christa reviewed Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
bummed to be disappointed
3 stars
I really enjoyed garth greenwell's past work, so I was excited when this came out. I was just kind of annoyed by most of it, though. It's much closer to my own experience than his past writing (takes place in a hospital in iowa in early days of the pandemic), and I think that that closeness gives me a different perspective on his perspective. it felt too close in time and experience, it was somewhere I didn't really want to be, and it didn't feel like it revealed much to me. also I think I'm just viewing his work in a different light since he came out in support of hachette in the internet archive suit, and having something close experientially puts a point on that difference of our political perspectives. because I feel like I'm being very vague - I think this mostly felt annoyingly liberal, and that was …
I really enjoyed garth greenwell's past work, so I was excited when this came out. I was just kind of annoyed by most of it, though. It's much closer to my own experience than his past writing (takes place in a hospital in iowa in early days of the pandemic), and I think that that closeness gives me a different perspective on his perspective. it felt too close in time and experience, it was somewhere I didn't really want to be, and it didn't feel like it revealed much to me. also I think I'm just viewing his work in a different light since he came out in support of hachette in the internet archive suit, and having something close experientially puts a point on that difference of our political perspectives. because I feel like I'm being very vague - I think this mostly felt annoyingly liberal, and that was irritating mainly because the book felt so close to memoir.