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saffytriesherbest's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Self harm, Death, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
Moderate: Slavery, Murder, Racism, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia
Minor: Rape
ellathelibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Listened to this as an audiobook with a full cast, it was really impactful and engrossing!
finnjer's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
justplainbecca's review against another edition
4.0
Really glad I made time for this book this year. I'm a fairly well-read person and it was truly unlike anything I've ever read. The audiobook is narrated by every famous human ever; George Saunders' entire family; and all your second cousins and it is SO good. It meant I was reading this book while commuting, not necessarily the best time for such intense subject matter, but it was still worth it.
This book is a moving meditation on grief, something I wasn't sure I was ready for so close to my first really intense experiences of grief in the last year and a half. It's also a surprisingly fresh take on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War (didn't think we could still have fresh takes on that particular topic). The descriptions of the spirits occupying the same space and thus coming to truly know one another so perfectly capture empathy and what it is and how it feels and why it's important. And somehow, despite all this, it's also completely absurd and kind of funny.
A word I keep coming back to is "weird," which has such a negative connotation. But this is a wonderfully weird book.
This book is a moving meditation on grief, something I wasn't sure I was ready for so close to my first really intense experiences of grief in the last year and a half. It's also a surprisingly fresh take on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War (didn't think we could still have fresh takes on that particular topic). The descriptions of the spirits occupying the same space and thus coming to truly know one another so perfectly capture empathy and what it is and how it feels and why it's important. And somehow, despite all this, it's also completely absurd and kind of funny.
A word I keep coming back to is "weird," which has such a negative connotation. But this is a wonderfully weird book.
dburke's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
I can't really say I understood what even happens in this book. There's not really a narrative, and even the way it's written makes me feel like I'm just sort of skimming the book half the time. Normally, I like reading books which have a different style and format, but this just didn't seem to add up to... anything.
scottnap's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
cator_and_bliss's review against another edition
5.0
My book of the year.
An incredible novel. The experimentation with form took me a while to get used to (four or five chapters IIRC) but once the structure had ‘clicked’ with me, I found that it worked very well indeed. Saunders also plays with language -there are moments when a character’s speech starts to disintegrate and descends into profanity and mis-spelling- and I found that this blended surprisingly well with the ornate antebellum language found elsewhere in the text.
The Lincolns, both Abraham and Willie, appear as marginal figures, filling lesser page space than Vollman, Bevins and the Reverend. This ran contrary to my expectations on first picking up the novel (I thought it was going to be more of a dialogue between a father and his dead son) but it became one of the things that I enjoyed most about reading it. It’s a polyphonic novel (almost a literary mellotron), drawing a coherent piece from a variety of voices. It expanded the book’s scope considerably and gave Saunders a exceptionally rich palette from which to illustrate his ideas on desire, regret and self-knowledge.
Even at an early stage in my reading, I knew this would be a book that I would return to again and again. It strikes me as something that will only expand on further readings.
An incredible novel. The experimentation with form took me a while to get used to (four or five chapters IIRC) but once the structure had ‘clicked’ with me, I found that it worked very well indeed. Saunders also plays with language -there are moments when a character’s speech starts to disintegrate and descends into profanity and mis-spelling- and I found that this blended surprisingly well with the ornate antebellum language found elsewhere in the text.
The Lincolns, both Abraham and Willie, appear as marginal figures, filling lesser page space than Vollman, Bevins and the Reverend. This ran contrary to my expectations on first picking up the novel (I thought it was going to be more of a dialogue between a father and his dead son) but it became one of the things that I enjoyed most about reading it. It’s a polyphonic novel (almost a literary mellotron), drawing a coherent piece from a variety of voices. It expanded the book’s scope considerably and gave Saunders a exceptionally rich palette from which to illustrate his ideas on desire, regret and self-knowledge.
Even at an early stage in my reading, I knew this would be a book that I would return to again and again. It strikes me as something that will only expand on further readings.
jenmangler's review against another edition
2.0
The description sounded right up my alley, but it was not in any way what I expected. The concept gets high marks, but the execution was just not my cup of tea. At all. A very disappointing read.
blurrypetals's review against another edition
2.0
I am so sad about this. I wanted to like this book so much. This month, I'm trying to read a few books that reach outside my comfort zone and I figured this would be a good start.
I can't quite put my finger on exactly what went wrong for me here, but I can say most of the reason I've chosen not to finish this book is due to it's lack of coherent storytelling. The only reason I grasped what was happening in the first bit was because I pulled up the Wikipedia article and read a little about what was happening; the book sure didn't provide me with that, that's for sure.
In the first chapter, I found myself likening this to As I Lay Dying, which also has a large cast of characters (although not one anywhere near as large as this book's cast; I'll get back to that in a moment) and features a dead person describing what it's like to be dead and in a coffin. However, I very quickly realized this was an incredibly generous comparison on my part, because after that first chapter, the book loses any chance at straightforwardness (which is fine) and became a chaotic mess that made little sense to me. I tried very hard to focus and figure out what I was listening to, but I reached the halfway point of the book and, when I tried to take stock of what was happening, who wanted what, etc. I found my reading comprehension to be very, very, very low.
I think most of this issue is just due to the insane way the book is written. It could be better if I had the actual book in front of me, but they put so much effort and sheer manpower into the audiobook I felt like that wouldn't help me all that much. There are, however, so many people on this audiobook. The track listing the cast goes on for five straight minutes, just listing names. The amount of characters and the speed at which we flit to and from each person and the voice actor playing them only served to confuse me more. I usually am a huge fan of innovative, different audiobooks, but in this case, I felt like it was at the detriment of the book instead of its benefit. Again, I think that's more the fault of the writing of the book, not the performance or editing of the audio, but the fact remains: it's distracting and disorienting and did not add to my experience..
And so, with that, I'm going to bid this book and its absolutely gigantic cast adieu. It's possible I'll return another time, but not probable.
I can't quite put my finger on exactly what went wrong for me here, but I can say most of the reason I've chosen not to finish this book is due to it's lack of coherent storytelling. The only reason I grasped what was happening in the first bit was because I pulled up the Wikipedia article and read a little about what was happening; the book sure didn't provide me with that, that's for sure.
In the first chapter, I found myself likening this to As I Lay Dying, which also has a large cast of characters (although not one anywhere near as large as this book's cast; I'll get back to that in a moment) and features a dead person describing what it's like to be dead and in a coffin. However, I very quickly realized this was an incredibly generous comparison on my part, because after that first chapter, the book loses any chance at straightforwardness (which is fine) and became a chaotic mess that made little sense to me. I tried very hard to focus and figure out what I was listening to, but I reached the halfway point of the book and, when I tried to take stock of what was happening, who wanted what, etc. I found my reading comprehension to be very, very, very low.
I think most of this issue is just due to the insane way the book is written. It could be better if I had the actual book in front of me, but they put so much effort and sheer manpower into the audiobook I felt like that wouldn't help me all that much. There are, however, so many people on this audiobook. The track listing the cast goes on for five straight minutes, just listing names. The amount of characters and the speed at which we flit to and from each person and the voice actor playing them only served to confuse me more. I usually am a huge fan of innovative, different audiobooks, but in this case, I felt like it was at the detriment of the book instead of its benefit. Again, I think that's more the fault of the writing of the book, not the performance or editing of the audio, but the fact remains: it's distracting and disorienting and did not add to my experience..
And so, with that, I'm going to bid this book and its absolutely gigantic cast adieu. It's possible I'll return another time, but not probable.
jwilding's review against another edition
4.0
A distant cousin to the graveyard book by Neil Gaiman, as strange as that might sound and as inaccurate as it might be. So very beautiful and weird and hard to read.