Throughout his works Jay Naylor shows a hilariously flawed understanding of religions. I, as a Catholic, am insulted by him using facts that a basic Google or Wikipedia would prove are untrue. We Catholics do not practice arranged marriages either. We did at one ppint, most cultures have, but it is now frowned upon by the church. Also, communion alone does not absolve someone of sin. Confession and repentence especially must go along with. Taking communion with intention of commiting more sin is in and of itself a sin. No spiritual or religious character is portrayed favorably unless fixed of the \"silly superstitions\" by protagonists whose codes of morality are just as bad or even worse, to the point whete Fisk, the main character who is upheld as the standard of morality actively prevents his children and wife from interacting with his Jewish mother in law and praises his children when make anti-religious statements despite he doesn\'t want to influence their views on religion and choose for themselves.
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A lack of courage
Lets ignore the controversy around Naylor. Let's ignore the other work he's done. Let's have the clarity to look at this on it's own. The author is dead, the author remains dead, and we have killed them.
The story has a VERY strong start. So much so that I almost feel like everything after they leave highschool is written by a different author. Throughout the work, there is a consistent theme of 'living your own life your own way'. Which is, y'know, not a bad message. I'm not a libertarian, but I feel like this is a pretty universal message; he doesn't bring up economics, and only brings up politics in the vaguest of ways. I say this as someone who is pretty opposed to Naylor's politics.
However, once they leave college, everything falls apart. The story takes twists and turns, ultimately going nowhere. The characters wander about, and not even in an entertaining or on-message way. They just sort... do things. It becomes very boring. Additionally, the two main characters abandon their romance (with every romance thereafter feeling pointless, unfounded, and tacked-on)because they are twins, and 'they could never be together in public'. What the fuck happened to 'living your own life your own way', Naylor? I never before yelled 'fuck your sister' at a screen before, but this work made me.
Additionally, I found the portrayal of Jewish characters to be fairly offensive, as a Jew. We do NOT practice arrange marriage. I have no idea where he got that from. It's not something we do. It's just not. Also, portraying us as mice? Okay when it's Maus, and you're portraying the holocaust. Not okay when all Jews are mice, and all whites are cats; the Jews never suffer discrimination, so it doesn't make any sense as a choice.
4/10