"My Absolute Darling" Is Absolute Rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first thing I have to say is, "Celeste; get over it."  All this talk about how read "My Absolute Darling" in one sitting, staying up till midnight, even though she had an early flight, because she simply could not put it down!  Come on, now!!!!!!!!!!

Then, Stephen King goes on to say how Martin Alveson, admittedly one of the most despicable characters in recent American fiction, is comparable to Harry Powell in "The Night Of The Hunter," so memorably played by Robert Mitchum, in the movie based on the Davis Grubb novel.  Come on, Steve; Harry was a terror, but there was wit and humor behind him too, that made his evil all the more menacing because there was fun and some humanity behind it.  Martin Alveson is just a mechanical brute; where is the fun in this????????????

I have some questions for the first time author, Gabriel Tallent.  As to your last name, you may have some talent, darling, but it was not served well here.  The second is, is this guy straight?  His biography says he was raised by two Mommies, so you know what that means, girls, but then his web photo shows him mountain climbing with a rock hard body, which looks like he is trying to channel James Franco in "127 Hours."  Come to think of it, there has always been ambivalence about James' orientation, too.

But I am convinced Tallent is straight, because,  as I  have discovered from the amount of fiction I have read, whenever he mentions--and he does a lot in this novel--a woman's private parts, he always uses the "c" and "p" words.  Must I spell them out for your dears?  I don't think so.  They are revolting.  

And straight male writers always use them!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, then, is this novel, which goes on twice as long as it should--417 agonizing pages!!!!--in detailing the story of Julie "Turtle" Alveson, the daughter of a survivalist nut, whose wife killed herself when she discovered her husband was in an incestuous relationship with their daughter, which neither father or daughter can seem to extricate themselves from, because both are sicko and not at all sympathetic--is said by some to be a masterpiece????  Let me tell you; I could not wait for Turtle to kill Martin; a really nice guy, who not only screws his daughter, but abandons her, when he notices she is "aging out," and so he picks up a ten-year-old girl--that's right!!!!--named Cayenne, for said purpose!  By the time Turtle does finally kill Martin, on page 390. just twenty seven pages from the end, when it should have been a good one hundred pages before, it was like the climactic shootout between Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones in "Duel In The Sun!"  And just as protracted!

 Which the entire book is.  I cannot believe this even made it to the "The New York Times 100 Most Notable Books Of 2017" List.  It makes mine for Most Time Wasted In Reading.

I don't give a damn if Mr. Tallent is straight or not.  Nor do I expect him to write "Anne Of Green Gables."  But I do expect him to give his characters more than one dimension, and to clarify uncertainties, like Turtle's pregnancy--or did all her misadventures result in a miscarriage, which would have made sense? But tell us, please!!!!!!!!!

I swear, I read every single word, but it was not a pleasure.  Either Tallent is too inexperienced to go to the dark places he hopes to explore, or he does not yet understand shading.  

This will have to wait for his next book.  But will I read it?

On the basis of this one, I cannot be sure!!!!!!!!!!!!