BRAVE NEW WORLD (Aldous Huxley) - May 31/18

I enjoyed the first and last bits of this novel, but the midsection, detailing the "savage" and his origins, is so dull I was glazing over whole pages. But I definitely thought Huxley created a very interesting world, and the long monologue at the end explaining how and why everything works was pretty fascinating. **1/2 out of ****

ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS (Elan Mastai) - May 19/18

I really enjoyed large swaths of this book, even though Mastai has a predilection for going way over board in terms of describing things. He'll spend chapters explaining just how all this fake technology works or describing the hell out of his futuristic society. But at the heart of the novel is a story that's really interesting and stuffed with well-developed characters. I was absolutely riveted by the stretch in which Tom was forced to travel back 51 years *in real time*! (The Jaunt!) But Mastai kind of fumbles the climax by complicating things to such an extent that I couldn't really follow what was happening (the three personalities were fighting for control or something, I dunno). Definitely excited to see what Mastai gets up to in the future. *** out of ****

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS (Arundhati Roy) - May 12/18

Sorry, Sayward. Nope. This is way too flowery and descriptive for my liking. Roy is just flat-out in love with her writing to the degree that narrative and character development is non-existent. It's the literary equivalent of masturbation. There were maybe two or three stretches I actually enjoyed - eg one of the kids is molested - but on the whole I found this rather torturous. And I never was able to figure out which character was which. * out of ****