C
Tom McCarthy
September 2010
320 pages
Published by Knopf
Note: I read this book as part of my panelist duties for the Indie Lit Awards. This review in no way reflects the opinions of other panelists.
***Also, me-mer-me-mer-mer (that’s European for siren going off) – major plot points will be revealed, so read at your own risk.***
You know how I occasionally mention that I don’t like mayonnaise? I don’t like the taste, or the texture, or the smell, or even the thought of what it’s made of (not a fan of egg whites, either). Well, for me, this book is mayonnaise.
The style is not to my taste, I didn’t care for the story (or the lack thereof), the cover is vaguely creepy, and I’m so not into symbolism or post-modernism, which is apparently what this book is made of. Of course, many people love mayo, just as many people love this book. In both cases, I fail to see the appeal. In fact, by the time I got to the end of C, I was scratching my head, wondering what the point of it all was.
The best way I can think of to describe this book (other than as mayonnaise) is sex and drugs, but no rock and roll. Our main character, Serge Carrefax (C…get it?), does a lot of both (and not very attractively, either). And I’m sure he would’ve been into the rock and roll scene, had this book not been set in the early 1900s.
I struggled through the first 60 pages of the book, which describes the minutiae of Serge’s childhood. His mother is deaf and his father is an odd duck, who runs a school where he teaches deaf children to speak. Serge has a brilliant older sister that he adores. There is much talk of things I do not understand. Or even find interesting. At about page 50, there is a scene featuring the school pageant, which goes on and on and on. I gave up on the book, because the story was going nowhere, the pageant bored me to tears, and the writing was driving me batty. However, Ti told me it gets better (both the story and the writing) at about page 100, so I picked it back up and soldiered on.
And it’s true. The writing clears up, and I no longer felt like I was trudging through mud (well, there were a few relapses, but overall, it was way more readable after I was tortured with the pageant). Serge goes to war, which was mildly entertaining, has a few orgasmic experiences with drugs (and I’m being literal when I say orgasmic experiences) (also, there’s cocaine, which also starts with a C. Gee, isn’t that special?), becomes a prisoner of war, where he likes it when he’s assigned tunneling duties as it gives him privacy to jack off, and then returns home.
From there, he attends college, gets involved with a girl who likes to attend séances, does a heck of a lot of drugs, gets totally wasted and crashes dear old dad’s car.
Then he’s sent to Egypt, to do something involving radio communication (more C’s!). He has a final one-night stand in a tomb (yes, really) where he gets bit on the ankle (serves him right). Then he has bizarre dreams involving insects and incest. And then he dies.
And I wasn’t sorry, at all. Does this make me a bad person? If so, I think I can live with that.
I never did feel engaged by the story, or sympathetic towards the characters, or even impressed by the writing. And I know I’m being harsh, but honestly…mayonnaise.
Yeah, doesn’t sound like it’d work for me either. On the bright side, I’ll bet that’s the shortest title you’ll read this year, like M was for me last year.
I have suspected for awhile that I would not like this book at all, and you’ve just confirmed that. Plus, I am a mayo hater all the way.
I agree about mayo. It tastes good on tuna, but if you really think about it and its consistency, it’s kind of gross.
It sounds like this book went nowhere, and took a long torturous route to get there. Not a book for me, I think, but as always I appreciate your candor and honesty!
There is just something about this cover that puts me off reading it. Thanks for enduring it so that we don’t have to.
I suspect this book would be mayonnaise for me as well. (I’m not a mayo person either.)
Hmm. I was in a quandary because I was intrigued by the cover of this book and the title gave nothing (and I mean NOTHING) away, but then you said in your review you would give away spoilers. Luckily, I was able to glance at some previous responses and it seems like the book’s a dud. Whew, money saved
That cover is creepy. The books sounds icky … not like something I’d want to read.
I totally dislike the cover and I am a Miracle Whip girl.
Nah, not my condiment of choice.
(Actually, not true… I do like mayo now but didn’t like it much until being served fresh mayonnaise on fried potatoes in Belgium. SOOOOO good!)
But I am going to skip this book. Thanks for the warning.
I didn’t read the review between the mer-mer-mer of the European sirens and the last sentence. The cover of this one already made me not want to read it, and from the tiny bit of your review I read that feeling only got stronger. I suppose, if I’m never going to read the book, I should just read the whole review, but…hey, you never know!
C also refers to carbon which is the backbone for all forms of life. :0
Ummmmmmmmm. I think the mayo may be the only redeeming part of this book. How ODD.
The cover is totally creepy — as creepy as mayo.
And I think I’m passing on the ole C
Well, I love mayo (I think it might be my curse, the way my weight is going) but I am really not a fan of post-modernist writing. I disliked it in college and I dislike it now, ten years later. So I don’t think I’ll be reading this book any time soon.
Excellent review and enough about the book for me to know it is peeps. (yes peeps – that horrible candy given out at Easter). Peeps to me are like mayonnaise to you.
That cover totally freaks me out too! It’s put me off so much actually that event though I’ve seen it on my best of lists I think its probably a little to existential for me and now your review confirms that for me.
Okay, here I am showing my weirdness. I really like the cover. I think it’s wonderfully creepy and dark and horrifying.
I bought this one from England before it came out here, and I much prefer the British cover. I liked this one, but I think my expectations were quite different going in. I really enjoyed reading it with others crazy enough to attempt to tackle the Booker lists, but I imagine if I read it outside of that group it would have affected me differently. I liked the challenge of this book, but there things I hated about it. Regardless, I do not think this novel has mass appeal and really only delights self-referential nerds (of which I am sometimes one:-)
I’ve been creeped out by the cover whenever I see it, as well. Since it never looked like one I’d want to read, I went ahead and read the plot summary. Now I’m convinced it’s not a book for me.
I’m not a mayo-by-itself fan myself; it’s only ok if mixed with other ingredients!
I liked the cover, HATED the book. In fact, I thought that I was very witty in my review for a print publication when I said that C stood for the grade I was giving it:)
There was little story. The character was not interested in anything around him, so why should I have been interested in him? None of the characters were fully developed, especially Serge. He was like a really ugly, perverted & drug addled butterfly, flitting through life, but never really experiencing it. BLECH.
I saw that this book is like mayo to you, but that’s where I stopped reading. It’s high on my e-book wishlist, so we’ll see how it goes!
I read only your first paragraph or so, just in case I ever do decide to read this one. But based on what I did read, I don’t know that that is ever going to happen. Even if I do love mayonnaise.
So what you’re saying is Sex + Drugs – (rock and roll) = Mayonnaise.
Mayo grosses me out.