Bookshop Mountain: Crime & Indiscretion & Bolaño

The coming week gives me a bit of extra time to read, so I've lined up what I feel I can both tackle and finish.

I definitely want to finish the 2013 debut novel Indiscretion by Charles Dubow, which received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews. I'm more than a third of the way in, and though both reviewers claim the book is "beautifully written," I must warn potential readers that it is written in the present tense, which I find jarring. Clipped sentences appear without relief as well. I felt the first 30 pages was so confusing--too many characters roaming about, but if you survive that, the novel continues to improve. I mentioned in an earlier post that I needed some pleasure reading, and, it is enjoyable. The sex scenes, I must say, are very well done--quite hot, in fact. Yet by the time a third of the book is past, I expect whatever depth the book has to offer to be evident. If this matters to you, I don't see it coming, although it would be a welcome addition.

I downloaded the Swedish crime writer Camilla Läckberg's debut The Ice Princess this afternoon. Actually, from what I've gathered so far, this title was her U.S. debut novel. In any case, I've never heard of her, though I discovered that her first six crime thrillers are reported to have been #1 bestsellers in Sweden. Have any of you read Läckberg?

And yes, I still hope to finish Bolaño's The Third Reich! This week!

Why do I have such lofty ambitions? I can dream because I know now I am too sick for my snowshoe adventures. Nothing serious, but breathing is painful--the whole college is suffering from bronchitis. Perhaps the so-called "Spring Break" interruption of classes will help the germs die down.