Doug Bradshaw's Reviews > Katerina

Wow, a bit of a crazy, intense, wild ride. This was my first James Frey novel and I have to say, I loved it. I had to laugh as I scrolled through some of the reviews. This is one of those books that is either a 1 star or a 5 star read and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who cringes at the eff word or who isn't comfortable with a sexually explicit scene. There were many of those. Here's an example of the intense writing:

“More than anything, I dream of love, crazy crazy mad love. Not the love of rings and white dresses and churches, but of lust and insanity, the love where you can’t stop touching, kissing, deleted ...... The love that breaks hearts, starts wars, ruins lives, the love that sears itself into your soul, that you can feel every time your heart beats, that scorches your memory and comes back to you whenever you’re alone and it’s quiet and the world falls away, the love that still hurts, that makes you sit and stare at the floor and wonder what the fuck happened and why. I dream of crazy crazy mad love the kind that starts with a look, with eyes that meet, a smile, a touch, a laugh, a kiss. The kind of love that hurts and makes you love the pain, makes you want the pain, makes you yearn for the effing pain, keeps you awake until the sun rises, stirs you while you’re still asleep. The kind of love you can feel with every step you take, every word you speak, every breath, every movement, is part of every thought you have every minute of the day. Love that overwhelms. That justifies our existence. That provides proof we are here for a reason. That either confirms the existence of God and divinity, or renders it utterly meaningless. Love that makes life more than just whatever we know and see and feel. That elevates it. Love for which so many words have been spoken and written and read and cried and screamed and sung and sobbed, but is beyond any real description of it. I’ve known much in my short, silly, unstable, sometimes wonderful sometimes brutal always reckless wreck of a life, but I’ve never known love. Crazy crazy mad love. Fear and pain, insecurity, rage, occasional joy, fleeting peace, they are all friends of mine. Kindness and familial love have always come my way. Disdain, contempt, and rage are constant companions. But never love.”

The book is set mainly in Paris in 1992 where Jay, a 21 year old, visiting from the US for a year, is trying to write his first novel while he runs around visiting art galleries, getting drunk, dating a multitude of girls, makes a few close friends, gets into fights, passes out many times in the streets and rants on and on about life, not wanting to be the regular person who subscribes to the expected way of life, college, marriage, debt, job that isn't great, etc.

I loved some of the rants and wished now and then that I'd had experienced some of the wild ass things he did in his youth.

I'm not going to five stars because it felt a bit too repetitious, the same activities over and over again in slightly different settings.

I look forward to the reviews of the few brave souls who decide to tackle this piece of work.