Reviews for Clinical effects of ageing

The average rating for Clinical effects of ageing based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-03-10 00:00:00 Lynn Roberts Although at first I thought this was going to be a five star book and it won the Whitbread Fiction Prize, it ended up being a four star read for me, but was still very good. This story is structured like a 12 bar blues (twice) with a prelude and a coda. Although most of it is set in the early and late in twentieth century, some of it is much, much earlier. It's a true blues story; poignantly tragic with some beauty interspersed here and there, and a story involving fate, tragedy and sorrow. It is set in Africa, New Orleans with smatterings of things in England, New York and Chicago. It interweaves the history of the origins of jazz in much of the part of the story about Fortis (aka Lick) and even includes some fictional scenes with some real jazz legends. It involves witch doctors, chieftains, prostitutes, singers, pimps, and of course Lick with his cornet. But his nickname doesn’t necessarily arise from where you think it might. Given that this was Patrick Neate's debut novel, I think it’s possible that he has written better novels following it. Whether or not I read them won’t depend on whether or not he can write; he certainly can. Rather, it will depend upon whether or not they are all as tragic as this one. Recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-12-23 00:00:00 Thomas Tames so far? preachy and weird. but i love new orleans music so i'm not going to stop reading it yet ... ... didn't stop reading it, and the preachiness never went away for me. i got so irritated at one point that i decided to underline every effusive and unnecessary simile and metaphor. gave up after a page, realising i'd set myself quite the arduous task. another arduous task i've recently set myself: writing about the blues in new orleans. i do know how difficult it is to do well, so fair play to him ... to a point.