The evil side of the happy go lucky flower power unicorn rainbow time that wasn´t as peaceful as one might suppose.
What if hippies weren´t the friendlThe evil side of the happy go lucky flower power unicorn rainbow time that wasn´t as peaceful as one might suppose.
What if hippies weren´t the friendly, peace-loving, open-minded, tolerant, etc great alternative to normal society, but just as bad as normal people with the difference that they do as if they were sooo alternative and progressive.
Building on this plot, Boyle offers another splendid description of the bigotry and mendacity that grows in each society. In this case, it is interesting to see how good ideals can be perverted to let the conservative, suppressing system seem better than anarchy, chaos and too much freedom.
I could imagine this book as a great kick-starter for more complex, philosophical, political, sociological, etc. discussions and, of course, debates, because it does nothing else than confronting a liberal, socialist dystopia with the standard mentality of this time and opening the endless, epic, political "mentality A vs mentality B battle until boredom and sleep kick in".
And the great thing is that it all comes with subtext, wit and strange happenings and no admonishing moral finger.
This is maybe Boyles´ best, also first, novel and it´s completely different than his other works.
Reread 2022 with extended review
Start with this oneThis is maybe Boyles´ best, also first, novel and it´s completely different than his other works.
Reread 2022 with extended review
Start with this one In general, Boyle is dark, close to depressing and the jokes are the same, good, but quite kind of hardcore dark comedy style. Water music is smooth, funny, clever, and not in a 20th-century setting, like most of his other novels and I would be unable to say if it is the same author if I read this and one of his other novels after another. He is another example of an author losing hope in humanity and thereby ease and comedy gold.
But still deep and sophisticated It criticizes colonialism, racism, white mans´ burden, slavery, and the mentality of the 18th century in a both funny and deep, meaningful way and I guess Boyle could have reached, like Matt Ruff and Christopher Moore, much more readers and fame, if he would have stayed both funny and critical instead of becoming dark and critical with a sarcastic undertone. Don´t get me wrong, I like all of his works, but they are really a downer and, as seen in this work, could be uppers instead.
Boyle could have really known it better The great social critique he includes in his 20th century setting novels doesn´t get the appreciation it could have, because nobody likes to be made sad, and why he began writing like this, especially with a background in creative writing, makes no sense to me. Criticism definitively is his bread and butter and he could have spread it in so many minds as an appetizer for an open, enlightened humankind. Instead, even I don´t want to reread his new stuff, because the laughter stays so far behind the shock moments that it completely left dramedy and entered melancholic tragedy instead.
This is truly no literature for the faint of heart, but a great piece of social criticism screaming out of each page of this work.
Reread 2022 with eThis is truly no literature for the faint of heart, but a great piece of social criticism screaming out of each page of this work.
Reread 2022 with extended review
Disturbing for in your face reasons Boyle has a unique writing style by dissecting the problems of trends, ages, immanent structural malfunctions, human behavior, etc., and showing them in a grim, dark way. Here lies the problem that many readers might get offended or simply disturbed by the way he describes the mentality of whole nations by transporting their wrong ideals by implanting them into the characters.
Completely wrong reaction to the problems described I guess that many haters simply don´t like the fact that he mirrors their thinking and mentality and that´s the worst one could do with those people, because as the old sayings go: "Haters gonna hate" what leads to the wisdom of "Don´t feed the troll." There will certainly be readers too that just don´t like his writing style, but I believe that much of the negative criticism and the reason Boyle isn´t as widely known as he could and should, lies in this dilemma.
Not for everyone This is no fun read, it´s a total downer and close to a fictional, sociological study and something that definitively stays in mind because the topics it deals with are omnipresent grievances. It simply and drastically shows the results of racism and discrimination, unfairly distributed wealth, and the horrible manifestations of it.
Mario the lone bookwolf
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