We All Loved Cowboys

Read for a book club, would not have finished it otherwise. But was greatly helped by Lily Meyer's review. The key that unlocked the book for me was that it "features a difficult protagonist whose myopia belies..."

I struggled to engage with the book. I'll be honest, road trip novels about young women either falling in love or not are not my jam. And Cora, the narrator, seemed so vapid and flighty. Meyer's review helped me understand that was deliberate writing on Bensimon's part, the skill of the novel, so I could read past that and appreciate what the author was doing.

Still not really engaged though. It is a nice dreamy sort of journey novel and some of the scenes and characterizations were interesting. Particularly the revelations about Julia's brother. But overall, it never really grabbed me.

(Beth Fowler's translation felt a bit clunky to me too. Entirely readable, for sure, but a little leaden. Perhaps that reflects the original prose?)