A Tidy Ending - Joanna Cannon

55%

18.08.23

I started this a couple of times and didn't get too far but this time I focused on getting through it. I've previously found Cannon's prose too flowery and her plots too heavy handed and this was no exception. And I'm all for unreliable and even unsympathetic narrators but it was very difficult to root for this one. That said, the observational comedy was sharp and the awkward Britishness well captured.

Three Things About Elsie - Joanna Cannon

52%
27.08.20

Three things about this novel:
1. The metaphors. Dear God, the metaphors. It was like a 464-page creative writing exercise.
2. The 'twist'. Oddly, it was both obvious from about halfway through, and also inconsistently handled.
3. The story. Lumpily structured and didn't really make sense.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon

59%
26.10.17

I found the first half in particular distractingly overwritten and a little slow. The 10-year-old narrator was unconvincing as a child, yet the narrative might have worked better if it had only been from her point of view. Otherwise, readable enough and gained some momentum towards the end.