This book makes me feel dumb.You get the sense while you're reading it that Helen DeWitt really knows what she's doing, but I couldn't figure out what she was doing. I enjoyed it, as a story, but my enjoyment was hampered by the idea that there's something bigger going on in there that I just don't get.
I struggled a lot between four and five stars, on this. It was so, so close to being great. If 1/2 stars were available, it would be an easy 4.5.
There were a few cute or interesting moments, but overall I felt that it wasn't worth the read.
I never would have thought so just by looking at it, but I believe this is what I've been looking for. It's offbeat and familiar and hideous and alluring in perfect balance. It's the literary love of my life.When I showed Scott Fitzgerald the divorce papers, he was like "Really, Katie? For a 200-page Japanese novel from 1994?""It was just translated to English last year," I told him, a single tear sliding down my cheek.
I'm a reluctant fan of Stephen King. But this book was terrible.The main guy is a teacher. EVERY POSSIBLE CLICHE ABOUT TEACHERS is in this book. As in:1. Meticulously correcting oral grammar2. Catching some kids drinking at the sock hop, but letting them off easy after a heartfelt talk about actions and consequences3. Directing a play and thereby enabling the town's best football player to realize his intellectual strengthsand on and on.There are also a series of contrived plot twists. For example:1. A crazed ex-husband shows up out of nowhere to kill the female lead for no reason and with no explanation.2. AMNESIA. There's actually a case of amnesia in this story. Sure does throw a wrench into things!And then, there's the love story. Here are the problems:1. In my opinion, one or both of the characters has to be/do something cute or sexy or funny or interesting to merit falling in love. It can't just be like, "I realized she had a vagina and that I could potentially get all up in it. How I loved her."2. Stephen King writes about sex as though he's never had sex. I've said this about him before. You know that scene in 40 Year Old Virgin where he's talking about how boobs feel like bags of sand, and everyone's like, ".....?" That's what reading Stephen King's sex scenes is like. One could make the case that, because Stephen King is a dude, it's impossible for him to know what first-time sex is like for a woman, but you don't have to be exposed to too many books or movies or TV shows to know that it fucking sucks. There's no "OhmygodYES" the first time you have sex as a woman. There's crying.3. The reason why the woman is a virgin is that her husband of some years didn't want to put his dick in her "germy woman-hole." Really??????? That's not a thing that happens.And all of this is to say nothing of the super-ridiculous time travel rules. Like I know it's sci-fi and that he writes a novel every twelve days and all, but let's put in some effort, here.Skip this one and re-read Salem's Lot.The rest of this post has spoilers in it so stop now if you haven't already read it.So the guy changes the past and then comes back to find SWASTIKAS on everything, and encounters some teens on their way to a "Hate Meeting." Not extremely subtle or realistic, ya know?
Couldn't put it down. Read the whole thing in one bite.
The Distant Sound is an old friend you encounter while driving down a residential street. You're driving in one direction and The Distant Sound is coming toward you the opposite way. You both recognize the other's car and slow down, rolling down your windows, so that you can say hello.As soon as The Distant Sound smiles at you through the car window, you're overjoyed to see it. You pause to talk even though you're late for an appointment. The Distant Sound launches into a long-winded account of what has been going on since you last saw it. You're ever more late but you keep your foot on the brake and listen because you're so, so interested in what The Distant Sound is telling you.But then, another car comes down the street behind you, and you know that the car can't pass because you and The Distant Sound are stopped in the road, blocking it. The Distant Sound apparently doesn't notice or care about this third motorist, and continues to talk to you enthusiastically. You are no less interested than you were in the beginning, but you're starting to feel restless because you yourself are late, and now you're inconveniencing this other driver.You're SO DEVOTED, though, to your friendship with The Distant Sound that you put your manners and punctuality aside to go on listening, but can't help thinking to yourself that there's got to be a pause coming up, or an end to the story, but The Distant Sound goes on and on and the driver behind you is honking now and finally when it's over, you're just so glad to be done with it that you feel like you've missed out on a good deal of the content of the discussion that you and The Distant Sound have just tried to have.
At the Printers Row Lit Fest because I was walking past the tent where Clare O'Donohue was reading from this book and was sucked in off the sidewalk. She's from where I'm from and she writes about Bridgeport, where I'm living now, so I bought the book and she signed it. I was already very pleased and had no expectations for the content of the book.Candidly, I thought it would be a trashy mystery. It isn't. It's really good.And Ms. O'Donohue has worked on true crime shows, so she writes about true crime from a behind-the-scenes perspective that I've never seen before.Highly recommend, but you can't borrow my copy because it's signed =)
Ok Spoiler Alert. This is a book about a woman in a polygamist marriage. I bought it because it was on the $3 shelf at Books-A-Million and I was wanting some trash.Throughout the book, as she describes her terrible life, you're waiting for her to leave the situation.The guy she's married to moves her to Mexico and makes her live in a mud hut. But she doesn't leave.Her first child dies, because she birthed it in a mud hut. Still doesn't leave.And things get progressively worse and worse and worse and you're thinking she'll leave at any time.SHE NEVER LEAVES.The guy dies. That's how she gets out of the relationship.W.T.F.
Funeral for a Dog has re-awakened my interest in good fiction and has made me realize what a waste of time my vampire-phase was.
Thank Christ it's over.It was helpful... but really, really boring and poorly edited.
I asked Jessica Turner why Freedom got such bad reviews, and she knew exactly why!"Because people are armchair critics and all-around assholes, trying to impress other goodreads users with their undergraduate level literary criticism skills."So there you go. This book was amazing. Don't listen to the haters.
I received this book from Goodreads for free through their giveaway program, and was pretty thoroughly prepared for it to suck. I'm skeptical of anything that's designed for women, and the image of a high heeled shoe on one of Ms. Scumaci's earlier titles was not encouraging. On the contrary, Career Moves is awesome. I read it in a period of 48 hours, and now I'm torn between reading it again immediately or lending it to every working woman I know. The narrative that runs alongside Ms. Scumaci's advice and instruction is a little over-optimistic, but I didn't even mind. I felt inspired and refreshed - I even got to work ten minutes early today, eager to implement the strategies I read about (and punctuality is not one of my strengths).
