Scan barcode
hollydaze71's review against another edition
2.0
HARD to get through.
The story felt gappy, as it jumped from generation to generation.
I was left wondering what the point was.
The story felt gappy, as it jumped from generation to generation.
I was left wondering what the point was.
elmcreyn's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.0
ifyouhappentoremember's review against another edition
2.0
I was intrigued by the beginning of the story but as I read on, I grew so bored. It took me about 2 months to read this 371 page book which may be the slowest I’ve ever read something. I was so bored and I found most of the characters weirdly insufferable. The Quirky! nature of this book was another strike against my enjoyment.
I’m just so relieved to be finally finished with this book.
I’m just so relieved to be finally finished with this book.
boggremlin's review against another edition
3.0
A sprawling, delightful character novel. I will say the last third or so sprawled a little too much for my tastes--it's like all of the delightful parts were front-loaded, so after a certain amount of time, the characters of Bowlaway were just desperately unhappy--but the prose style was excellent, and there are some laugh-out-loud funny lines (I am a sucker for third-person omniscient narrators). It feels a little like a fable. Albeit a fabulist narrative with a determined New Englander bent. So.
This may appeal to those who liked [b:Olive Kitteridge|1736739|Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)|Elizabeth Strout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320430655l/1736739._SY75_.jpg|3263906] or [b:Kitchens of the Great Midwest|23398625|Kitchens of the Great Midwest|J. Ryan Stradal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428066565l/23398625._SY75_.jpg|42955214]--or even [b:Blessings|77477|Blessings|Anna Quindlen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390372380l/77477._SY75_.jpg|1121880]. It's got a framing narrative, but there are so many characters, and the book takes place over such a long span of time, that you end up seeing how people radiate out from that center. It's not linked short stories (as Olive and Kitchens both are), but it does explore numerous viewpoints.
This may appeal to those who liked [b:Olive Kitteridge|1736739|Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)|Elizabeth Strout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320430655l/1736739._SY75_.jpg|3263906] or [b:Kitchens of the Great Midwest|23398625|Kitchens of the Great Midwest|J. Ryan Stradal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428066565l/23398625._SY75_.jpg|42955214]--or even [b:Blessings|77477|Blessings|Anna Quindlen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390372380l/77477._SY75_.jpg|1121880]. It's got a framing narrative, but there are so many characters, and the book takes place over such a long span of time, that you end up seeing how people radiate out from that center. It's not linked short stories (as Olive and Kitchens both are), but it does explore numerous viewpoints.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
3.0
He was done with lots of things, he told her. Restaurants, candy, newspapers, parties, cars, airplanes, living in houses. He slept in hotels and traveled by train.
What he needed was to fall in love with another woman, but she saw he was too vain. Ordinary happiness would be a dent in his armor. Happiness was everywhere, like dropped coins. You might feel lucky to pick it up and put it in your pocket, but what could it really buy you?
To be haunted? That set you apart.
This is an odd book, full of whimsey and colorful characters. Beginning with the discovery of Bertha Truitt, lying in the cemetery who, upon being revived, makes a new life for herself in the small Massachusetts town she landed upon, opening a candlepin bowling alley, building an octagonal house and marrying the doctor who tended her. That bowling alley becomes a refuge for outcasts and a place where women can be together.
Nobody believed that this so-called Nahum Truitt was a child of Bertha's. The height of him, the denunciations, the way he talked. You could die of boredom. You longed to.
The great strength of this novel is McCracken's writing. By the time I'd finished it, there were dozens of post-it notes sticking out from between the pages, marking out remarkable descriptions and gorgeous sentences. But the beautiful writing did not hide that there were too many characters. Every time I began to understand a character and to fall into their story, they were gone, often forever, lost in the great flood of quirky characters and weird situations. There was never anything or anyone to hold onto. There's no question that the writing is extraordinarily good, but it turns out that even that is no substitution for plot and character development.
He had inherited his predecessor's office as it was, with the books and the ottoman, the manual typewriter that reminded him of a skeleton in a natural history museum--a small dinosaur, one so unfortunately shaped it existed mostly as food for larger dinosaurs. An aquatic animal, probably, with an alphabetic spine.
What he needed was to fall in love with another woman, but she saw he was too vain. Ordinary happiness would be a dent in his armor. Happiness was everywhere, like dropped coins. You might feel lucky to pick it up and put it in your pocket, but what could it really buy you?
To be haunted? That set you apart.
This is an odd book, full of whimsey and colorful characters. Beginning with the discovery of Bertha Truitt, lying in the cemetery who, upon being revived, makes a new life for herself in the small Massachusetts town she landed upon, opening a candlepin bowling alley, building an octagonal house and marrying the doctor who tended her. That bowling alley becomes a refuge for outcasts and a place where women can be together.
Nobody believed that this so-called Nahum Truitt was a child of Bertha's. The height of him, the denunciations, the way he talked. You could die of boredom. You longed to.
The great strength of this novel is McCracken's writing. By the time I'd finished it, there were dozens of post-it notes sticking out from between the pages, marking out remarkable descriptions and gorgeous sentences. But the beautiful writing did not hide that there were too many characters. Every time I began to understand a character and to fall into their story, they were gone, often forever, lost in the great flood of quirky characters and weird situations. There was never anything or anyone to hold onto. There's no question that the writing is extraordinarily good, but it turns out that even that is no substitution for plot and character development.
He had inherited his predecessor's office as it was, with the books and the ottoman, the manual typewriter that reminded him of a skeleton in a natural history museum--a small dinosaur, one so unfortunately shaped it existed mostly as food for larger dinosaurs. An aquatic animal, probably, with an alphabetic spine.
buffstbookslisa's review against another edition
5.0
Elizabeth McCracken can make a sentence sing, and this book is a chorus. This is a big book, full of vibrant characters and moments of stunning insight.
k2_hancock's review against another edition
2.0
I have mixed feelings about this book and I'm struggling on whether to give it two or three stars. It's not quite 400 pages but I feel as though it was 1,000 pages. It spans about three generations but the way it jumps back and forth between characters and years it makes you feel like you read a lot, but nothing has happened.
The writing is colorful and certainly rolls off the tongue if you read it aloud, and it can be charming at times, but felt like a dense wall that you had to trudge through. Overall this book was meandering, sprawling, chaotic, and overwhelming.
The writing is colorful and certainly rolls off the tongue if you read it aloud, and it can be charming at times, but felt like a dense wall that you had to trudge through. Overall this book was meandering, sprawling, chaotic, and overwhelming.
kbelyea's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
spinstah's review against another edition
3.0
I didn’t like this as much as I thought. The initial protagonist’s role diminishes over the course of the book, and there’s not really any central action that ties events and people together. I liked the writing, but the story did t do much for me.