When I received an email offering me the chance to review a novel that was sort of a yoga love story I jumped at the chance. I loved the name and the idea, but it turns out that I truly madly deeply hated this book. I wanted to send this book back because my feelings about it were so negative. However, if I only told you about things I loved and never mentioned the things I hate - this blog would not be very well balanced and honest.
I only managed to choke down 117 pages of 356. I wanted to stop reading after the 4th line, but thought it would be dishonest and wrong to give up on it so soon. I continued in hopes that I was wrong about this book. Instead, the more pages I read - the more I hated it. Here's a little bit about why.
George Minot must have been traumatized by complete sentences in a past life because there are so few to be found in this novel.The book. Is. Broken up. Random. Punctuation. Makes it. Hard. To read. Bad. Beatbox poetry. It is. Mostly. Incoherent. At first. He. Capitalizes. Every single mini. Sentence. Which only. Adds. To the. Trouble. However. eventually. he stops bothering. with capitalization. Almost. completely. It's like. published brainstorming. Or a rambling. Game. of word. Association.
Once you force yourself to toss out everything you've ever heard about punctuation meaning something - you can almost skim pages to try and ignore the things that make no sense. Then it becomes much more palatable. It's written in the form of flashbacks which I really like in movies. Some just find it confusing even visually, but in written form I found it weird to read.
Now for some specifics of why I could only read this book a few pages at a time because it made me so irate. All of chapter 1 (but not
only chapter 1) reads like it was written by a horny young boy. The protagonist seems primarily focused on the yoga girl thongs, the breasts, and the half-naked orgy-like atmosphere of a yoga class. I think that if everyone read this book it would be a disservice to the men that attend class with yogic intentions. According to this book, "there is nothing innocent about yoga" and from what I can tell it is saying that men come to class purely to ogle and drink in the sex. (Yes, on page 56 there is a long description of how Yoga = Sex.) I'm sure men get turned on in yoga class - the odd boner happens, but they're not there for the sexuality. That's what strip clubs and the like are for. Most men I have spoken to have anxiety about going to yoga class because they are afraid of being seen the way this book portrays them.
The main character of Om Love also spends a good amount of time sounding like a stalker. Imagining connection and relationships that came across as more creepy than cute. I've had a stalker, so I may be overly sensitive to these things; but when I read some of these descriptions aloud - other people independently came to the conclusion that it sounded like a creepy horny stalker man.
A couple sentences here and there were fun - making light of the yoga studio atmosphere we all know and love. Otherwise there was simply nothing here for me.Now I hear that if you read the entire book that there's a really good story hidden in there. The rambling, the sexy thoughts, and the creative punctuation even start to make sense. However, one of the key things when writing a book is making sure you get the readers interest right away. I think 117 pages was more than a fair chance for me. I still don't want to read this book.
For a more thoughts on the book in it's entirety please check out some of the following reviews:Kirkus ReviewsGood Reads ReviewsScoop Post Review
