Grasshopper Jungle

by Translator Andrew Smith

[empressbrooke]

Two stars is a REALLY generous reflection of my response to this book. At the half-way point, I was very firmly in the 2-stars camp. As I pushed my way through the second half of the book, I was feeling pretty certain I was going to 1-star it. There were flashes of cleverness that made me want to like it much more than I did. There were also things in its narration style that reminded me of [b:Catch-22|168668|Catch-22 (Catch-22, #1)|Joseph Heller|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1359882576s/168668.jpg|814330] and [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337996187s/4981.jpg|1683562], both of which I did not like very much.

Ultimately, I just became SO tired of all the talk about being horny and balls and penises and sperm and fucking and masturbating over and over and over and over and over again. And not from any place of feeling prudish, but from feeling exasperated by the very male notion that the main character's penis is just sooooo interesting. Pardon my eye rolling over here.