Airmail- Naomi Bulger

From Goodreads:
Reclusive old Mr. G.L. Solomon's favorite things are single malt whiskey, Steve McQueen movies, and gingersnap cookies. He hates processed cheese, washing detergent commercials, and the way the teacup rattles in the saucer when he picks it up. Solomon has become accustomed to his lonely routine in Sydney, Australia-until the day he begins sporadically receiving letters in his mailbox from a complete stranger.


On the other side of the world, Anouk is a mentally delicate young woman living in New York who insists she is being stalked by a fat woman in a pink tracksuit. When Anouk declares to Solomon that she is writing "from the Other Side," the old man breaks away from his daily grind of watching soap operas and reading Fishing World and travels to New York to find her. As he is drawn into Anouk's surreal world of stalkers and storytelling, marbles and cats, purgatory and Plato, Solomon has but one goal-to unravel the mystery before it is too late.




My take:
It's a short little book. I read it twice, hoping to pick up what I thought I had clearly missed on the first read. After the second read, I came to the conclusion that I either am too dumb to follow the author's disjointed narrative and odd metahporical imagery or the book just didn't make any sense. I'm choosing to believe the latter.




After I posted the above review on Goodreads, I received a very nice note from the author thanking me for reading her book and for giving my honest opinion, even though she was sorry I didn't like it. I tried reading it one more time and still couldn't quite get it, but I am looking forward to seeing what Ms Bulger writes next. She DOES show promise as an author, and hopefully I'll do better with her next book!