This is the kind of book I can imagine myself loving five or six years ago, but I'm currently not in a place where I can easily sink into the kind of This is the kind of book I can imagine myself loving five or six years ago, but I'm currently not in a place where I can easily sink into the kind of meandering, plotless book that this is. I liked the main character and her voice quite a lot, but her disjointed storytelling style, plus the lack of chapter breaks, made it hard for me to get a purchase on this book. I think it's a very good example of the kind of thing that it is, but this kind of thing is just not for me right now. So I'm giving it up after reading about half....more
I suspected this wouldn't be my kind of thing, given the fragmented style and gloomy subject matter. And it wasn't. Read about 30%I suspected this wouldn't be my kind of thing, given the fragmented style and gloomy subject matter. And it wasn't. Read about 30%...more
I got this with a NYRB books subscription a couple of years ago and am trying to read books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while. It was cleI got this with a NYRB books subscription a couple of years ago and am trying to read books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while. It was clear pretty quickly that this isn't my kind of thing. I'm not generally that into stories of quirky fabulists. And it doesn't help that this is chock a block with references to people, places, and ideas that I have little more than a glancing familiarity with. Even as short as it is, it doesn't seem likey to be worth the time and effort for me. ...more
I've read about 120 pages, and I'm giving up. I loved the weirdness of the beginning, but it gets tedious fast. The Manson section is hard to follow, I've read about 120 pages, and I'm giving up. I loved the weirdness of the beginning, but it gets tedious fast. The Manson section is hard to follow, and I got bogged down there. And, although I can appreciate the value of messy women telling their stories, these stories seem to be dominating literary fiction today, and I'm kind of bored with them. And the meandering nature of this narrative doesn't help much. There's nothing here, aside from the title, to keep me engaged....more
I'm a little bit allergic to books about quirky quaint Europeans helping confused Americans have important revelations and that seems like the kind ofI'm a little bit allergic to books about quirky quaint Europeans helping confused Americans have important revelations and that seems like the kind of book this is. I've only read the first couple of chapters, but almost every single thing about this has annoyed me. The quirky quaint Italians are annoying me, and the confused but snobby American woman has annoyed me, and the confused screenwriter has annoyed me. Although the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive, none of them have said much to convince me that this book will turn into something significantly different and less annoying.
My dislike so far, however, is very much a me thing. I just am easily annoyed by books that use these particular tropes, and they have to be done not just well, but really very extraordinarily well to get past my annoyance....more
I gave up on this on p. 114 because I just wasn't getting interested. The book has a very slow pace, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also I gave up on this on p. 114 because I just wasn't getting interested. The book has a very slow pace, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also has very short chapters that jump between characters every couple of pages -- a structure typical of more fast-paced books. It's kind of the worst of both worlds. Nothing much it happening, but the narrative doesn't settle on a single character for long enough to create much depth. Aside from the central couple, most of the characters are kind of a blur, sometimes bordering on caricature.
The author clearly did a lot of research into the logging industry, which is important, but I think she employs a level of detail about what she learned that isn't necessary to the reader. The book gets bogged down in all these descriptions, making some of the Rich-centric chapters so filled with technical jargon that it's not always clear what's happening or why it's significant.
This book has been getting lots of praise, so it's clearly working for lots of people, but it's really not working for me, so I'm moving on to something else. ...more
I got to about page 70 and decided this isn't for me. It jumps back and forth too much in time. The stories from the past are nothing but parental abuI got to about page 70 and decided this isn't for me. It jumps back and forth too much in time. The stories from the past are nothing but parental abuse and neglect, and the stories from the present are people trading barbs and being generally unpleasant. The writing is not at all my style, especially in the segments from the past. There are lots of very short sentences, often just fragments. It's the kind of writing that feels "written" and that I find hard to sink into....more
I abandoned this about halfway through because I found the slow, discursive style frustrating. I wasn't necessarily expecting a fast-paced thriller, bI abandoned this about halfway through because I found the slow, discursive style frustrating. I wasn't necessarily expecting a fast-paced thriller, but, given the premise, I did expect some momentum. As it is, the book is not quite a thriller, not quite a slice-of-life coming-of-age story, and not quite a family drama, although it's trying to be a bit of all three. Sometimes blending different kinds of stories in this way works really well, but in this case the book seemed to be trying to accomplish too much....more
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