Geoff Wyss

I'm glad Geoff Wyss seems to be having some success with his more recent short stories, because Tiny Clubs is not a book anyone would want to have as their main legacy. Perhaps my problem is that it is too similar to Theroux's Elephanta Suite, except Wyss is less cruel and less precise.

Both books suffer from the problem of Bombay. This huge, fascinating city, if handled honestly, would completely overshadow a handful of American travelers and their little problems. To keep their plots and characters moving, the authors reduce the city to a set of predictable cliches.

Can we stop now, please, with the beggars and the Bollywood stars? Bombay deserves better writers. I long for close description, or even moody evocation of the trains, the neighborhoods, the booming power, and the many stories throughout - anything from Joyce to Hammett - whatever the style, just something that gets us closer to the living pulse of the city. Here's a thought experiment: why not set Wyss' novel in Los Angeles with a similar array of outrageous characters, wealth and undocumented poverty, bling, booze and various forms of blindness? What exactly does Bombay add to this novel except an excuse to be vaguely exotic? Perhaps Wyss wanted it that way.

Geoff Wyss seems to know little more about India than his clueless American characters. So, why put them in Bombay? Was it to avoid having to write about a place he or his readers know better? His descriptions do not fall flat because they are generic, but because they are indistinct, and this is true throughout. There are a few moments in this book when the writing could be described as sensual, and they have nothing to do with Bombay, nor even the few sex scenes; for whatever reason, the writing is most liquid and tense when describing cataract surgery.… (altro)

I was hooked by this novel pretty early on--though whether it was the hazy introduction of characters and setting or the gruesome descriptions of opthamological processes that got me hooked, I can't be sure. Wyss has an uncanny ability to make his reader see how the story should be, literally. I felt like I was in a slightly fuzzy, blurred dream most of the time while reading, even though the situations are harsh and the overall feel of the book is a bit depressed. I loved every moment of it, and was only disappointed by the ending. I felt like the story did end too abruptly, but still wish that Wyss would have left off the final part about the movie people in America.… (altro)