How can you not want to read a book with the name Skippy Dies? Skippy dies early on during a donut eating contest and things take off from there. Jess Walter laid it out like this in his review in the Washington Post::
If killing your protagonist with more than 600 pages to go sounds audacious, it's nothing compared with the literary feats Murray pulls off in this hilarious, moving and wise book. Recently named to the Man Booker Prize long list, "Skippy Dies" is an epic crafted around, of all things, a pack of 14-year-old boys. It's the "Moby-Dick" of Irish prep schools.
The school in question is Dublin's venerable Seabrook College...a 140-year-old institution whose social dynamics make "Lord of the Flies" seem like "Gilligan's Island." Its halls are a maze of bullying, name-calling, alcohol and drug use, sexual obsession and predation. And that's just the faculty.
And a few more:
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly, coming out in January 2011. "Brilliant suspense debut that will appeal to readers of Kate Atkinson, Donna Tartt and Tana French." Highly anticipated.
Half A Life by Darin Strauss. Strauss' memoir of how his life changed when as an 18-year old he struck and killed a 16 year old classmate while driving with friends to play miniature golf. It happened half his life ago. For more, read the NY Times review.
1 comment:
SKIPPY DIES has been on my "must read" list for some time now. The title alone does it for me!
I just added THE POISON TREE to my "must read" list. Can you guess why? The comparison to Tana French, of course!
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