nicola barker

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so i read 'wide open' last week, and was rather disappointed; i raced through it, and thought the prose was pretty good, but the actual story did nothing for me. what am i missing? i've also got '5 miles from outer hope' lying around, which my two friends who i trust most on matters of literature have told me isn't worth bothering with; anyone care to disagree?

― toby, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well, for me, Wide Open is the best of her books, so if you didn't like that, i don't know if its worth carrying on, as the others are pretty similar. nicola barker is one of my favourite writers and i was captivated by Wide Open, the people i've lent the book to have either also been captivated or thought it was drab and empty

five miles from outer hope is the book of hers that i enjoyed the least, didn't really find anything in that one. if you are going to give another of her books a shot, perhaps Reversed Forecast, thats good too.

― gareth, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For a brief moment I thought this thread was about Nicola Bryant. I am a sad mentalist.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's okay to think about nicola bryant.

― misterjones, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

what captivated you, gareth? i just didn't find much of interest in the characters, and nothing much happened, either. i'm sure i'm somehow missing the point if i say that i found the characters and their actions unrealistic, too, but i did.

― toby, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't know exactly, toby, to be honest. i think i liked the way that not much was filled in, it was kind of sparse, but easy to picture how things were. i could imagine the landscape easily. the fact that it was partially set in sheppey was very apt, and i find places like sheppey (or the wash) fascinating. nothing happened really, i know, and there isn't really any characterisation, but it seemed to conjure up a world very easily. in a way, it kind of reminded me of Piano Magic. sort of.

― gareth, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha i shall ask nicola b next time i see her if "wide open reminded [xx] of piano magic – sort of" represents triumph or disaster, from her perspective

― mark s, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i didn't larf, but i heard dr vick did

― gareth, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i can see what you mean, gareth. in fact i now almost want to reread it already for some reason, so perhaps i should give some of her other books a go.

(also i think the fact that i read it literally straight after finishing mason + dixon may have not left me in the right frame of mind for it, if you see what i mean. whereas now i am reading lights out for the territory which i'm loving - perhaps i am in a dense prose mode).

― toby, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

lights out for the territory is very good, but, be warned, the first chapter is easily the best, so don't hurry through that (maybe that that was about the are closest to me location-wise). reading radons daughters now, and that is as dense as i've read (rivals gravitys rainbow for impenetrability but is more evocative). of course, this is all a polar opposite to nicola barker

― gareth, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

am about to finish the first chapter of lights out, i guess. oh well.

i think i will come back to nicola barker when i've eased myself back to more sparse stuff. thinking of which i caught a few of the beckett plays on c4 over the weekend and felt like rereading them, so perhaps that's the way to go.

― toby, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

beckett is awful

― gareth, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

krapp's last tape is one of my favourite things ever ever ever. as is play. and not i. and... on the other hand i cannot imagine i will ever struggle through "the unameable" or whatever it's called, or indeed most of his prose. or indeed waiting for godot. but many of the short plays are amazing.

― toby, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

hmm, no mention of behindlings! which i liked, but was overlong, and lost focus in the way the earlier books didnt, though it still had something going for it

i started Clear, today, and im underwhelmed so far. definitely feels like a break from previous work (as though behindlings was the flawed culmination of a previous period), and it feels somewhat forced so far (only on page 58 so plenty to go yet though). too many popcult references for me, which is something ive never really liked very much in books...

the funny thing is, the cover. i always judge a book by its cover, and this has the cover of a bigseller, but not the cover of a book that draws me in

but, lets see how it goes...

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 08:27 (twenty years ago)

Hey, I read Behindlings, and Sarah's reading it now. I don't remember much about it but I have a shit memory. I think I enjoyed it but didn't find it amazing or anything.

― n/a (Nick A.), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

eleven years pass...

i am a few chapters into darkmans and enjoying it enormously

i remember i liked wide open, but i can't recall anything about the plot now

― mark s, Thursday, 15 December 2016 18:00 (eight years ago)

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