All about me

Actual review 3.5 stars

I was interested to read some of the criticisms others had of this book. One was that there were too many characters for the reader to keep track of. It's true, there's quite a few characters. However, other books have numerous characters (The Lord of the Rings and The Luminaries to name a few), and I've never heard anyone say those stories have too many characters.

Another criticism was that the characters were simply caricatures. It's true, there aren't many fully formed characters in this book. But these characters represent our many human foibles. Added to this, the book isn't steeped in realism, but rather a stylised hyper-realism, not just in terms of the characters, but also the plot. So it made perfect sense to me that the characters were more like parodies. In this way Ham was able to employ a sense of the absurd to tell her story and illustrate her themes.

Some readers also were disappointed that Tilly seemed perfect. For me she is the pivot around which the story revolves, so she is always going to be distinct from the other characters. This is emphasised by the misfortune visited upon her.

I started to conceptualise the story as a tale about a single organism, the characters all representing different parts of a whole. If you think about it like this, the way Ham drew the characters makes sense. And it also gives an added dimension to the themes she alludes to, especially those of inclusion, exclusion, acceptance and conformity. When seen in this light, the reader is prompted to think of these themes not just in terms of how they relate to others, but how an individual deals with those parts of themselves that they don't like.

One criticism I have of the writing is that some of the passages don't really conclude satisfactorily. I recall a few passages that I really enjoyed and then they suddenly ended without any sort of resolution. A few times I felt like I was left hanging, almost like an anti-climax. However, there were many other passages that Ham managed to conclude deftly.

All up, I enjoyed this off-beat tale of human foibles. I found myself giggling not just at the characters, but at how they reminded me of some delightful and not so delightful absurdities of people I know and love, and also my own oddities.