Crocodile Soup by Julia Darling

Crocodile Soup by Julia Darling

Originally printed by Anchor in Great Britain, 1998. Reprint by Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Overview: Gert, a curator of Egyptian artifacts, falls for Eva, a worker in the museum café. While Gert’s infatuation with Eva is a thread through the story, she spends most of her narrative reflecting on her childhood and estrangement from her mother.

My reaction: The first adjective I would use to describe this book would be “grubby.” Gert’s tragicomic life is full of grime, neglect, and DETAIL. I loved Darling’s writing, since she used just enough bizarre detail to create a wild picture, but didn’t bog down the story with it. This book is harder to review than others because it really does rely on the reader becoming fond of Gert and her way of seeing things rather than a cohesive, forward-driven plot. (I’m also writing this in a crowded airport as I return from a visit home…) Within a few pages, I predicted to the Lesbrarian that this would be the first “recommended” title I’d read in a while, and I am extremely happy to be right!