by Hilary Mantel

They sure chopped off a lot of heads back in the day.

Seriously, what can I say after devouring this entire trilogy in a couple of months? This is surely a new classic.

by Junot Diaz

The first section is about Oscar as a young boy – Dominican immigrant, nerdy, overweight, cannot attract a girlfriend. This is the story that grabbed me.

The second section is about his sister Lola – tough, raped at the age of eight and nobody cared, steely, strong, mother hates her, they fight, she rebels. Now I was REALLY into it.

The third section is about the mother’s backstory in the Dominican Republic. It’s all about how the mother has big tits. She has an affair with a general. I couldn’t wait for this section to end, and was starting to feel bait-and-switched. The footnotes were growing thicker and harder to read.

Thankfully, we do come back to Oscar, from the perspective of his erstwhile college roommate and erstwhile boyfriend of Lola. I really liked this character. From here, we bounced around the various characters until the big climax that led to Oscar’s life being so brief.

There was a great deal of violence. I hated how men treated women and how women treated themselves. It did not end up being the book I signed up for and I would not recommend it.