My college friends book club met this past week to discuss The Understory by Pamela Erens.
It was a short book, and the person who chose it finished it before I started and told me she didn’t like it, so I was prepared not to like it when I started reading. It began a bit slow and wasn’t upbeat, but the writing was good and I didn’t think it was that bad.. . .but then, it took a nosedive for me. The narrator of the story is Jack Gorse, a sad and damaged man, who lives illegally in his dead uncles rent-controlled apartment in New York City. He is obviously obsessive-compulsive as he does the same thing every day. He has no friends, nor does he try to make any, constantly rebuffing his only neighbor who wants to have a friendly relationship with him.
The building gets sold and the new owner of the building wants the last two tenants gone, and a war begins with the heat being turned off by the landlord and back on illegally by Jack. The owner sends a young architect to the building to begin plans, and Jack gets enamored with him overnight, and starts obsessing on him.
When the book begins, Jack is just one step above a homeless person, and the author gives you insight into mental illness. Jack was a smart man who finished law school but didn’t want to work or apply himself, preferring to live a bleak existence on whatever he has. I did not like this book, and by the end I would have ranked it as one of my least favorite books of the last 5 years. I did not like Jack at all. He goes from being a weird man to a dangerous one quickly. Jack’s only redeeming quality is his love of books and plants. To add insult to injury the book just ends without giving you closure. When one of our members mentioned she turned the page expecting to hear about what happens, and it was the credits, I told her that her book must have been a recall, because we had 20 more pages—NOT. A good laugh at least.
I could not believe how many people loved this book online and gave it top marks. I have decided that I don’t want to read “literature” but a good book. I don’t want to spend my reading time looking for symbolism and themes—I want to escape. I am not taking a college literature class, but reading for pleasure.
Interestingly enough, Paula in our book club really liked the book. I liked it the least, but none of the others loved it. The best part of the book for me was that it was short. I would not recommend this to anyone. That to me is one of the beauties of book clubs. We all read the same words and sometimes have very different opinions about them.
It was great catching up with each other, especially since we hadn't visited for 2 months--we took December off.
Some other reads I have enjoyed this month was a quirky book called Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, and another quick David Baldacci book. I am also almost finished with the newest Rebus book by Ian Rankin, which are always good. Happy Reading!