Gillian Polack

tricky book to assess. the first half is slow, sort of muddled, and repetitious; second half is much stronger, the characters become memorable, the whole thing gathers momentum, and the neat ideas pile up and become integrated. i was grumpy about the first half, and that was too uneven to warrant a 4. but the ideas were compelling, so in the end that's where i landed with my rating. expect sf aliens on earth and in the background also in their own world with its differing perspective on Earth Problems, leading to elements of anthropology in sf, memory holes affecting the plot, and a compelling emphasis on feminism and gender roles. by the end i loved it, found it thought-provoking, and will follow the author.… (mais)

Difficult to get in to at the start, partly because the story starts rather abruptly, slowly fleshing out the characters and their relationships instead of spelling them out up front, and partly because there are some fairly intense aspects that I had to walk away from, interrupting the flow of the story.

Once I got in to it, this story of the somewhat ordinary lives of supposedly ordinary people galumphed along at quite a rate. I did find some of the later plot details a little forced, but my guess is that for each of the really weird 'real world' plot elements, someone I know can tell a story that roughly matches that -- that life is weirder than the things that are credible in fiction (and it seems weird, that in an urban magical story, it is some of the more 'real world' details seemed too far out there).

For some, the ending will be unsatisfying -- many of the story threads don't resolve, in the same way that they did not start abruptly at the beginning of the story -- there is less a resounding finish than a gradual fade to black as the characters move away from the view of the writer.

Disclaimer: Gillian is a friend. While I don't think the fact that I heard the book read in her voice changed the way I related to it, knowledge of her politics and views on a number of topics gave the book a greater resonance that I might have expected without that background.… (mais)

From first attempt at this book to finally finishing was over a year; from the start of my most recent attempt, less than a week. This is a reflection on this book, but also on my mental state when I've been attempting to read it. It is a layered, complex, nuanced story that requires the reader to immerse themself, and I have not had that level of with-it on my previous attempts.

There is so much happening in this book, and I would love to give a nuanced review. I loved the weirdnesses that came from the multiple viewpoints, the not declaring what those viewpoints represented (except 'the observer', and 'notes towards the understanding of a problem, headings that repeat throughout). The obsession with chocolate, and what it does and doesn't represent. The slow working through of faulty memory, to try and glean what is going on -- the reader doesn't know, because the narrator is truly unreliable, not knowing either. There are multiple explanations given, all of which are true, none of which are complete.

And I loved the core five characters: the only ones that we ever 'spend time with' -- Diana, Leanne, Antoinette, Janet, and Trina. An interesting mixture of people, with a fortuitous meeting. People who had in common geographical location, and being middle-aged women. Such small snippets of their lives get shared (except for the aforementioned unreliable narrator, who isn't clear until some way in to the story, because who names themself in their own head?).… (mais)