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dotorsojak's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
3.9 stars
This is my second ESJM (i.e Emily St. John Mandel). I read Station 11 about a year ago and thought highly of it. This one does not begin with anything like the bang of that one. It is a writer's book--carefully crafted, nuanced, both attentive to plot and to character, and unhurried in doing all of that. Yet it is a relatively short book: maybe 70,000 words?
It took me a while to finish this. I got bored (as I am wont to do) and laid it aside for quite a few weeks. Then I reread the first half of the book before finally finishing during the last few days. The latter part of the book is where the plot begins to quicken. The looming threat of violence is theoretical in the first half and gradually begins to seem much more likely as the story progresses. Fairly early on the antagonist Paul, a drug dealer, speaks to another character about paying overdue debts: "Don't look at me that way. If you're in narcotics, you know how it works these days. You pay with money, or you pay with your family."
The plot of the novel revolves around stolen drug money and the flight of a main character from the dangerous consequences of that theft. There isn't really any mystery and, in that regard, ESJM's ending goes over some details that we've already figured out. On the other hand, Paul doesn't get enough time on stage. The two or three scenes in which we encounter him are compelling. They make you want to know more. ESJM does not describe the climactic confrontation with Paul, which is an interesting way of dealing with him. Kind of like in the movie "Stage Coach" where the final shootout happens offscreen, this book cuts away to characters who are peripherally involved but still deeply affected.
Aside from the missing drug money and the search for the thief, this book is about families and more especially about bad parents. Cruel or neglectful or clueless parents are rife in the book. The thematic implication is that better parents would've made almost all of the main characters's lives better. The principal character of the quartet, Gavin, who spends almost all of the novel looking for his daughter, finally does find her and gets to have a brief conversations with her. He does not touch her or express to her his love. Another member of the quartet, Sasha, when asked about her mother says:
"My mother isn't any good. I haven't spoken to her since high school."
"What do you mean, she isn't any good?"
"She just never was."
I should say one thing about the title, an allusion that appears to be a kind of cinematic in joke. We are told that the band members of "The Lola Quartet" picked their name from a German movie with the name "Lola" in the title. In fact an actual German movie from 1998, "Lola Rennt" (translated "Run Lola Run") exists. In it a young woman (Lola) attempts to acquire by hook or by crook 100,000 Deutsche Marks in order to save her boyfriend who has lost that amount of money, which he was supposed to deliver for the mob. In ESJM's version, a female main character (Anna) has stolen over $100,000 from a drug dealer and is on the run for the entirety of the book. There are several parallels and counter parallels here, but maybe the biggest one is that Anna is fleeing a bad relationship and the theft is meant to give herself and her child a head start. In the movie, Lola is morally admirable because she is trying to save her boyfriend from a catastrophic mistake. In the movie more than one resolution for Lola is proposed. In the novel Anna does not exist in a multiverse and the outcome is of her choosing.
In lots of ways a sad novel. We begin with sympathetic feelings towards all four of the "quartet" plus one other. (Basically five characters tell the tale.) By the end I still sympathized with them, but it's more sympathy as pity for the wrecks these characters have made of their lives than it is hopeful liking for them as people.
Highly recommended.
This is my second ESJM (i.e Emily St. John Mandel). I read Station 11 about a year ago and thought highly of it. This one does not begin with anything like the bang of that one. It is a writer's book--carefully crafted, nuanced, both attentive to plot and to character, and unhurried in doing all of that. Yet it is a relatively short book: maybe 70,000 words?
It took me a while to finish this. I got bored (as I am wont to do) and laid it aside for quite a few weeks. Then I reread the first half of the book before finally finishing during the last few days. The latter part of the book is where the plot begins to quicken. The looming threat of violence is theoretical in the first half and gradually begins to seem much more likely as the story progresses. Fairly early on the antagonist Paul, a drug dealer, speaks to another character about paying overdue debts: "Don't look at me that way. If you're in narcotics, you know how it works these days. You pay with money, or you pay with your family."
The plot of the novel revolves around stolen drug money and the flight of a main character from the dangerous consequences of that theft. There isn't really any mystery and, in that regard, ESJM's ending goes over some details that we've already figured out. On the other hand, Paul doesn't get enough time on stage. The two or three scenes in which we encounter him are compelling. They make you want to know more. ESJM does not describe the climactic confrontation with Paul, which is an interesting way of dealing with him. Kind of like in the movie "Stage Coach" where the final shootout happens offscreen, this book cuts away to characters who are peripherally involved but still deeply affected.
Aside from the missing drug money and the search for the thief, this book is about families and more especially about bad parents. Cruel or neglectful or clueless parents are rife in the book. The thematic implication is that better parents would've made almost all of the main characters's lives better. The principal character of the quartet, Gavin, who spends almost all of the novel looking for his daughter, finally does find her and gets to have a brief conversations with her. He does not touch her or express to her his love. Another member of the quartet, Sasha, when asked about her mother says:
"My mother isn't any good. I haven't spoken to her since high school."
"What do you mean, she isn't any good?"
"She just never was."
I should say one thing about the title, an allusion that appears to be a kind of cinematic in joke. We are told that the band members of "The Lola Quartet" picked their name from a German movie with the name "Lola" in the title. In fact an actual German movie from 1998, "Lola Rennt" (translated "Run Lola Run") exists. In it a young woman (Lola) attempts to acquire by hook or by crook 100,000 Deutsche Marks in order to save her boyfriend who has lost that amount of money, which he was supposed to deliver for the mob. In ESJM's version, a female main character (Anna) has stolen over $100,000 from a drug dealer and is on the run for the entirety of the book. There are several parallels and counter parallels here, but maybe the biggest one is that Anna is fleeing a bad relationship and the theft is meant to give herself and her child a head start. In the movie, Lola is morally admirable because she is trying to save her boyfriend from a catastrophic mistake. In the movie more than one resolution for Lola is proposed. In the novel Anna does not exist in a multiverse and the outcome is of her choosing.
In lots of ways a sad novel. We begin with sympathetic feelings towards all four of the "quartet" plus one other. (Basically five characters tell the tale.) By the end I still sympathized with them, but it's more sympathy as pity for the wrecks these characters have made of their lives than it is hopeful liking for them as people.
Highly recommended.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Toxic friendship, and Drug abuse
Minor: Violence
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