Barracuda (urspr publ 2013; utgåvan 2014)

Not a bad read but longwinded and quite pedestrian in places. ( )

Eh.

I loved Loaded and The Slap, but this just read like a mess. As if the author knew what he meant, but it wasn't coming through in the text. Very disappointed. ( )

Die Geschichte hat eine sehr interessante Handlung. Es geht um Danny Kelly, einen jungen Australier mit griechischen und irischen Wurzeln. Mit Stipendium wird er an einer Eliteschule aufgenommen, wo es nur um eines geht: Schwimmen. Daniel ist ausgesprochen begabt und kann sich daher einen Platz erobern, auch wenn er aufgrund seiner Herkunft nie so richtig akzeptiert wird.
Als ihn aber der Erfolg verlässt, nimmt sein Leben eine tragische Wendung, die er erst nach und nach wieder umwendet.
Warum mir das Buch trotz der guten Story und des guten Stils nicht gefallen hat, ist schnell gesagt. Daniel ist unsympathisch und man wird nicht warm mit ihm. Die Geschichte ist nicht stringent erzählt, so dass es insgesamt schwer fällt, Beziehung zu den Figuren aufzubauen. Persönlich finde ich auch den Sex unnötig detailreich. Ich verstehe also, was an dem Buch gut ist, mir gefiel es aber nicht. ( )

At 14-years old, Danny Kelly wants nothing more to swim, to be a champion, and to fit in. While he excels at swimming, the other two goals remain slightly out of reach, which is the conflict of Tsioklas’s novel.

He’s won a scholarship to a prestigious private school, but Danny is from a lower, working-class household. His father is abusive---physically, emotionally, and mentally---while his mother, younger sister, and younger brother think that Danny is the cat’s meow.

Danny knows he has the talent to take him all the way to the Olympics; that’s why he practices four hours a day and puts up with a coach who is almost as warm-hearted as his father. Danny hates his life, and all he wants to do is swim. When he loses an important meet, Danny’s self-loathing reaches a new low. He hates the world and everyone in it. He lashes out on more than one occasion, ending with a prison sentence.

Fast-forward 20 years, Danny, now called Dan, is trying to make a new life for himself and his partner, Clyde. Clyde wants to move back to his native Scotland. Dan goes, but soon returns to Australia. Scotland doesn’t feel right. Although he is still angry all the time, Dan does his best to keep the violence inside.

I almost gave up on this novel after the first 107 pages. Danny whines and carries on like a five-year-old girl. He constantly feel sorry for himself and refuses to let go of any of the negativity which surrounds him. Then I read reviews on Amazon, and decided to give the rest of the book a chance. Oh, yes, I read all 431 pages and through it all I want to tell Danny/Dan to get over it, quit wallowing in something that happened decades earlier.

While other have called Barracuda tender, savage, and blazingly brilliant, I call it whining, full of self-pity, and dull.

I give Barracuda 1 out of 5 stars. ( )

I've come across a number of former teenage elite athletes whose careers have ended before they could achieve what they'd always expected to achieve. And a lot of working class scholarship kids to posh schools. Danny is both of these, as well as being gay, which is a lot to deal with. Barracuda recounts how he grapples with success and failure, love and rejection - and mostly does it badly.before finding some sort of closure in family and caring. It has the usual faults of many books today; an over complex structure that doesn't quite work; a set of unlikely coincidences - and just too, too long. Luckily it's not a complex read...