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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
This was everything I wanted it to be. (Context: I saw it and thought it was right up my alley back in March on the new shelf at my library, went to check it out the last hours of the final day before we closed to wait out COVID and discovered a patron had nabbed it. Shrugged and put it on hold and figured I’d get it when they were done. Then everything was closed much longer than we all imagined, and it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that I got another copy in hand. So I remembered and was casually thinking about this book for several months, and that’s part of why it being everything I wanted it to be means something.)
ANYWAY, I loved the matter of factness and casual strangeness and familiar reactions from unfamiliar beings from the very start. Partway through reading I saw the quote on the cover that says this is “like Haruki Murakami for the millennial generation,” which I must heartily disagree with, but in a positive way, hear me out. I adore Murakami, and I suppose I can see a similar matter of fact but also dreamlike quality to the prose, but I can make a much more astute comparison to another of my favorite authors: Nicholson Baker! The casual sexuality and cutting insight mixed in with dreamlike wonder and openmindedness to the world screams Baker to me, and I loved that about it as soon as I thought of the comparison. It stuck with me throughout reading from there and added a fun layer.
The characters and plot and language were excellent, and the concepts and ideas raised were so very interesting, so plausibly weird and comfortingly familiar to the human experience. Literary but without being hard to read (again, Baker). So very good.
ANYWAY, I loved the matter of factness and casual strangeness and familiar reactions from unfamiliar beings from the very start. Partway through reading I saw the quote on the cover that says this is “like Haruki Murakami for the millennial generation,” which I must heartily disagree with, but in a positive way, hear me out. I adore Murakami, and I suppose I can see a similar matter of fact but also dreamlike quality to the prose, but I can make a much more astute comparison to another of my favorite authors: Nicholson Baker! The casual sexuality and cutting insight mixed in with dreamlike wonder and openmindedness to the world screams Baker to me, and I loved that about it as soon as I thought of the comparison. It stuck with me throughout reading from there and added a fun layer.
The characters and plot and language were excellent, and the concepts and ideas raised were so very interesting, so plausibly weird and comfortingly familiar to the human experience. Literary but without being hard to read (again, Baker). So very good.
An interesting dive into the space between existence and not. This is not a religious exploration, but more of a relationship piece touching on the legends of death and heaven. It was deep, but not overbearing. Likeable characters with an easy flowing plot told through multiple perspectives.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A story of eros/thanatos like I haven't read before. A New York woman has a romantic/sexual relationship with a man who's dead. I bet this was hard to pull off, but pull it off the author did.
ok so this book is fine. I really enjoyed the beginning, was kind of bored by the end, but the formatting of the made the book quite easy to keep reading. The characters were interesting until they weren't, and that kind of encapsulates everything in this book. The speculative elements introduced in the beginning are quite interesting, but then we kind of just stop finding out anything about that. Also, there's a moment where one of the main characters is uncomfortably flippant about female genital mutation and it was very much in poor taste, even if the point of it was to make the character seem like a jerk. Very odd book. Kind of half baked.
I know this book isn’t for everyone. I’m not sure if it’s even for me. But I am so drawn to this style of story - this blasé, unfulfilled millennial protagonist who’s just a little fucked up.
I found this compulsively readable. I’ll pick up this author’s next book for sure.
I found this compulsively readable. I’ll pick up this author’s next book for sure.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes