Serious Sweet

Oddly, a book that seems to work both because and in spite of its incessant stream-of-consciousness passages.A slow starter that carries you for awhile on insight and humor alone,but as always, Kennedy cuts like a knife. Meg, perimenopausal, a former accountant--bankrupt, bad combination--and recovering alcoholic, works at an animal shelter, struggles through the day, each moment an attempt to regain her footing. Jon, 59 and divorced, is leaking government secrets from his job, and has otherwise employed himself writing affectionate letters to needy women: "Expressions of affection and respect delivered weekly." Meg sees his ad. "They [the letters] had seemed a necessity, not a luxury or a risk." A bit of a slog at times, but with show more rewards.

"I am in progress. What more can anyone ask? I'm underway." show less

One of those novels that leaves me conflicted. I can see its intent, and how it achieves it, and yet the experience of reading it was not a pleasure.

Two not so extraordinary misfits living lonely lives in the metropolis that is London are slowly drawn together as they reveal their stories.

Kennedy is clearly inspired by Virginia Woolf, not solely by the twenty-four hour timeframe, but in her use of stream of consciousness. There is a quiet relentlessness in her telling which will leave the reader with an authentic sense of the damaged, dry lives of Jon and Meg, which suggests a successful telling, and yet, and yet... I felt the thing that would have given me a more rounded experience as a reader was a counter weight.

I'm far from a show more reader who only wants happy clappy material (I rarely read such writing), but this novel felt burdensome. A slog. Even when I was agreeing with some of the social comment. It left me frustrated and dissatisfied.

As a reading experience I would give it ** as a writing experience it is ****. Flawed because it didn't draw these two functions of a novel together for me. show less

A weird book. Our two protagonists share the stage, but the balance seems tipped towards the more boring Jon, a civil servant motivated by, er, well... it emerges late on, out of nowhere, and comes to nought. Meanwhile, Meg is far more interesting and her dark past, hinted at from the outset, is revealed in a far more realistic and logical manner. The vignettes of London life throughout are great, but the reason for their inclusion - again, explained at the end - seems contrived. Kennedy captures London, and loneliness, but I was infuriated by too many things to really enjoy this fully.

Jon is a middle-ranking civil servant, unhappy in his personal and professional lives. Meg is bankrupt accountant eking out an existence as a admin worker for a charity. Both are inherently nice people but neither is a wild character and both have flaws. Over the course of a day the novel follows Jon and Meg in their separate lives and as they meet.

There is a lot to like about this book, the premise of following two individuals one the course of a day is reminiscent of Joyce's Ulysses but is set in the here and now. Both characters are not sugar-coated - Jon is a little pompous and Meg a little moany - but that makes the story more believable and the setting in modern day London is spot-on. This book has been short-listed for the Booker show more Prize and it is easy to see why, however that also is its downfall for me. There is not a lot of humour in the story and I find the prose rather overblown at times, that no doubt appeals to literary judges but it detracts from what is essentially a pleasant read. show less

I wasn’t sure if I just didn’t click with this angry experimental novel, if I missed its subtlety, or whether it just needed a serious edit. ‘Serious Sweet’ by AL Kennedy is about one day in the lives of two troubled Londoners, Jon and Meg. The set-up is intriguing. First we are shown a family on a Tube train, the baby daughter is scarred, the family Arabic in appearance. Next we meet Jon, a civil servant. Pages are dedicated to his rescuing of a baby blackbird tangled in twine. At first, I was touched by the delicacy of his situation and the anxiety of the hovering mother blackbird. Then I became bored with Jon’s internal monologue. Thirdly, we go with Meg to an undefined gynaecological appointment. More internal show more monologue.
The timeline is confusing. Everything supposedly takes place in the course of one day but there is so much remembering of past events by Jon and Meg, separated by short scenes of seeming unrelated people, at times I lost the will to read on. Why did I? Because it is AL Kennedy and I loved her edition of short stories, ‘All the Rage’, so I was prepared to stick with it. But the stop-start stream of consciousness thoughts were often boring and inexplicable. I missed and forgot multiple references. Either the author or publisher or both were not sure how to describe this book – politics (both Jon and Meg rant), self-help, alcoholism recovery, romance or a spy/thriller. I was almost expecting a terrorist bomb. The mystery actually hangs on whether Jon and Meg will meet. They do, finally [at 46% on my Kindle] meet by letter.
It is a long book, 528 pages, which could be so much shorter and tighter. There were moments of clever, beautiful description and thoughts which made me smile, some made me chuckle, but there were others which made my eyes skip to the next paragraph. I finally got it at around 75% and read the last quarter quickly.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

Another fail for the Man Booker judging panel. How on earth this got on the long list, I have no idea. Reading (and carrying) this 1 kg, 500 page monster was not a pleasant enough experience to balance the ton of negatives. It didn't offer me any particular insights into anything. The characters are not presented in a very deep way, and their behaviours are therefore largely inexplicable. It's not funny, it's not emotionally engaging, it's not very serious. But there's a lot of words. The Jonathan Cape editor didn't earn his/her pay here. I gave up at about page 200; I don't have enough reading time left to waste on this.

Received from a Goodreads Giveaway

It took me a long time to read this book. I kept having to put it up and start over. I wanted to enjoy it, simply for the sake of enjoying reading but I found it wordy in place and it did not hold my attention. I did find the main characters likable and there were places where I fully enjoyed it and could not wait to see what happened next but for the most part this was not a book I lost myself in. Unfortunately.