A Blah Book and a Good Movie

I spent the past week slogging through The Jasmine Isle by Greek author Ioanna Karystiani. Oddly, I decided to read this book based in its publisher, Europa, which is known for translating international fiction titles and publishing them in the U.S. They published The Elegance of the Hedgehog, so I thought I've give The Jasmine Isle a try.

I'm not sure if something got lost in the translation or what, but this book dragged and was just completely uninteresting to me. The author tried for a stream of conscious narrative like that of Virginia Woolf, but it just fell flat. I didn't care about or particularly like any of the characters. The main thing the story achieved for me was a sense of boredom that could be said to emulate the boredom, tiredness, and constant state of waiting felt by the female characters who live on a tiny Greek island where all of the men are sailors away at sea for months at a time. I feel like I wasted a week of reading on this one.

So as not to be too negative, I can recommend a really good movie I watched: Ira & Abby.

Set in New York, it's a sweet, quirky romantic comedy that follows a mismatched couple that spontaneously decides to get married on the day they meet. I thought it touched on a few of the same themes as the recent Away We Go (minus the pregnancy and the roadtrip), but in a much cuter, funnier way.