Jan Priddy's Reviews > Slow River
Slow River
by
by
This is not a time for me to be reading a novel about sexual and social exploitation. I am not certain if I might have enjoyed it more in a different year? I have no idea how to rate this. I tried giving it 2 stars, but no. I did not enjoy it, did not like it, or find it "okay."
The novel ends well, but to get to that reassuring ending, I had pass through abuse of children (a major theme), the powerful elite (never appealing to me even when they are nice rather than villainous), and semi-explicit sex that is not remotely appealing, but merely humiliating. Tawdry. Griffith's character works in a sewage treatment plant and finds relief in gardening and decorating her apartment. Yes, the symbolism of filth and finery. Oh! Drug abuse, porn (lots), prostitution, guilt, exploitation, misplaced anger—all that.
I liked the converging triple timeline which worked very well, and even the details of the sewage plant were an interesting relief from bad sex.
[Leaves the "size of canoe paddles" did not quite scan for me the first time I found it here but I skipped past. The second time Griffith used the same simile, I went downstairs and asked my husband. Does she mean the blade, which is not so huge, or the overall length of a paddle?]
I read this because I am a fan of Griffith's and she was celebrating the 25th anniversary of publication of this book. This is not a book I would recommend to anyone, though other readers seem to love it. I can still enthusiastically recommend Hild.
Griffith insists in an afterward that this is fiction. Well, obviously. Set in the future, science fiction and all. On the other hand...
The novel ends well, but to get to that reassuring ending, I had pass through abuse of children (a major theme), the powerful elite (never appealing to me even when they are nice rather than villainous), and semi-explicit sex that is not remotely appealing, but merely humiliating. Tawdry. Griffith's character works in a sewage treatment plant and finds relief in gardening and decorating her apartment. Yes, the symbolism of filth and finery. Oh! Drug abuse, porn (lots), prostitution, guilt, exploitation, misplaced anger—all that.
I liked the converging triple timeline which worked very well, and even the details of the sewage plant were an interesting relief from bad sex.
[Leaves the "size of canoe paddles" did not quite scan for me the first time I found it here but I skipped past. The second time Griffith used the same simile, I went downstairs and asked my husband. Does she mean the blade, which is not so huge, or the overall length of a paddle?]
I read this because I am a fan of Griffith's and she was celebrating the 25th anniversary of publication of this book. This is not a book I would recommend to anyone, though other readers seem to love it. I can still enthusiastically recommend Hild.
Griffith insists in an afterward that this is fiction. Well, obviously. Set in the future, science fiction and all. On the other hand...
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Reading Progress
September 14, 2020
–
Started Reading
September 14, 2020
– Shelved
September 14, 2020
–
19.53%
"The chronology shifts often among three periods, but the author is managing this very well."
page
67
September 15, 2020
–
25.66%
""She leaned her weight into the spade, enjoying the way the steel bit into the black dirt, trying hard not to slice any worms." How "not to slice any worms"? How to try hard?"
page
88
September 17, 2020
–
Finished Reading