George Minot (1)

On the surface The Blue Bowl is the story of Simon Curtis, accused of killing his father. It is an open and shut case for the prosecution. Simon blamed his father for his mother's death because he heard her exclaim she would kill herself if his father didn't stop drinking; Simon wanted his father's money; when Simon wasn't squatting in his father's Maine house (when his father wasn't there), he was living as ghost with his father in Massachusetts. Maine or Massachusetts, it didn't matter. His father didn't want him there. If his father knew Simon was in either house he never let on. Are you supposed to like Simon? He has no social graces, an anarchist attitude, lazy, barely cognizant of the world around him, tags along uninvited, lies, scams and steals. As the trial progresses you want him to be guilty.
I have to admit, The Blue Bowl was a little annoying. Because of Minot's style of writing I wasn't sure in which house Simon was squatting, Maine or Massachusetts. It seemed like both at one point. I think the death happened in Manchester, Massachusetts and the trial took place in Boston, but then there are all these connections to Maine. Everyone in Boston seemed to have something or someone in Maine. Then there was the issue with the word "like." I am not a fan of repetition. Like is everywhere. Run on sentences are not my thing either. Holy marathon run-on sentences. It is if Minot has so many thought running through his head and, afraid of losing them, spits them out in a stream of consciousness.
I don't think it is a spoiler alert to say that the title of the book, the blue bowl, doesn't really come into frame until the very end of the book.… (plus d'informations)