Exciting Times is her first novel, an excerpt from which was published in The Stinging Fly by Sally Rooney.
I personally found that to be utterly fascinating. Honestly. In fact, Now longlisted for the 2021 Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction and for the 2021 Women's Prize. Already drawing comparisons to Sally Rooney's work, "Exciting Times," by Naoise Dolan, has many of the familiar tropes of the "millennial . I was more interested in her thoughts and experiences with class than her relationships, to be honest, even as they played proxy for amplifying her feelings around status. The title of Naoise Dolan's debut novel, "Exciting Times," is a clever trick an ambivalent phrase that reads one way in millennial deadpan, an additional way as an . Often when I read a queer novel some of it feels forced; this was seamless. Already drawing comparisons to Sally Rooneys work, Exciting Times, by Naoise Dolan, has many of the familiar tropes of the millennial novel covered: Jealousy and obsession, love and late capitalism, sex and the internet all come whirling together in a wry and bracing tale of class and privilege. In addition to appearing in best selling lists in the original English, it has also been translated into Italian where it has got rave reviews. The prose is interesting; the way Dolan writes the dialogue is natural; the conversations back home with family felt real in a way that many writing about calling home don't. this book is insane because not only does the protagonist have the same birthday as me but also the male love interest has the same birthday as the man i didn't shut up about all of last year. Like New Very Good Good. Ava admires how Julian handles his advantages, how he could calmly note where he benefited from unfairness not self-indulgently like I often did, but factually. As their undefined relationship goes on, she begins to develop her own brand of romantic longing, which begins with a desire for his life of privilege. Here goes apologies if this review gets a bit ranty. I know it's frustrating that any new young female writer must find themselves compared to Sally Rooney. Add to cart. I would have liked for Dolan to explore the experiences of native Hong Kong residentsfor instance, she allude to coffin homes and student protests without going into detail. dynamic. Unfortunately, I cant give this book the raving review I want to because not only is Ava aimless, but shes SO passive-aggressive within her relationships." Victoria, or more commonly Vix, lives in a small house; her brother has muscular dystrophy; her mother is unhappy, and money is scarce. "Telling Time to Minute" contains high-end 3D animations that explain abstract topics visually in detail to understand it more easily. EXCITING TIMES is a joy from start to finish, and the perfect balm for these times-fresh, funny, sharp. I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend if you want to read something thats not the normal style." Aperus are . The more I think about this novel the more it suffers in my estimations.
Omnipresent yet subtle, Hong Kong doesn't overshadow the characters and their struggles in trying to figure out life. New York, I cant believe it was written so geniously by someone so young. @bookcrazyblogger. In Exciting Times, Naoise Dolan's debut novel, the characters have better problems than most of us do. ISBN-13: 9780062968746. Eileen was six years older than me. The story of how this casual invitation turns the two girls into what they call "Summer sisters" is prefaced with a prologue in which Vix is asked by Caitlin to be her matron of honor.
If you like this book that's totally up to you, I just wanted to share some of my own thoug. Title
Naoise Dolan. Again, this recalls Rooney, who uses emails both sent and unsent as a potent fictional technique, and writes in Normal People that the network is a form of intelligence in itself, containing them both, and containing their feelings for each other. Why do you like me? Ava asks him. Since the content is visually instructed, it creates excitement in learning by the users and improves the retention rate to a greater extent which . Its the closest well ever come to telepathy: she realises Edith is thinking about her at that moment, and it changes everything. "Jealousy and obsession, love and late capitalism, sex and the internet all come whirling together in a wry and bracing tale of class . Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer born in Dublin. I hope youll give her debut a tryit was exceedingly worth it!" Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Though this model of relationship-as-power-struggle is hardly new, Dolan brings a fresh 21st-century sensibility to it. But Im going to just get it out of the way, for Naoise Dolan is Irish, in her mid-20s, and her debut was previewed in literary magazine The Stinging Fly while Rooney edited it. Exciting Times is a beautiful novel written by the famous author Naoise Dolan. 'There was something Shakespearean about imperious men going down on you: the mighty have fallen.'. EXCITING TIMES, by Naoise Dolan. Edith Zhang Mei LingEnglish name Edith, Chinese name Mei Ling .
Queer romance. Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan. Fiercely intelligent, brutally funny and written with such heart, Exciting Times announces an impressive new voice in literature. Exciting Times Naoise Dolan. Instead of just a romance or coming-of-age narrative, Dolan dives a bit deeper to probe what we carry into the relationships we form (like our personal politics and gendered expectations) and how those either weigh us down or perhaps end up setting us free., Exciting Timeslost me a bit in the second half with its pacing.
Dolan explores the uncertainty that can come with queer dating in Exciting Times, Ava spending hours analysing Edith's Instagram for clues about her sexuality when they first meet. But the intellectual aura inserted across the novel felt taut and occasionally reaching. Its something I appreciate in memoirs and also in literary fiction. Stars = 4 / 5. Its a brilliantly concise summation of her take on relationships, which she sees as a power game, an ultimately shallow emotional transaction in which the greatest potential benefit might be that you get to move into an apartment better than anything you can afford on your own. Exciting Times is an acerbic tale of sex and love, set in the social media age.' - The Herald Scotland. Here, she grapples with her feelings towards Julian, a rich, witty but largely emotionless banker, and Edith, an ambitious and striking lawyer. GENERAL ROMANCE | I worried this might endanger our friendship, but so far it seemed to be facilitating it., Their friendship eventually moves through phases of awkward flirtation into a romantic affair, taking place mostly in Julians apartment, and in secret, as Edith is not out to her parents. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life--and announces herself as a singular new voice. Results for "Exciting Times" "Naoise Dolan" 12,128 results. Buy Exciting Times: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER By Naoise Dolan. Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In fact, Exciting Times (talk about a misleading title) reads like a dry, emotionless version of Conversations with Friends without the subtle characterization and psychological realism that made Rooney a household name. Despite the chip on her shoulder, she falls in with Julian, an Eton-educated English banker who she enjoys being with because they (supposedly) arent that interested in each other: It wasnt like normal friendships where I worried if the other person still liked me. She moves into his swanky apartment, rent-free, and they have sex. @thefamilybookshelf, "Exciting Timesis a sharp, character-driven story about the complicated relationships of three 20-somethings.. This is it. When Ava leaves Ireland aged 22 to make her own money . In Naoise Dolan's 'Exciting Times,' an Irish ex-pat in Hong Kong lands in a love triangle. If you love prose sprinkled with sarcasm, characters who could use some serious self-improvement, and complicated love stories, thenExciting Timeswill likely appeal to you. If Sally Rooney couldn't write, was more cynical and forgot everything about subtlety and realistic characterisation and dialogue. On a sentence level the novel delivers one perfect zinger after another. "[A] wry, tender debutDolan's smart, brisk debut works as charming comedy of manners, though it packs less of a punch when it comes to class consciousness." Dolan has a great eye and I was poised over my Kindle highlighting witty dialogue and observations more than a few times. She's a long way from her home in Ireland. Yet like many millennials, Ava exhausts the bulk of her mental energy on her bank account. ISBN-10: 1474613446 . She's lost as well as lonely. 256 pages
"Exciting Timesfollows 22-year-old Ava as she leaves Ireland to teach in Hong Kong. So lucky us, really. Theres a certain dry, almost deadpan quality in her observation of the lives of her twentysomething characters the complications of attraction, and the gap between whats felt and whats spoken; calmly articulated self-loathing, and precise capturing of class differences that both authors nail down dead. Dolan writes about some of the social and political changes happening on the island, and its really interesting to consider this novel a time capsule for some of the last, perhaps, 'golden years' of the Anglo-European expat life in Hong Kong. She has been short-listed and long-listed for several prizes, including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. va, a 22-year-old Dubliner living in Hong Kong, describes herself as good at men. 23 year old Ava moves to Hong Kong to escape Ireland. She writes fiction, essays, criticism and features for publications including The London Review of Books, The Guardian and Vogue.Her debut novel Exciting Times was published by W&N in the UK and by Ecco in the US in 2020, and became a Sunday Times . In Irish author Dolan's debut novel, 22-year-old narrator Ava relocates from Dublin to Hong Kong to teach grammar at a school for English-language learners. At some point, the millennial-ness of it all became too much for me and I felt my eyes glaze over a bit. Its a brilliantly concise summation of her take on relationships, which she sees as a power game, an ultimately shallow emotional transaction in which the greatest potential benefit might be that you get to move into an apartment better than anything you can afford on your own. Emotions are dealt with baldly, dryly: Anyway, I hated her, says Ava about Victoria, a moneyed friend of Julians.