Matthew Norman (1)

In the beginning, I had a hard time getting into Domestic Violets. The protagonist felt a little too crude and eye-rolly for me to particularly care about him, and the humor of the book was clearly meant to be humor, but put me off more than anything. And yet...I kept going. Perhaps because Norman's prose flowed so easily or I was curious where it was going, or perhaps just from inertia. Either way, by perhaps the midpoint, I was well enough engaged that I didn't want to put the book down and had begun to care about the characters despite myself and their floundering ways.

I'm not sure who I'd recommend this book to--perhaps lovers of quirky domestic comedies in general fiction, or literary fiction on the domestic, quiet side of the aisle. In the end, I did rather enjoy it.… (mehr)