I still owe you the reviews of two more Book Club reads from 2018. So today you can read my thoughts on ‘Be my knife’ from David Grossman and soon I’ll treat you to a review on ‘Angela’s Ashes’ from Frank McCourt, the last book club read from 2018.

Be my knife – Summary

This is the summary I could read on Goodreads:

“When the awkward, neurotic and childlike Yair, a seller of rare books, sees a beautiful woman across the room at a class reunion he feels compelled to write to her. So begins a love affair of words between two married, middle-aged adults, dissatisfied with their lives, yearning for the connection that has always eluded them. “Be a knife for me,” Yair writes to Miriam, “and I, I swear, will be a knife for you.” As they peel back their inhibitions, their correspondence unfolds into an exchange of their most naked confessions in a novel that is as passionate as it is spellbinding.”

Be my knife – My thoughts

I will be honest from the start: I didn’t finish this novel… I have only read about one third of it, so I guess if you want a full and honest review about this book, you’ll have to find it somewhere else! I will give you an honest review though about the part I read and believe me… it’s not very nice!

While I am reading a Book Club book, I tend to make notes to make sure I can form a complete opinion on the book. Well, I took another look at those notes to write this review and here are some of the things I wrote down:

Yair: obsessive, stalker, intelligent, egocentric, maniac, married, introvert, eloquent, creepy.

Miriam: lonely, vulnerable, plump, grey hair, sad eyes.

About the book: compelling style of writing which I don’t really like. It leaves too much to the imagination.

(Mind, I only read one third of the book, so above notes were definitely not complete!)

In the beginning I really wanted to know how this story was going to develop. In the part I read, I got to know Yair quite well, especially his character. But I didn’t really get to know Miriam, only some physical features.

I really had to drag myself through every single page… really I found it so boring as nothing much happened in those first 120 pages. I was waiting for a plot twist, but that just didn’t come.

Now I really would have finished the book if I could have gone to our gathering, but I couldn’t go so I just wasn’t motivated enough to read on.

All I read were long sentences with countless phrases and twists… no one who thinks or acts that way… and I guess the part of the book I didn’t read could have been better, but I just couldn’t torture myself by reading on, I’m sorry…

Be my knife – The book club

As I said I couldn’t go to our gathering, so I cannot tell you much about it I’m sorry. I just know that most of the other members didn’t like the book very much either… Only 4 of us actually finished it!

Be my knife – Score

I didn’t give this book a score as I didn’t finish it, but the overall score from the members who did finish it was 6/10.

Have you ever read this book? If so, please let me know what you think about this read. Have you ever read a book you didn’t like? Did you finish it?

Next week you can read about the final book we had to read in 2018 for our Book Club: ‘Angela’s ashes’ by Frank McCourt.

Love, Kathleen