Reading
Finished reading: Something Terrible Happened Last Night by Sam Blake 📚
Currently Reading: Something Terrible Happened Last Night by Sam Blake 📚
Finished reading: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett 📚🦧
Currently Reading: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett 📚🦧
Finished reading: The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett 📚🦧
Finished reading: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 📚🦧
Currently Reading: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 📚 Feeling a bit ‘meh’ about reading at the moment, so am planning on purchasing and reading Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ novels in order.
Finished reading: Finding My Voice by Aoife Dooley 📚
I don’t want to go all ‘Growing up, I only had four channels to watch…’ but how can one possibly watch and digest everything of interest? I suppose it’s like a reading pile now, something that will never be empty. 📚📺
Finished reading: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 📚
My dog-walk audiobook companion for the next couple of weeks. Currently Reading: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman 📚
Currently Reading: The Notorious Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud 📚
Finished reading: Love Will Tear Us Apart by C. K. McDonnell 📚
Currently Reading: Love Will Tear Us Apart by C. K. McDonnell 📚
Currently Reading: How to Sit by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚
Currently Reading: The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud 📚
’The Satsuma Complex’ - Bob Mortimer. Review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An enjoyable novel debut proper from the delightfully daft Mortimer.
It took a little while to get into the rhythm of the story, there’s an awkwardness to the dialogue that is deliberate given the main-character’s social awkwardness and subsequent journey. It has Mortimer’s surreal whimsy running through and once it hits its stride it’s superb.
Having read his autobiography, I feel Mortimer doesn’t realise just how good a writer he is. The main character here is based on himself back at the same age complete with crippling shyness and loneliness. The writing occasionally lacks confidence, despite being excellent. It’s not quite the wall to wall silliness one would expect from him, the book deals with murder, corruption and relationship abuse but there’s more than enough daftness to keep Mortimer’s fans happy.
I look forward to his next novel. Hopefully this one will have given him a shot of confidence.