Rating: 1
Umbrella
A Novel by Will Self
2012 / 416 Pages
The synopsis of the novel was provided in an earlier BookerMarks review, which can be found here. In my opinion, it is not worthy of repeating it, for I say Save Yourselves and Do Not Bother!!!!!!
There is no way and I refuse to waste any more of my time putting further effort in to reading this “novel”, an extremely loose usage of the word at that.
I sincerely apologize to my fellow BookerMarks members if this appears in poor sport, but there is simply no justification that can be made to make me continue reading this title. It is one thing to allow a novel to cross the editor’s desk without a glance and move forward to publication of something so extremely unedited but it is another for it to be chosen for a prestigious award, in this case, the Man Booker Prize. I find it appalling and distressing that this inane pile of text was considered long-list worthy over the hundreds of far superior books that offer a reader the quality of writing anticipated for such a nomination. To me, this is an absolute insult, a slap to my face and I will give this book no more of my time.
Aaron provided a far too kind rating and review in my opinion (you can find that review here). Although he does say to you that Umbrella offers a “challenge” to its readers, I prefer to say to you that I found Umbrella to be an insult to readers (I think I’ve said that already haven’t I?). An absolute insult as the reader is expected to decipher a single chapter, meandering and painfully unedited piece of tripe and gibberish. The premise may seem enticing, and Aaron’s review does makes it sound appealing, but for myself, I cannot endure it, will endure no more of it and will move on to worthier titles in the pile. If this should make the short-list, then I can only think I will have to chew on a piece of tripe, for this is what I feel this title to consist of (and I cannot bear the thought of eating tripe). 1 star from this BookerMarks reviewer.