Darkly comic, searing ... Greenwood’s graphic details are vivid and disturbing ... Greenwood’s stinging, salient novel remains relevant (the more things change, the more they stay the same), excoriating those who make a business of war whether it’s public or personal ... Provocative.
A caustic study ... The title of the book is testament to its wry tone, and ultimately its position ... Occasionally, Greenwood’s creative writing feels less successful than the news writing within it: the protagonist’s filed copy is sometimes clearer than the prose itself. But Vulture remains a remarkably skilful debut. Greenwood’s style is compelling and blackly comic; the story could not be more serious.
Bawdy ... Its shocking conclusion indicting all those who exploit human tragedies for personal gain, Vulture is a scathing satirical novel set in the troubled Middle East.
To intercut horror with humour is a tough brief (Evelyn Waugh would have put it better), but Greenwood manages it without trivialising her subject ... The chapters revisiting the affair that broke her heart have a Bridget Jones vibe, but it evaporates once the narrative returns to Gaza, where Sarah, watching the conflict unfold, begins to put her life into perspective.
Merciless ... This sobering, blackly humorous and acutely observed book is based on events more than a decade ago. The depressing thing is that nothing much has changed.
War makes tragedy commonplace, but this can get a little grating. Dark comedy in a warzone is a rich field ... The scenes with foreign journalists and Palestinians are witty and sharply drawn, but I found myself bored by Sara, who over the course of the book seemed to get worse. There’s something tiring about the fundamental conceit of Vulture: look at this terrible person, doing terrible things, in a terrible place.
Often-compelling ... Full of dramatic set pieces, variously haunting and amusing, though the first-person narration tends to work against them. The endless I never entirely feels right for the circumstances, leading one to muse that in the last chapter it’ll be revealed that this whole time Sara actually has been on a couch in a well-appointed office trying to impress her handsome psychiatrist ... The novel ultimately is only about Sara.
