Reviews

When We Argued All Night: A Novel by Alice Mattison

auroraboringallofus's review against another edition

5.0

After reading Wallace Stegner's "Crossing to Safety," I craved more books about honest friendship and complex lives. I wanted to spend time with characters who thought about principles and calling., and I wanted to think about life as process. This book slowly became beautiful and contemplative in just those ways. I wasn't sure at first, but suddenly almost every page gave me something to re-read or laugh over. The people are sparsely but perfectly drawn -- you know their essentials. The timing turned out to be personal for me, as my own beloved, complex, and high-achieving grandpa died while I was reading this book; the book is true. I'll return to this book as I mull over vocation and my motivation and methods for doing good in this world.

This is perfect, from her Wikipedia page: Mattison's writing has been characterized in a review of "When We Argued All Night" (The New York Times Sunday Book Review): "Her prose is so crisp that along with all the pleasures of fiction she manages to deliver the particular intellectual satisfactions of an essay or a documentary."

karenchase's review against another edition

I have no review, beyond saying that I stalled on this book a few dozen pages in, and completely lost interest.

sarahjsnider's review

4.0

The author brings the characters to life with writing that always shows its polish and sometimes sparkles. The plot isn't so much a plot as a sweep of the 20th century. I liked it a lot, but I haven't processed why I'm not giving it 5 stars.