Finding Myself

by Toby Litt

Book Overview

Toby Litt meets Virginia Woolf meets Big Brother, this novel aims to be the best beach book ever. Naughty, gossipy, with just the right ratio of tittle to tattle, it aims to provide the right amount... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143016857
• ISBN13: 9780143016854
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Hilarious

Do not judge this book within the first few pages. I found it difficult at first to get into but once I did, I was hooked. I have not had such an enjoyable reading experience in quite some time. Victoria, the main character, is so witty, yet completely unaware of it. One should end up hating her throughout the book but I became more and more attatched to her as I continued reading through her "manuscript". Perhaps there is a little Victoria in all of us. Read it, you'll know what I mean.

Underappreciated and subtly complex

While Toby Litt's novel Finding Myself may be a great beach or rainy day read--which it most certainly is--his novel is also a worthwhile engagement with subjects of gender, metafiction, and contemporary British culture. Surprisingly, the paperback cover has lost the best indicator the hardcover copy offered of this complexity--Finding Myself is a secondary title, given to the book by the character-editor after rejecting the author-narrator's honorific title "To the Lighthouse." The homage to Virginia Woolf becomes immediately apparent as the narrative unfolds into a stream of consciousness style. As in Woolf's novel, Litt's narrator is obviously feminine, but with a contemporary twist. His narrator is a 21st century woman--she is brash, sexy, and constantly proving herself to be a strong and independent woman. However, unlike many other beach-read female characters, his protagonist is also quite vulnerable and susceptible to the pressures of her culture and social status. She is simultaneously likeable and contemptable, a complex and well-rounded character. Although Deadkidsongs is a more literary and arguably better book, Finding Myself is my favorite Litt book.

it's catty, bitchy and really enjoyable

it takes a short period to get into the swing of this unusually structured book - the concept revolves around a stream of conscious style diary narration which has been subject to the blue pen comments of her editor - who was herself part of the diary events being recorded.the voice of the narrator gradually reveals the immense ego and pettiness of the narrator, which is one of it's most enjoyable aspects. it's immensely readable and very enjoyable. a great rainy day read.