Thursday, August 11, 2005

A Certain Chemistry, Mil Millington

Title: A Certain Chemistry
Author: Mil Millington
Rating: OK

Just completed this one. It wasn't what I'd expected to read next -- I still have 2 others going on as well and thought I'd finish one or both of them before moving on to this book. Ah well.

Without spoilers, it's the comedic story of an author going through an affair. It is funny, and reasonably well written, though at times it borders on pornographic, and it certainly doesn't skimp on the profanity. For me it was a real challenge to read because I am too empathetic with the main character. Not that I'm going to have an affair or anything like one, but I still found the situations that the character was put in very uncomfortable. My reading behavior was strange here. Often I'd read a few pages, and then put the book down, unable to go on for a while, thanks to the continuing torment the main character suffers. I empathize with many main characters in novels, but this was worse for some reason. Perhaps because it felt closer to something that could actually happen than most of the other novels I've read lately

In any event, the book is amusing, particularly the interludes between some of the chapters. Millington has a way with words and certainly does his best to keep things true to life. If you want to know more about him and his writing style, you can check out his web site:

http://www.mil-millington.com/

What you'll find there is very funny, though less well edited. He's famous for the page "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About." He has a novel of the same name, but (apparently) different content, which I will try reading in the not too distant future.

If anyone else reads this book, I'd really like to know what you think of it.