So I Am Glad
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Captivating.... Funny, mysterious and so original that it is easy to suspend disbelief."
--"Chicago Tribune"
"A love story that's highly imaginative and surprisingly poignant...yet amusingly ironic in tone."
--"The New York Times Book Review
"
"Kennedy...writes with passion and directness, taking risks that would leave other writers squirming."
--"San Francisco Chronicle
"
--"Chicago Tribune"
"A love story that's highly imaginative and surprisingly poignant...yet amusingly ironic in tone."
--"The New York Times Book Review
"
"Kennedy...writes with passion and directness, taking risks that would leave other writers squirming."
--"San Francisco Chronicle
"
Book Description
One of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists in1993 and 2003
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first A. L. Kennedy book I had read. I chose it in a charity shop, because I have lived in Scotland for three years and always like to read more Scottish novels, and A. L. Kennedy is always quite entertaining on TV and radio.
I am slightly baffled by the book, but not more so than by a great many literary novels. (The 'pretentious nonsense' reviewer may have missed the fact that literary novels often do not spell out plot etc. explicitly, and should perhaps stick to reading Dan Brown.) I chose to let it 'wash over' me, much like one of the earlier reviewers here. Nevertheless, I would describe this book as being plot-driven. The story is mostly quite contemporary and down-to-earth, but with the added twist that the main character, outwith the first-person narrator, is a French author who died in 1655, and who inexplicably fetches up in a Glasgow house-share in the mid 1990s! This, and how the character's trajectory is dealt with, is what makes the story baffling, and overall makes this a very, very unusual book. Note that it is most definitely NOT magic realism, despite the appearance of the 300-year-old character.
I found the prose style delightful, and very readable, and the book overall was a fine mix of seriousness and humour. I am only giving it three stars because I reserve five stars for real favourites, and I didn't find this book quite enjoyable enough to give it four, but I definitely enjoyed it -- it's staying on my shelf, rather than going back to the charity shop -- and I shall definitely seek out more A. L. Kennedy.
I am slightly baffled by the book, but not more so than by a great many literary novels. (The 'pretentious nonsense' reviewer may have missed the fact that literary novels often do not spell out plot etc. explicitly, and should perhaps stick to reading Dan Brown.) I chose to let it 'wash over' me, much like one of the earlier reviewers here. Nevertheless, I would describe this book as being plot-driven. The story is mostly quite contemporary and down-to-earth, but with the added twist that the main character, outwith the first-person narrator, is a French author who died in 1655, and who inexplicably fetches up in a Glasgow house-share in the mid 1990s! This, and how the character's trajectory is dealt with, is what makes the story baffling, and overall makes this a very, very unusual book. Note that it is most definitely NOT magic realism, despite the appearance of the 300-year-old character.
I found the prose style delightful, and very readable, and the book overall was a fine mix of seriousness and humour. I am only giving it three stars because I reserve five stars for real favourites, and I didn't find this book quite enjoyable enough to give it four, but I definitely enjoyed it -- it's staying on my shelf, rather than going back to the charity shop -- and I shall definitely seek out more A. L. Kennedy.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was my first novel by this author that I read. I thought the book was going to be a a bit of a smart mystery but it came to be nothing of the sort.
I love poetry and philosophy so some parts of the book, for me, were very beautiful, capturing the sense of smell, taste, feelings, linking unimportant moments of short-term memory and everyday life to precious memories and discoveries of life. But as a book, I have to agree that it has very little plot and too many times the story is not going anywhere- it is just a pretentious jiba-jaba. The book started to have some sort of a plot around page 300 which is pretty much somewhere in the middle of the book! At the end, the "story" picks up and, comparing to the start, gets rushed and finished off. After finishing the book, I was left feeling that the author just wrote something for the sake of writing and then realised that, for the book to be published, it actually needs some plot. This book is by no means rememberable and that is a very big problem when there are thousands of books and authors out there. It took me roughly a month to read it and I am a very fast reader...make your own judgement of what that means.
I love poetry and philosophy so some parts of the book, for me, were very beautiful, capturing the sense of smell, taste, feelings, linking unimportant moments of short-term memory and everyday life to precious memories and discoveries of life. But as a book, I have to agree that it has very little plot and too many times the story is not going anywhere- it is just a pretentious jiba-jaba. The book started to have some sort of a plot around page 300 which is pretty much somewhere in the middle of the book! At the end, the "story" picks up and, comparing to the start, gets rushed and finished off. After finishing the book, I was left feeling that the author just wrote something for the sake of writing and then realised that, for the book to be published, it actually needs some plot. This book is by no means rememberable and that is a very big problem when there are thousands of books and authors out there. It took me roughly a month to read it and I am a very fast reader...make your own judgement of what that means.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't disagree more with the negative review above. Kennedy's prose style is the best I've seen in a modern writer - simple, direct and often emotionally devastating. The themes of her book are complex - the novel deals with love, sex and emotional articulacy - but they are handled in a sensitive and complex way that belies the cookie-cutter model of human relationships that most chick-lit and Hollywood movies chooses to peddle.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unique and beautifully crafted
This is not the kind of book you race through to 'find out what happens'. This is a book which asks you to take your time, to stop and think and feel. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Flamingjetmouse
A beautiful book
I decided to write this when I read the previous review. Worried that it might put off potential readers of this incredible book I decided another opinion should be heard. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2006 by Ms. H. M. Spence
Pretentious nonsense
This has to be the worst book I have ever read. I challenge any reader to know what the author is trying to get across or to follow the basic theme of the underlying story. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2005
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