Tag: The Forrests

The Forrests by Emily Perkins

Posted August 16, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 1 Comment

The Forrests by Emily PerkinsTitle: The Forrests (Goodreads)
Author: Emily Perkins
Published: Bond Street Books, 2012
Pages: 352
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Personal Copy

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

The Forrests by Emily Perkins was the book chosen for my local bookclub for June, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to this discussion so I decided to read this while in New Zealand as the author is a New Zealander. This book has already been talked about in regards to being listed for this year’s Man Booker prize (it never made the long list) so I was interested in seeing what the book was all about. The novel follows the story of the Forrests, a disenfranchised family that moves from New York City to Auckland. It follows the dramas of a family, dealing with normal every day issues; from love, marriage, motherhood and parenting to the financial issue, loneliness and a range of other issues that come with a dysfunctional family.

This book is a bit strange, you start off with all the dramas of this family and throughout the book the issues never end. While you are looking on, you never seem to be given enough information to fully understand what is happening and how the characters are feeling, like the author was always holding the full story from the reader and just expecting them to guess.  Each chapter is another scene which I’ve been thrust into without being armed with the relevant information to navigate through it properly. The family dramas never really ended in this book and I just couldn’t wait to get to the end of this book.

This is a beautiful piece of writing and Emily Perkins did a decent job at capturing a family in their flaws but I didn’t enjoy The Forrests so the writing was let down by the characters. It was a bit of a dreamlike book that did grow on you a little but for me it wasn’t enough to pull me to enjoying this novel. I think some people will really enjoy this book, it starts off by putting you in the deep end and I suspect it grows on some readers, just not on me.

 

Monthly Review – July 2012

Posted July 31, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments

How did everyone enjoy Life of Pi? What were your final thoughts? As you can see by my review, I didn’t think much of this book but I was pleased to see so many others enjoying the book. If you go the Goodreads forum you can see some interesting discussions about the book, zoology, religion, philosophy. This book was a great pick for a group read because of all the elements in the book worth discussing. Next month we are reading a book I’m really excited about; have you got your copy of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov yet?

July has been a great month for me, mainly because I was on vacation for most of it. Luckily I had plenty of scheduled posts to keep people entertained and I hope there were some enjoyable posts for you. Because of the vacation I feel like my reading dropped off a little, but realistically it does seem to be about the same. Highlights for me this month include The Passage; a book I’ve been putting off but a wonderful and refreshing look at a post-apocalyptic world and the people struggling for survival. My local book club were reading Gold by Chris Cleave and what a wonderful novel this one is; the book follows three Olympic racers through their life leading up to London 2012, the characters really made this book. Lastly, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a YA novel that reminds me a lot of Looking for Alaska by John Green, it’s a brilliant and addictive read into the life of a high school wallflower.

  • Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
  • The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis
  • The Forrests by Emily Perkins
  • Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
  • Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
  • The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
  • Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton 
  • The Passage by Justin Cronin
  • The Trial by Franz Kafka
  • Gold by Chris Cleave
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky