them because they stick with me and continue to unfold the more I think about them. I was excited to receive a copy of The Adulterants from them for review, but I will say it has not been my favorite.

The book flows, almost dream like as Ray Morris goes from place to place throughout the book. He goes from cheating on his wife, Garthene, to being part of a looting incident, and into other conversations and adventures.

Ray is in a state of arrested development as he must grow up, but almost refuses to. He is not a man of great character (in the book) and at times can be almost unbearable. He is a guy you want to see fail.

As a praise, I would say that is a draw of this book. Ray is not great. Through his immaturity, we are forced to examine our own lives. We ask the questions around what makes one grown up?

The drawback is it is difficult to be with Ray. There are anti heroes who are terrible, but kind of fun to be around and there are anti heroes, who you do not want to spend much time with. For me, Ray was the later. I didn’t care if he succeeded or even got his comeuppance. It was a tough read for me.

I gave this one 3.5 stars.
… (meer)

I didn't think I was going to like this novel at first. Oliver is weird. I mean this in the sense that I thought he may be mental ill, possibly have some sort of social behavior disorder, something like that....but no, he is just weird. And a bit creepy. At first, I he kind of put me off, but as I read on, I git used to him, and it didn't seem as odd. Don't get me wrong, Oliver stayed rather creepy throughout the novel, but it somehow became more normal? Or you just got used to it? I'm not sure, either way, it got more interesting and I found myself semi caring about Oliver. I liked it. He's a quirky kid thats for sure, but after time, I came to care what happened to him.… (meer)