A First Novel That Did Not Work For Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

       

Don't get me wrong, dolls!  I thought the writing was gorgeous, and I love so many aspects of this novel--from its parodied opening of "Alice In Wonderland"--the best literary riff since Zadie Smith borrowed "Howards End" in "On Beauty"--to the character of writer Ezra Blazer, to his relationship with Mary-Alice, to his interview at the end.

Which brings me to several questions I want to raise that might shed some light on the novel's unusual and puzzling structure.  Like, what does the middle section have to do with anything else?

Near the end, Blazer talks about writing a book that switches structure--with the end at the beginning, the beginning in the middle, and the middle the end--or something to that effect.  Could "Asymmetry" be the novel that he is talking about?  Mary-Alice is a publishing house editor in Manhattan, so could she have been working on this book, and this is the end product?

It makes an odd kind of sense, but I still don't get the story about the two brothers, which goes back and forth in time from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn--yes, girls!!!!!!!!!--to the chronicling of an Iraqu-American family, with one of the brothers laid over and detained in Heathrow Airport, in London, on his way to see his brother in Iraq. What is going on here, from the novelist's point?

How did this connect with the other two sections?  Is this supposed to be a manuscript Blazer never published?  It is the only solution that makes any sense, here!!!!!!!!!

Or, is Halliday, whose debut novel this is, facing confusion about what or whom she actually wanted to write about, and just threw everything in the pot?  

I also wonder how fascinated, or familiar is, with the relationship of writer Joyce Maynard, with J. D. Salinger.  Because, from my side of the star, the coming together of Ezra and Mary-Alice read like a more positive spin on that real life relationship.

"Asymmetry" starts out on a fine note, then takes a puzzling nose dive that does not mar Halliday's writing talent, but fails to inter-connect what she is writing about.  But maybe that is the point of her novel's title.

I admired the work, but it did not satisfy.  Give me straightforward writing, like Jane Austen!

Janie, hon, I will be reading you, soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!