The Gillespie County Fair is... I don't know what. I'm at a loss, and utterly confused as to the point of it all. I read the first 50 or so pages, thinking it had to get better. Some sort of cohesive story had to emerge, eventually. When that didn't happen, I got restless and irritated, and I started skimming. And then, halfway through, I gave up.
Is there a story here? I don't know. What I read was a whole lot of misery and drama, none of which seemed to have a point. It was like a really bad soap opera about a group of dysfunctional people. And those people aren't likable or even tolerable.
I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a main character. We start out getting to know Carel, a man who made my skin crawl. He's a grown up bully who feeds off other people's misfortune. He's full of self-importance and arrogance and racism. He's not the kind of sociopathic bad guy I find interesting; he's just a creep.
Then we have a whole lot of characters who appear in quick succession. We have Willow, Carel's young adult daughter, who cuts herself. Right at the beginning of the book, there's an explicit scene that made me cringe. Then we have the present wife and the ex-wife and her boyfriend and the lawyer and a bunch of others who all grated on my nerves for a variety of reasons. I didn't want to spend time with any of them.
And, so, I opted to stop looking for something I clearly wasn't finding in this book. None of it worked for me. Maybe it'll work for you, and you can tell me if there was indeed a point to any of it.
Is there a story here? I don't know. What I read was a whole lot of misery and drama, none of which seemed to have a point. It was like a really bad soap opera about a group of dysfunctional people. And those people aren't likable or even tolerable.
I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a main character. We start out getting to know Carel, a man who made my skin crawl. He's a grown up bully who feeds off other people's misfortune. He's full of self-importance and arrogance and racism. He's not the kind of sociopathic bad guy I find interesting; he's just a creep.
Then we have a whole lot of characters who appear in quick succession. We have Willow, Carel's young adult daughter, who cuts herself. Right at the beginning of the book, there's an explicit scene that made me cringe. Then we have the present wife and the ex-wife and her boyfriend and the lawyer and a bunch of others who all grated on my nerves for a variety of reasons. I didn't want to spend time with any of them.
And, so, I opted to stop looking for something I clearly wasn't finding in this book. None of it worked for me. Maybe it'll work for you, and you can tell me if there was indeed a point to any of it.