Reviews

As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem

ababalou's review against another edition

5.0

An delicious gem. Gives the feeling of a favorite partly philosophical play, or a beloved quirky Indie film. So much fun that surely Lethem's other works need to be investigated. A testament to my sister's good taste and her knowledge of my own.

coffeenamebill's review

adventurous challenging funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

romyschnaiberg's review against another edition

3.0

Very well written tongue-in-cheek look at love and academia. However, I found the ending was trite and conventional.

spinstah's review against another edition

4.0

This was fantastic! A zippy, absurd story that was still totally believable in its own way. The characters were wonderful and the writing was great. I highly recommend this, especially if you find the ins and outs of academia amusing, or if you like science.

viewtoakel's review against another edition

5.0

Grabbed this simply because I loved the cover art and had heard of Lethem but never read him. I get the vibe he's pretty polarizing and I totally get that. I loved this so much though. This isn't for someone who needs things to make any sort of sense. This isn't for someone who dislikes authors that are a bit full of themselves. This is for someone who loves to abandon reality and bitterly laugh about how bizarre life, love and pain can be.

librariandest's review against another edition

3.0

A lass and a Lack! What do you do when your girlfriend falls in love with a black hole? This is the premise of Jonathan Lethem's short, weird physics-meets-romance novel. There's a lot of fun wordplay and absurdity. There are many pompous academics. There are co-dependent couples (including two blind men who I pictured as Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones from Men in Black). I liked it, but it was a little too post-modern clever-clever for me to really care about the characters.

makenal's review against another edition

funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, but I really did enjoy it! It was strange and simple all at the same time. The story arch is very simple and easy to follow, but a lot of the language can be complicated and long. It was a very classic tale of boy likes girl and girl likes someone (or something or a lack of something) else, but it told it in such a unique way that kept me intrigued throughout the book. I read a majority of the book in one day, after spending a couple days on the first fifty pages. I honestly really loved the imagery, especially in the last parts of the book. I feel like you can really feel Philip begin to descend into desperation. Overall, this was a fun book and I’m glad I picked it up!

nancykz's review against another edition

5.0

This was my first J-Leth and I loved it. It was sad, strange, a bit sentimental. I loved that it was science-fictiony but also just your typical relationship story. Guy loves girl, girl loves guy, one of them finds another.

rmgebhardt's review against another edition

4.0

I didn't read this as a hard sci-fi exploration of a black hole-ish entity being created, studied, and watching how it captures someone, but instead saw it as a tale of a relationship gone sour and how you can hold on too long to something that is not right for you; there just happened to be some interesting sci-fi driving the relationship split.

The science concepts were fascinating and added a flair to the story that gave this falling out tale a unique spin. The end of the novel ultimately left me a little cold as it felt somewhat cliched and murky, but to that point it was quite easy to relate to the main character, riding alongside as he deluded himself into staying where he was, even when presented with a way out, with better options, with alternatives... he had let himself get so caught up in a relationship gone sour that he couldn't get out.

It's a pretty quick read and I'd definitely recommend giving it a spin.

dawntin's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a funny satirical novel involving academia, love, and physics. The plot was quirky and interesting. However, I didn’t connect to any of the characters that much. Almost every character was a professor at Beauchamp University. They were too quirky, but that was probably the point of the book. I thought Philip was insufferable (he talked way too much) in his pursuit of Alice, but I also felt bad for him sometimes. The other people are only ever seen through Philip’s perspective, so their characterization was more than a little wonky.

There were a few WTF moments, like when Philip was so jealous he imagined Alice sleeping with other men, and when Cynthia basically

forced herself onto him to tell him his relationship with Alice is toxic.

I also thought the Christmas party chapter could have been more concise, because I didn’t really care for those minor characters and Philip’s interactions with them by that point. Pacing was a little off.

Besides all the issues, I thought the dialogue in the novel was amazing. There were some great lines like, “I’m not sure I really exist, except under your observation.” There was also one part where Philip and Alice were hugging and I thought it was very sweet.