#kathylette

New Post has been published on http://www.tiggerreviews.com/when-plans-go-awry/

When plans go awry

A roller coaster ride for the reader of emotions – from empathy to astonishment to incredulity. And even laughter. But the humour is often dark.

Autism is always a challenge for the carers especially as it is often accompanied by other issues as so well portrayed here, including the inability to judge the appropriate behaviour in social situations.

I am a very patient person. I can tolerate a weak storyline, provided there are good (or at least sexy) characters to make up for it. I can tolerate an excess of description, or an excess of characters, or even a book with too much going on at once. But, what I have recently discovered that I cannot tolerate is when the main character, (as in… you know… the protagonist… who you’re supposed to give a crap about) is so absolutely flawed, has no redeeming features worth noting, and does NOT redeem themselves, even though the ideal situation for redemption does arise. This is what I found with my recent reading of Altar Ego by Kathy Lette.

What annoyed me the most about Altar Ego was the absolute lack of integrity in the protagonist. I couldn’t be on her side, because she was on her own side to such a ridiculous degree that she obviously didn’t need me there, and she wasn’t worthy of it anyway. Every single action she takes is in her own self-interest, and because of that I didn’t want her to succeed. I wanted her to fail; making this the first book that I have ever read that has had that specific end result. There were moments in the text that SHOULD have been positive moments for her as a character, as she, for example, proclaimed her love for Julian. Over and over again. I love you, Julian. I still love Julian. I love him more than anything. And every time she said that, I felt like screaming “No you don’t! You just love yourself! If you loved Julian you wouldn’t be playing with him like he is your puppet for persecution!” The way that Julian is written in this text is as though he is some form of perfect, heroic person. He is a human rights lawyer, he is fighting the good fight, and he’s saving the world. He is polite, well-spoken, educated. And so often, characters that are upper class, educated person are written as a little self-involved, self-serving and a bit of an asshole, but in this text it is the main female character who is self-involved, self-serving and a bit of an asshole, and Julian is just this good natured, genuine fellow. It felt as though Kathy Lette was trying to have a strong female lead who made these decisions that were crazy, fun, and unpredictable, but instead it just wrecked the characters and the strength of the story.