Name all the Animals III

We finished Name all the Animals over the weekend and are supposed to report on it. My report is on the characters, namely Alison, Roy and Terri. The author(and main character) makes the characters very realistic since they are real people and all the things they said were said in real life, giving them a very down to earth feel. They might jave been real, but I didn't really like them.
Alison, who is the main character, I found annoyingly non-productive. She never really grew as a character, simply going from normal to depressed to normal again. She was also horny as hell which I found somewhat uncomfortable. She didn't really do anything for me.
    Roy, who is dead, is a complicated character because you never really get to know him. He lives only in her memories and those memories are usually about good times, so he strikes you as a good guy. I'm sure he was a good guy, but it was odd having a character that you never heard anything bad about. 
   Terri, Alison's girlfriend was a main character, but you didn't really see into her head. Most of the scenes with her were riddled with Alison's insecurities. She isn't very insecure like most girls her age and she feels very new age to me(not that that's a bad thing). I found myself being disappointed with her when she got a new girlfriend out of the blue like she did, though. All in all, I wasn't a huge fan of the characters but I didn't hate them either.

Name all the Animals II

We were asked to be specific in this post, to write about the writing instead of the plot. Well, I like the writing, it's very personalized and not as sad as The Bell Jar. She uses a lot of details for her scenes and she really describes everything, which seems impossible, since it was years ago. She also uses pretty vivid images to descibe how she's feeling or how Roy is feeling. The way she wrote about Roy, like he was still alive, yet not, was interesting and I liked it a lot.

Name all the Animals

     So, this isn't an awful book, but I'm not loving it either. Part of it's my fault, I'm sick of sad stories, but I don't really enjoy memoirs all that much. The character is annoying and her family is even worse. I also ruined the book for myself by reading the author interview and realizing that(spoiler alert!) she falls in love with a woman. When ever a female character entered the story I was wondering if it would be her. I was also disgusted with her when she has sex in a nun's room. What is she thinking?
     It is kind of interesting in that it takes place in Rochester and I know all the land marks she mentions. It gives an interesting account of Mercy life, one I'll never be able to experience myself but will always wonder about.
    All in all, it's not a bad book but I don't really like it.