NP: M. J. Hyland

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Has anyone read Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland?  It was short-listed for the 2006 Booker-Mann prize.  Someone gave me a copy and I had to put it down after 50 or so pages because it was so excruciatingly boring.  It purports to be getting into the mind of a 12-year-old boy, but it was stilted and unrealistic, the writing was no more than adequate, the plot was minimal and claustrophobic (I skimmed ahead) and the entire point of the book seemed to be the author's precious, minute observations which were definitely not those of her protagonist.

Have I ranted enough?

Laura