(Drivebycuriosity) - When I like a book by a certain author, I try to read more by him (I guess many do that). I had enjoyed Lawrence Osborne`s novel "Hunter in the Dark" very much (driveby). The book is set in tropical Cambodia, a lush, exotic and dangerous place. So I got Osborn´s novel "Beautiful Animals" (amazon).
The books starts in a different setting: Naomi lives on a Greek island together with her parents, affluent Anglo-Saxon expatriates. She is a spoiled 20 something, ungrateful to her parents who finance her aineance & life style , she is selfish & careless.
Naomi becomes friend with an American tourist, a young woman as well, who is visiting Greece together with her parents. Both women discover a young man who is living on the beach, an illegal Arabian immigrant. Naomi decides to support him - no matter what. This leads to a chain of events (I don`t tell you more. This is a spoiler free book).
Again I enjoyed Osborne´s style. The plot - and the style - reminded my of Patricia Highsmith´s dark novels, especially the "Talented Mr. Ripley" series, but I had a lot problems with Osborne`s characters, especially with the parasitic Naomi, who behaves almost like a little child, extremely naive and does care zero about consequences. Is she the "beautiful animal"?
Maybe Osborne wants to provoke, maybe he wants to draw a dark picture of the spoiled offspring of wealthy families and of the millennials. Maybe he wants to criticize the naive attitude (in German #blauäugig") of young wealthy liberals to Muslims who don`t share their culture.
Anyway, I still plan to read more by Osborne.
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