I'll Go to Bed at Noon Book

I wouldn't bother reading this if you're looking for a primer on alcoholism- that seems more like a marketing tactic than an important feature of the novel. Yes, there is plenty of addiction here, but it'll be incomprehensible if you haven't read 'August.' A lot of reviewers, as with August, complain that 'nothing' happens; that there's no character development; that the characters are unsympathetic. Just to be clear: what exactly is meant to happen in a novel that doesn't? There's death. There's love. There's adolescence, aging and divorce. There's worrying about the place of art in the modern world. There are money issues. The narrator doesn't tell you what's happening, you have to think about it for yourself, but there's very little that isn't very well motivated- except for those actions which are important because they're unmotivated. On top of all that, the writing is exquisite. If you eliminated the subject matter, this is what Jane Austen would be writing in the 21st century: amused and ironic stories about dreadful, awful events acted out by a cast of fools who are frighteningly realistic. If this and August had been one novel, it'd be the best novel I've read this year.