THE TIGER'S WIFE (Tea Obreht) - April 21/11
Jesus Christ, what an ordeal. Though technically well written - who cares, though? - The Tiger's Wife is an absolutely interminable novel that just limps along from chapter to chapter without even a hint of momentum. The wafer-thin protagonist remains hopelessly underdeveloped from start to finish, as Obreht instead emphasizes a series of dull, incredibly stupid short stories that aren't interesting in the least. Every single paragraph in this infuriating book is overwritten to an almost absurd degree; Obreht needs to learn about flow and readability. What an ordeal. 1/2* out of ****
posted by David @ 4:48 PM
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The Tiger's Wife is the story of Natalie, a young doctor in the Balkans, who has been raised in awe of her brilliant grandfather. As she was growing up he would often take her to the zoo to visit the tigers. Much later she is traveling across a war torn region to bring vaccinations to an orphanage when she learns that her grandfather has died under strange circumstances. When she begins to investigate improbable and magical stories of the tiger's wife and the deathless man begin to surface.
I found it a very sinister series of stories, many of which had no redeeming value other than in some cases being derived from myth and folklore and some making good use of black houmour. The author seems to have found a creative outlet for extreme anger, but she punishes her readers with it.
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