Customer Reviews

Man or Mango?

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Man or Mango is a twisted little book, full of dark and twisted humor--it's certainly not for everyone, but if you enjoy a bit of black comedy every now and then, you are sure to enjoy this terrific novel. The novel mainly concerns Eloise--a misanthropic recluse given to hilarious rants--and her former lover George, who is just ever so slightly more social than Eloise. The two are former lovers, haven't seen each other in years, and they each live in their separate worlds trying to avoid misery that company brings. Sounds miserable, but it's truly funny. As I said before, not for the faint of heart, but if you can take it, you'll love it.

This is a strange, quirky book by an incredibly talented author. The characters are wonderful, the most alive and unpredictable ones I've read in a long time. The structure of the book isn't traditional or intentionally satisfying, which is refreshing and frustrating at the same time. In all, though, it's quite an experience if just for the way she can turn a sentence.

This book is great for those who like to think about what is going on. Lucy Ellman has a unique writting style that grabs your attention and puts you into the lives of her characters. At the end there is an ending you would not normally expect, but one that is thought to of brought the story to an end.

Ellmann has a wonderful imagination and an ascerbic black humour that is riveting. I like her brilliant use of pastich: the book is full of quotation, allusion, lists, letters, different narrative strategies, including some visual effects. The poetry, for example, is hilarious and enormously clever. It is no mean feat to write such deliberately bad poetry. On the other hand this novel should be, could be, much more than a post-modern bricolage. Why have such an apocalyptic ending when we are already convinced that Eloise's celibate state really is a tragedy for her; her life of fussy despair is more interesting that plate tectonics. I also think that Ellmann is overbrimming with material. Owen and Ellen could be a novel of their own, Eloise's parents and their shuffling off of this mortal coil seem to premise a magnificent story. I think finally that Ellmann should have used these characters in several different and more tightly focused novels. MAN OR MANGO could have been one of those "loose baggy monsters": a 700 page novel which ends up thoroughly exploring the intriguing cast of characters. As it is, characters like the three old ladies, Niamh, and the doctor's family have scant interest for us since we barely have a chance to get interested. This is a time of vapid writing, vapid novels, and one rarely meets a novelist as _smart_ as Ellmann. I will certainly read everything else she has written that I can get my hands on and watch out for her writing in the future. I feel like saying: Lucy, you are TOP of the class, but I KNOW you can do much much better." Is that really fair? Shouldn't I just be happy to have found a writer who really is intelligent, funny, and original? I give MAN OR MANGO five stars, not because of what it ends up doing but because I am convinced that the author could have done it......because she is a five star writer whose book has many many five star moments, although they could be, should be more deftly pulled together.

There's no doubt that Ellman can write-- the prose, poetry, and random lists presented throughout are clever and well-constructed. Unfortunately, the rest of it is quite disappointing. From the disconnected characters, vaporous plot, and after-thought of an ending, the whole book is far from engaging and a chore to work through.

I don't know who writes the critic blurbs that appear on book covers like this one, but I think someone must be having me on about this book.

'Quirky, striking .. successfully portrays her the tortured psychology of modern love' says the Spectator. 'Funny, original and altogether excellent' according to the Literary Review. 'An anarchic lament of such scope and intensity that it has an almost vertiginous quality to it', the reviewer in the Independent says.

I might be living in a parallel universe, or feeling unusually curmudgeonly, or overreacting to all that Christmas bonhomie ... but I resented every moment I wasted on this. I only kept reading to see if it got better - and because I could not believe there was not more after all the impressive reviews. Even more confounding, this was was nominated for Britain's prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction.

There's no doubt that Ellman can write: the interesting and sometimes bizarre lists presented throughout are clever and well-constructed; there are some snatches of well written poetry; and promise in some of the characters. Unfortunately, the rest of it is puerile, pretentious and irritating.

Oh, and a warning: there is gratuitous coarse language which to my mind adds nothing to what passes for the narrative.

I loved the creativity, humor, and intelligence that Lucy Ellmann brought to her task as writer of this book; I just wish the story she told was different, especially toward the end. The first part of the book intrigued and entertained me, but gradually I became restless and even bored. Didn't like the ending. While sections were examples of brilliant writing, others seemed to have escaped an editor's notice. I wished some parts were expanded and others narrowed or even deleted. Book left me on such a bummer that I wished I'd gone through and read only the ingenious, funny parts rather than the depressing stuff in between. Maybe I'm just not cut out for British humor, though....

Eloise had a love affair with an American writer, George, few years back while holidaying in America. But the affair ends when George decided to stay with his wife. The separation left Eloise bitter and disillusioned with men in general. There are a few extravagant characters in the story and they all meet at the closing chapters for an unexpected finale.

The writer borrows various texts, poems, lyrics and statistics from other works, which gives the book a taste of freshness.

There is a high element of British humour about the book but it comes together with a touching profundity. It makes very enjoyable reading. END

Ellmann's prose first captivated me, a mix of rambling world views and well-caught ruminations on minutiae. But after a first half that I couldn't put down, the book soon devolved from a two-person chronicle of life/character study to a sprawling, overly-ambitious take on random acts of senseless disasters and situations a bit too hard to swallow (every character neatly convening at the same seaside resort). There is much beauty to be found in Ellmann's writing, but one ends up longing for the story of the novel's first half to continue, instead of being thinned out to make room for what are supposed to be poetic ruminations on mortality, love, paralytic grief, psychosis, and the narrative embodiment of the earth.

Eloise is a depressed character that acts upon the whims that most people feel at some point or another in their lives- leave society and just give up on love. Her redemption and the story of her hermitude make for an interesting read.