Open City

I struggled a bit with this one at first.  It was for book club and I was rushing to try and finish it in time for book club so perhaps that made it a bit harder.  Possibly if I had taken my time with it I would have enjoyed it more.

As it was I found it a bit tedious, pretentious and not very engaging. 

I enjoyed some of the conversations, particularly the political conversations that take place in Brussels.  And looking back now I can see that the book is well crafted and I suspect deserves more credit than I originally gave it.

I guess that overall I just couldn't get away from the feeling that the book, and by implication the author, was taking itself a bit too seriously.  But perhaps I was influenced by the photo of Cole in dust jacket.  I don't know why, and I know it is immature of me, but there is just something about the photo that I really don't like. But I am sure that indicates something wrong with me not Cole.  However, I really like his photography. 

Here's a link to his web site: tejucole.com/
If you want to see some of his photos: flickr - Teju Cole
And if you want to see the one of the most prolific twitter streams I have ever come across: Teju Cole on Twitter