terrific voice and narration. unreliable teller. pleasingly, endearingly so. short chapters, good action. loses velocity (for me) in the middle, yet aterrific voice and narration. unreliable teller. pleasingly, endearingly so. short chapters, good action. loses velocity (for me) in the middle, yet also preserves its integrity. amazing someone so young wrote this....more
oddly enough, considering its pulpy reputation, this a novel of *ideas*...a delivery system for the divine feminine, aimed at the broadest possible puoddly enough, considering its pulpy reputation, this a novel of *ideas*...a delivery system for the divine feminine, aimed at the broadest possible public. I enjoyed the digressions on early christianity and Leonardo and Newton, and the fast pace of the action, all these elements keep the book rolling along nicely for several hundred pages.
For me, the tale goes astray with plummy, ridiculous, Sir Leigh Teabing, who is the most cardboard member of an ensemble that is already pretty two-dimensional.
The book's greatest failing is highly ironic: there is only one female character of any significance, cute cryptologist Sophie Neveu. The story fails the Bechdel test, abjectly. Brown has little to say about the deeper meaning of the ideas he is offering. How would society be different if goddess worship had not been vigorously stamped out? And how would this book be different if Brown had written some female characters?...more
I really enjoyed this one. Boyd is maybe not the most natural thriller writer, but his sense of whimsy and playfulness propel the story. Lots to enjoyI really enjoyed this one. Boyd is maybe not the most natural thriller writer, but his sense of whimsy and playfulness propel the story. Lots to enjoy:
- Adam's daydreaming while watching the tiny triangle he soon would call home: "he thought, idly, that such a patch of land must be worth a tidy fortune...and he built, in his mind's eye, a three-storey wedge of a dozen, bijou, balconied apartments"
- Rich pharma exec Ingram Fryzer's attachment to the youngest of his three adult children, the only one who doesn't ask for money, the prematurely bald, burly, Fortunatus AKA Forty AKA Nate
One flaw, I suppose, is that we never find out who commissioned the company that hired the charismatic killer, Jonjo Case, or how they decided Philip Wang had to die.
The protagonist's background in climate science also ends up mattering hardly at all, the title notwithstanding.
The story reflects all the typically Boydian preoccupations: the sense of a life steered by winds and currents not in anyone's control, happy accidents, sex. The working class characters are much more caricaturish than the middles and uppers, somehow, though, at least with me, all that is forgivable....more
**spoiler alert** Any Sally Rooney novel leaves you thinking afterwards - what was that, why did it affect me that way, where did it derive its power,**spoiler alert** Any Sally Rooney novel leaves you thinking afterwards - what was that, why did it affect me that way, where did it derive its power, and is it even...*good*?
This one, I think, is very good. Firstly, it was time to get away from troubled-young-woman central figures of the first three novels, and I like her choice to put her attention on two youngish men instead.
Formally, she is doing something rather different here too. She's trying to capture human thought on the page. With precision and fidelity. This is jarring at first. We expect, as in a more normal novel, to see the carrots move down the supermarket conveyor belt (as an example, this doesn't happen in the book.) Instead, we are in her character's mind, watching the orange roots move towards the cashier, while experiencing the swirl of thoughts playing out in their mind - past, future, and present; resentment, love, fear. This is confusing, at first. You do need to pay attention. I found the first chapter disorienting. The paragraphs can be very long.
But it works. It does work.
And as for her themes, what she cares about - sex, intimacy, relationships, interiority - Rooney has not moved an inch.
It is nice to see a few words of Slovak, occasionally, in the middle of the page.
I'm not a big Irish lit guy (never read Joyce), but this is also very clearly her most *Irish* book, in its references, its characters' speech. With the first three, I felt I was tapping into a flattened global anglophone youth domain, where the phone itself is the location, more than any physical place.
Now, the ending. Too happy-Hallmark? Probably. It satisfied me, though, to see what-should-happen actually happen.
Very curious to know what others think of this book. My favorite since 'Conversations With Friends,' possibly better than....more
phenomenal food for thought. I listened to the 'Armchair Expert' intvw first, so my view of the book is influenced by that, but whether pod or bound vphenomenal food for thought. I listened to the 'Armchair Expert' intvw first, so my view of the book is influenced by that, but whether pod or bound volume it's a delivery system to Harari's ideas about the changing pathways and unchanging nature of information.
more than anything else I have consumed, Harari's ideas about the role of information in shaping society, and the distinct threat of new kinds of information systems (AI)....offers something like an explanation for the ugly, ugly time we are living through.
I recommend.
I might read again. Harari's writing, his style of making an argument is so smooth it goes down almost too easy, I should take my time absorbing it. For example, the key concept of the book is the "information network," but I'm not sure I could explain what that is....more
Phenomenal. I love fast pace of this book, and the excellent characterizations. The mounting sense of doom propels you forward, yet the author also shPhenomenal. I love fast pace of this book, and the excellent characterizations. The mounting sense of doom propels you forward, yet the author also shows restraint, allowing many of the characters to avoid the very worst.
The incredible sensation that pervades the novel is the layering of time: the real-time speed of events, the specific-time setting of Berlin in the early 1930s, and decades that our imaginations, even today, can reach across. Knowing that the events described were the prelude to a Holocaust that killed millions and world war in no way undermines Feuchtwanger's crystal-clear vision of what happens when society is given over to bullies and liars.
There is one missed opportunity here: female perspectives. Ruth, the ardent zionist, has only a bit part but would be a fascinating character. And Klara, the sole sister of the Oppermann siblings, is entirely overshadowed by her husband and brothers.
p. 51 "His curt way of speaking 鈥� the concise, sharp, and at the same time banal arrangement of his phrases 鈥斅燼nd his hackneyed editorial style were all deeply repugnant to him."
p. 152 "'Don't forget, Edgar, that our opponents have one tremendous advantage over us; their absolute lack of *fairness*. That is the very reason why they are in power today.'"...more
Kushner's talent radiates off the page, she is terrific on voice, mood, unreliable narration. I admire how the book interleaves an immediate, first-peKushner's talent radiates off the page, she is terrific on voice, mood, unreliable narration. I admire how the book interleaves an immediate, first-person narrated story with the vague musings of some guy about what cave art reveals about humankind (I like that sh*t.)
However. I happened to put the book down for only a few days, and then resumed reading. And around that time, I began to wonder what it all adds up to. The novel goes down easy, but somehow, the whole is less than the sum of its parts. ...more
I listened to this as an audiobook (unusual for me), and it was an excellent companion on some long drives.
The best things about the story are LeffertI listened to this as an audiobook (unusual for me), and it was an excellent companion on some long drives.
The best things about the story are Lefferts' wit, his gift for characterization, his willingness to tell the story through direct exposition. I enjoyed his use of the words "carnal" and "carnality" and general arch tone about gay life.
The middle is saggy, and there's a lot that could be cut. At times, the world of this book seems possibly *too* fully imagined???...Could benefit from some jumps in time and place, giving us momentum. The dastardly plot happening in the background never quite comes to life, the essential drama here is the three main characters' shifting relationships with each other.
One thing that occurs to me here is that all three principals, Alastair, Mark and Elijah, are in one way or another purposeless drifters. Guys for whom the world of work, of enterprise, has lost its meaning (if it ever had any.) They are all fighting a general ennui while being young and hot. I think that's a little bit of a problem 鈥� the differences could be more sharply drawn....more
Brian Moore is really, really good at this kind of thing: action-dense, subtext-heavy, inherently political thriller-ing. Even though a flight arrivesBrian Moore is really, really good at this kind of thing: action-dense, subtext-heavy, inherently political thriller-ing. Even though a flight arrives from Poland, the made-up country at the center of this story is definitely, and could only *be* Poland. The only place in the eastern bloc where religion and totalitarianism were in such direct tension. A quick and satisfying read....more
Writing: superb Plot: gripping Subject matter: ...kind of cliche, for really any male writer. Boats and whales and blood and guts.
tore through it anywayWriting: superb Plot: gripping Subject matter: ...kind of cliche, for really any male writer. Boats and whales and blood and guts.
This book thrilled me, moved me, knocked me out on the very last page. The form ranges from present-day dialogue to narration of decades-ago happeningThis book thrilled me, moved me, knocked me out on the very last page. The form ranges from present-day dialogue to narration of decades-ago happenings to letters, but you never, ever lose the plot. Some superb cliffhangers. Unshowy prose combined with excellent observation. Constant movement. Best book I have read this year so far....more
Wonderful. I read it in only a few days. The story follows a half dozen characters with intertwined lives, and with London itself as a meta-character.Wonderful. I read it in only a few days. The story follows a half dozen characters with intertwined lives, and with London itself as a meta-character. The action is really propelled by three or four figures, each one trying to ride out an inner conflict (Philip: wanting love while claiming to want freedom; Maggie: wanting the baby she is pregnant with, while actually wanting her freedom.) These conflicts drive suspense and anticipation. Finally, each one is forced into resolution. It happens at the same time that a heat-wave over London breaks. There is also a beached whale metaphor thing which is maybe too much.
It's good that McKenna is comfortable telling as well as showing (note to self: Steve Almond would approve.)
I appreciate how much gay consciousness is in these pages:
p. 39 "Every day, he browses the Instagram pages of professionally hot men, always on holidays, in Mykonos, in Sitges, in tiny speedoes, with tattooed legs, heads shaved not because they are balding but because it accentuates their conventionally handsome bone structures." Philip knows he's being had by market forces but can't resist the insinuation that "he too might always be...in a state of total enjoyment for the rest of his life."
McKenna, who is young, is very good at dialogue, at capturing contemporary modes of living that feel like they haven't been on the printed page very much (yet.)
I do think his next book may be better than this one:
- The ending isn't a disappointment, exactly, but is kind of the least thrilling part. It should be sublime, profound. - Another legit complaint would be (and I seem to have this problem with a lot of books) - that the characters all seem to be manifestations of a single consciousness. They could be more sharply differentiated. In the end, everyone hungers for love and connection, just in slightly different ways. - Trauma-bias. A Bad Thing happened to Philip, and a bad thing happened with Rosaleen's friend Pauline, and we have to eat a lot of bckwards-looking foreshadowing until we find out what they are and why the hurt is so deep.
I have enough faith in McKenna to imagine he'll get it more right next time....more
A totally charming book, it engrossed me very much in spite of itself. Talking cats, Johnnie Walker, a spirit dressed up as ColonelMy first Murakami.
A totally charming book, it engrossed me very much in spite of itself. Talking cats, Johnnie Walker, a spirit dressed up as Colonel Sanders, acting as a pimp. A pastiche of ideas, symbols, psychology. None of this should work, but Murakami has oodles of talent for conjuring moods, and this carries the story. Very good on sex, bodies, clothing. Falls apart a bit at the end. It doesn't feel quite like real life, but a lot like what is real about life....more
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