Described by one critic as probably the best 2011 novel and with the literati outraged that the Booker ignored it, naively my expectations were high. At its heart: a charismatic WWI poet, the effect he has on those who encounter him and changing attitudes towards homosexuality in the 20C. The passages seen through a child's eye are funny and moving but the huge cast of groping, blushing males and frustrated females left me in a stupor. I gave up.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 63 Winter 2011 ) |
