And Another Book By this author in Matthew Quick,Quick Time

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Late last month regular readers to this blog may remember I chatted about Matthew Quick's novel The Reason You're Alive. Essentially I didn't like it. Feeling for reasons that the post chatted about that it was too American Republican for my taste and best avoided.

Well in the random way I pick books from the library I'd taken out The Good Luck Of Right Now by the same author, which I'd mentioned last week in passing in my post on the American football match in Llanharan I saw last week.

So I've never read a book by this writer and like London buses two come along in Matthew Quick succession.

Now I've finished the novel let me say this.....I loved it.

Essentially it's about a thirty nine year old man who lived with his mother who had to adjust to life since her death. He is clever but not emotionally attuned rather like a younger version of  Zachary Addy in Bones.

It's a quirky novel filled with quirky characters trying to cope with the quirky things that life brings. I won't say that the plot points will surprise you. There's one particular twist that's not so much telegraphed as lit up Las Vegas style. But that doesn't matter. It's watching different individuals deal with things that makes this book readable and indeed recommended.

Now the fact that I've read two novels by the same writer and have had two different reactions to them made me think. Of course I have favourite authors. But the chances of such a different response seems to occur more in books than in films or television. Why? Well I suspect we readers invest more in the book, we immerse ourselves in it. More than say TV for example where you know you're not in an island looking for treasure or trying to get around the world in eighty days. As a consequence the writer has more of a chance that the reader will consider a different work in a different light.

Also writers for the printed page are more likely to experiment with different genres/forms. So if your taste is not for a comedy then a Science Fiction novel set in a parallel universe might help you like a writer instead.

Random from the top of my head without doing any research I know. But interesting nonetheless.

Until the next time.