594. Trawl

Trawl
B.S. Johnson
1966
Around 210 pages

My library had never heard of this novel, rightfully so, but I managed to find a free audio version of the book. I don't usually listen to audiobooks, but it was a good idea here. I haven't been clicking with postmodernism, so maybe a fresh approach was necessary.

As you might have noticed, I am a fast reader. But the audio version forced me to spend eight hours with this story.  And oh, what an eight hours it was. Our protagonist is on a trawler, deeply seasick, with nothing to do but reminisce about his sexual past. 

Thank goodness I listened to this, otherwise the vomiting scenes would not have been quite so vivid. This is a pretty gross novel, which carries over to the sex scenes. I don't need to know about your lovers' dirty feet, thank you. 

Our narrator is super annoying too, he can't commit to any thought. If you must read this, hopefully your experience is shorter than mine was.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Johnson left school when he was 16 years old to work various odd jobs, but taught himself Latin in the evenings, attended a year's pre-university course at Birkbeck College, and passed the university entrance exam for King's College London in 1956.

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