The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride is the story of a young girl during her first year of drama school and the relationship she has with a twenty year older man that takes place in London during the mid 1990's.

Reading the synopsis on Goodreads, a few reviews and the back of the book I was convince this was a book I was going to enjoy escaping into. A love story, coming of age in a big city, all the hallmarks of something I would normally not be able to put down.

What the synopsis and back of the book did not disclose is McBride's writing style. Written in an almost string of consciousness method, where sentences are met with phrases met with just a word or two in almost a poetic sort of way. This style of writing, to me, is incredibly challenging. I feel like I have to work hard to "get" the story, let alone understand any sort of deeper meaning that the author intended. Feeling frustrated that I was simply rereading certain sections over and over and not really understanding what was going on, I decided to put the book down for a bit.

Unfortunately the writing style really made it hard for me to finish the book and I hope theres a point later on when I will have the ability to really focus on the reading, possibly rereading and absorbing more slowly what the author intended. Right now, this just isn't the book for me.

Have you read this? I'm curious to read more reviews and see what other readers were able to take away from this book.

Thank you to Hogarth books for the copy in exchange for an honest review!



The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride
336 pages
Published by Hogarth