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A review by jenbsbooks
Eighty and Out by Kim Cano
2.5
Do you ever read a book, and look at the raving reviews and think "did we read the same thing?" I guess it's different strokes for different folks, and people have different expectations and experiences.
I think I felt mislead by the title/premise ... yes, the thought of "taking themselves out" at 80 came up and was mentioned a few times, but that was not really an important part of the book. This was just a straight-forward, chronological life story.
The writing ... it felt like something I would/could do. If(when, back in the school days) I attempted to write a story, it would just fall flat. Like my journal now. All the facts, the who/what/where, but no descriptive writing. In other books sometimes I'll roll my eyes a bit at the overly descriptive language, multiple metaphors and sundry similes. Here? I was actively looking for any! I finally found one " Time passed like a slow-moving train." There was just nothing that evoked feelings/emotions. The "show don't tell" issue? Here "adrenalin coursed through my veins" ... it just seems like most authors would write something more along the lines of "a fire started in my toes and pulsed throughout my body, bursting me at the seems" ... our character hears her sister "shriek with pain" ... when something "from the other room there was a sound like ripping metal that tore at my heart" ...
This was basically a simple life story, starting as a teen and ending as an old woman. There were so many tiny events just dropped in ... why? I mean, if this was an actual life history, but when it's a story, I would like a reason? I don't think these are spoilers, because they have nothing at all to do with the story. Lou seeing a black family's house burn down ... okay, she lives through MLK's assassination and riots, but again, it's a couple paragraphs that doesn't impact her life or the story in any way. I felt like the author was perhaps just attempting to get some black history in to be politically correct? I just wish the events mattered to Lou's story. They don't.
There were a couple of statements nearer the end, that age old "I wished I could go back in time and do things differently" ... I remember feeling some of these same things (the "why is this included?" the writing that didn't really feel sophisticated) with the Middle Falls series ([book:The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver|31286995]) but there, the twist was the MC DID go back in time, relived life and made changes. I think I would have liked that here. What if Lou had gone on that early trip, what she counseled Jeannie differently, etc).
The early years felt odd ... such a stigma on "riding in a car with boys" being such an awful thing, yet we have Jeannie "in love" with an older man at 13. Lou gets very involved at a young age, sex before marriage (the keeping girls out of cars with boys doesn't seem to keep the kids chaste). Jeannie's situation ... just dropped, no impact on the story (why was it even included, just to make readers thing Jeannie/ and Lou are pretty terrible people for lying?) Lou's moments with Juan ... yes, that circled around, but was that really believable? Then let's just throw pretty much everything at Lou, in a story that intimates committing suicide regardless of the situation.
So honestly - I've had some feelings. I don't want to grow old. It's been strong for years and years and it hasn't changed. There's a list of things "to do" before (more requirements/duties, not a bucket list) and then ... I'm good to go. There's such a stigma and suicide, a quick diagnosis and death, dying in one's sleep, just dropping ... not so bad. I guess I was just expecting a LOT more to deal with the thoughts/choice, changing feelings, impacts on others, about the 80 and out. And 80 ... my line is lower.
No proFanity. Some sex, nothing super explicit ("we made love" ... as mentioned above, nothing very descriptive in the whole book). 1st person/past tense ... it felt like Lou (if a real person, but not really a writer) was asked to write her life history in novel form.
I think I felt mislead by the title/premise ... yes, the thought of "taking themselves out" at 80 came up and was mentioned a few times, but that was not really an important part of the book. This was just a straight-forward, chronological life story.
The writing ... it felt like something I would/could do. If(when, back in the school days) I attempted to write a story, it would just fall flat. Like my journal now. All the facts, the who/what/where, but no descriptive writing. In other books sometimes I'll roll my eyes a bit at the overly descriptive language, multiple metaphors and sundry similes. Here? I was actively looking for any! I finally found one " Time passed like a slow-moving train." There was just nothing that evoked feelings/emotions. The "show don't tell" issue? Here "adrenalin coursed through my veins" ... it just seems like most authors would write something more along the lines of "a fire started in my toes and pulsed throughout my body, bursting me at the seems" ... our character hears her sister "shriek with pain" ... when something "from the other room there was a sound like ripping metal that tore at my heart" ...
This was basically a simple life story, starting as a teen and ending as an old woman. There were so many tiny events just dropped in ... why? I mean, if this was an actual life history, but when it's a story, I would like a reason? I don't think these are spoilers, because they have nothing at all to do with the story. Lou seeing a black family's house burn down ... okay, she lives through MLK's assassination and riots, but again, it's a couple paragraphs that doesn't impact her life or the story in any way. I felt like the author was perhaps just attempting to get some black history in to be politically correct? I just wish the events mattered to Lou's story. They don't.
There were a couple of statements nearer the end, that age old "I wished I could go back in time and do things differently" ... I remember feeling some of these same things (the "why is this included?" the writing that didn't really feel sophisticated) with the Middle Falls series ([book:The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver|31286995]) but there, the twist was the MC DID go back in time, relived life and made changes. I think I would have liked that here. What if Lou had gone on that early trip, what she counseled Jeannie differently, etc).
The early years felt odd ... such a stigma on "riding in a car with boys" being such an awful thing, yet we have Jeannie "in love" with an older man at 13. Lou gets very involved at a young age, sex before marriage (the keeping girls out of cars with boys doesn't seem to keep the kids chaste). Jeannie's situation ... just dropped, no impact on the story (why was it even included, just to make readers thing Jeannie/ and Lou are pretty terrible people for lying?) Lou's moments with Juan ... yes, that circled around, but was that really believable? Then let's just throw pretty much everything at Lou, in a story that intimates committing suicide regardless of the situation.
So honestly - I've had some feelings. I don't want to grow old. It's been strong for years and years and it hasn't changed. There's a list of things "to do" before (more requirements/duties, not a bucket list) and then ... I'm good to go. There's such a stigma and suicide, a quick diagnosis and death, dying in one's sleep, just dropping ... not so bad. I guess I was just expecting a LOT more to deal with the thoughts/choice, changing feelings, impacts on others, about the 80 and out. And 80 ... my line is lower.
No proFanity. Some sex, nothing super explicit ("we made love" ... as mentioned above, nothing very descriptive in the whole book). 1st person/past tense ... it felt like Lou (if a real person, but not really a writer) was asked to write her life history in novel form.