Customer Reviews

The Wig My Father Wore

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

 

 

I found this book very surreal and often times strange. It starts out with Stephen the angel showing up on Grace's doorstep. At times I'd get lost going back and forth from Grace's home life and her trying to accustom to Stephen's presence. Throwing herself into her job in TV broadcasting at a weekly program called the LoveQuiz. Her father is going senile with Alzheimer's. Looking at Grace, she's pretty much has a good solid life.

Through most of her cynical views. She realizes she must take hold of her life and all of it's absurd turns. With Stephen's appearance he explains to Grace he (a former bridge builder who committed suicide) came back to earth to guide lost souls. Soon they both establish a household together. Visits to her parents house and the memories and pictures that are hidden from view. Reminds Grace that her father who she always knew wore a wig. From the time of her parents meeting and the later stuff. All the family reminscences. The time they first got an Aerial. The first time they got a TV. The first night viewing in 1969 with a memorable list of Irish TV programs. Do these bring back memories? Such as, Steady As She Go-Goes (on the night they landed on the moon), Apollo 11, The Riordians on Wednesday night.

The ending is subtle and fluid like the milk she trails on the road to her house. Describes it like making love or dying. Nothing really dies. To a woman it make's sense. Just as the sky is blue. Just imagine that unpredictable revelation like falling in love. Through the complex picture of family, religion, sex, love and redemption is a glowing wit and a vibrant flavor like the blue pattern of a TV screen. This book has everything from parents and love to religion and the weird oddities of life. The author probes every angle with precision. And with a penchant for a zoom lens to focus on the fluid and clever situations. I think it was quite an entertaining and a fun read.

The set-up for the plot was excellent and I loved the ending of the book but the middle was a muddle. Still, the author has a very interesting way of looking at the world and capturing it in words.

This novel makes no sense. Half of it is gibberish. The other half is just not worth reading. Waste of time.

This book was awful! I did not find any humor in it. I found the writing style to be rather elementary. I use to write short stories in a similar style when I was nineteen and had jumped on the whole mock-drepression, no-real-reason-to-be-negative, wanna-be-anti-social grunge bandwagon. I just could not get into her "jaded character" writing style, having outgrown it myself. I didn't see the point of the story (if there was one). I couldn't make connections (if there were any to be made). It was very free-flow, almost stream of consciousness and not interesting in the least. I am sorry I bought it and stopped reading it halfway through when I finally realized that it would not get better. The only reason why I gave it one star is because I was forced to, I was required to give it a rating in order to be able to post my review.

I am sure this is suppose to be a very eclectic novel but really I can't believe what a garbled mess this was. So why did I keep reading? It is sort of like cleaning up your plate. The story had some sort of plot but the telling made little or no sense whatsoever. Some people may find it very clever but I think it just a confusion.

phernominal, the story was so fabulous. i also occasionaly wear my poppa's wig.

I don't know what it is about today's writers; more and more the English language is being butchered through bad syntax, bizarre sentence structure and nonsensical wording. For all of those items, this book takes the grand prize.

Frankly, I couldn't figure out how this book ever got through an editorial process and have come to believe that it must not have been edited at all. You will have a hard time finding a single paragraph that meets the standards of a high school English teacher, let alone the normal standards of professional writing.

Although the author has a wonderful imagination and a good *idea* for a story, the writing standards presented here represent the triumph of illiteracy.