The View From Sari's World

How do you read a poorly written ARC?

As a reviewer I come up against this problem now and again. When I receive an ARC I do expect to find some grammar and punctuation errors and try to keep my opinions about them to myself; after all I make my fair share of spelling mistakes on a daily basis. But what really irks me is when I receive an ARC that contains poor writing skills. Before a book goes out to even a reviewer there should be someone who has read it first, checking to make sure the book makes sense and is readable.
I bring this up because a few days ago I received an ARC from Harpers titled Proust’s Overcoat. It is the true story of one man’s obsession with collecting things the famed French author had owned. The book is small with only 120 pages but what a mess of a book it is!

In the first chapter the author talks about doing research on Proust for an Italian TV program. She interviews several people who knew him but does not seem to get the story she wants. Then she remembers a calling card she had belonging to a gentleman who collected Proust items. One of her associates goes out and interviews him. So far so good right? Well at the end of the chapter about the interview the author writes this paragraph “Early the next morning I was awoken by a ringing phone. It was Tosi, polite, discreet, to the point.’ I found the calling card. Guerin, the fellow’s name was Jacques Guerin’”.

What? Wait, Tosi already recanted his visit with this collector. Shouldn’t this paragraph come before the visit? I re-read the chapter thinking I may have missed something, but no, I did not. The flow did not make sense. Surely this was a mistake in the flow. I wondered how this got passed the first round of editing.
As I read on I found myself comparing the writing to a bad college paper. The author jumps from subject to subject and person to person without a break in chapters or even a break in paragraphs! I had to stop reading as it seemed the author tried to put in as much information in 120 pages a humanly possible without worrying if it made sense or if anyone would really care; by page 40 I found I did not.

So now I have a dilemma, do I review it based on what I read and criticize the writing or do I skip it all together? Dear Readers, what do you do when faced with a poorly written Arc?

Always say goodbye to your loved ones and a World Cup highlight

Today started out great; the kind of day you look forward to. Maybe I got enough sleep, maybe the nice weather is putting a spring in my step. I don’t know why but I felt great as I bounded into work. Too bad it did not last.

When I walked into work I was confronted by co-workers who looked sick with worry. It turns out there was a bad accident on the local highway and four employees had not shown up yet. Two people died in the accident, and all four employees used that stretch of highway to get to work. Our population is small , and with four missing employees chances were good that at least one of them may have been involved in the accident. After a few tense moments all four called in; three sat in traffic while one had turned around and gone home thinking the highway would be shut down for hours.

I know accidents happen all the time, but today it really hit me. It could have been anyone of us. Imagine leaving for work, saying whatever trivial things we say to our loved ones, planning your day then bam, gone; gone in a second, gone because someone else made a small mistake, leaving behind spouses, parents, children and close friends. It shook me up as I realized I did not say goodbye to my son this morning. I felt for those who died and those they left behind.

When our fourth employee finally showed up she was upset too but for a personal reason. Because she turned around and waited two hours to come in her boss told her she had to make up the time or use up some annual time. All morning she complained about this and pouted as she did her work. Since we are friends I reminded her that two people from our community had no more time to make up. I wanted her to see the issue in a different way. Sadly, she would not snap out of herself absorbed, self made problem. Had she stayed in traffic she would have only been a half our late. I do not know why, but sometimes we become so focused on our problems we forget they are usually small compared to others. I made a mental note to always say goodbye to Alex just as I always say hello when I get home. Please dear Reader, do the same. Keep in mind we could be gone at any moment by no fault of our own.

Now for something light. In case you missed it the World Cup match between England and the US I give offer this entertaining highlight.

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