This was originally just an audio book so maybe it was sent to Stevie Wonder because there is no way we read the same thing and he's calling it "An American original, worthy of a place on the shelf". The book starts off pretty good tho. A smoking fat dude goes on a cross country trip to see his deceased sister. I thought it was supposed to be a feel good story but after reading the ending I felt something else...but we can get to that in a sec. At first I thought Smithy's little visions of Bethany were cute because they were like motivating him to keep going, but honestly at the end when he's pushing imaginary Norma I think he's just lost it. Norma on the other-hand was just obsessive. You can see this on page 324 when she is just bombarding Smithy with questions about Chris I immediately thought "Dang girl, Chillllllll. Let him get a word in". But Smithy isn't a saint: "Rebecca Coin looked particularly full", you're at your sisters wedding man, c'mon just stop with the breast obsession thing for a little bit. The main characters just made me upset or confused most of the time with what they did. I did really like the side character stories like Philip Wosley or Carl. These parts felt the most well written and I wanted to go into more depth in their stories but unfortunately McLarty doesn't feel the same. Lastly, you're broke, have no money, job, bike, and your bag looks like trash and if I read this correctly you just kissed your dead sister. Excuse me if I think you're a crazy homeless person. I might seem harsh but I honestly just expected a lot more from the ending of this book with all the build up of this journey. It kinda just pisses me off that he sees the body, calls it ugly and tells the Chinese guy to just burn it.
I completely understand how irritated you are. I feel like an author has a duty to his readers to give his story an ending, but I feel like McLarty didn't even try. He just finishes it with Smithy seeing the body and leaving, no closure or plot twist or anything. It made me feel like I had just wasted time reading to not even get an ending to the story. Maybe he's trying to point out that it's about the journey, not the destination, but I think at a point Smithy stopped developing as a character, rendering that reasoning odd.
ReplyDeleteOk, the ending is weird. It's awfully "Any they lived happily ever after..." and doesn't really fit with the tone in the rest of the book. I am ok, however, with Smithy losing his bike and job and money. He gets to start a new life now. His old life was a dead end and he would probably end up dead before he retired. Now, he is given the opportunity to get a new job and has a great story to put on his resume.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you thought the Norma thing was a hallucination. At first I couldn't believe that Norma actually came to the funeral home, but then again, this book is full of pretty crazy stuff. At the beginning of the book I didn't even think Smithy could have pulled off a cross-country bike ride. The minute I realized he was gonna try to ride his bike to California I thought "yeah right."
ReplyDeleteI was irritated at times like you. But I think the weirdness of Smithy makes him a more appealing character. He is very unlike other people, which is what makes us interested in him. The ending kind of killed my vibe regarding the book. I was so hyped to finally get to the ending, but it ended in a way that isn't interesting, pretty simple actually. I had hoped for a much more complex ending after all those miles traveled.
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