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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The writing is beautiful and some sentences will punch you in the gut. The depictions of life on the campaign trail and many of the politically adjacent people are spot on but it can get a bit tedious at times.
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
This is a beautifully written, but often boring book. Cunningham has useful things to say about Obama as a cipher, and does an excellent job of excavating the vibe from some recent history.
He is a great prose stylist. I just can’t stand his extended relapses into art criticism or circular flashbacks. It makes the book drag something awful and no amount of style can fix that.
He is a great prose stylist. I just can’t stand his extended relapses into art criticism or circular flashbacks. It makes the book drag something awful and no amount of style can fix that.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A slow start, I enjoyed parts 2-3 of the book where it felt like the characters and setting made most sense to me.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
No Miss Havisham here! Following a fictitious account of the author’s actual time spent on a presidential campaign, just how Shakespeare is omitted by from Hamnet, President Obama is in this. I thought the prose itself was great, but the storyline was meandering and inconsistent. It’s marketed to be more campaign-centered, but I’d say it focuses more on the relationships that came from it. I usually like slice-of-life stories, but it felt more randomly reflective than engaging.
For more reviews, follow along on Instagram: @oliviasbooktalk 📚
For more reviews, follow along on Instagram: @oliviasbooktalk 📚
Received a copy of this novel in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for my honest review.
Awful with a few glimmers of hope here and there that just never panned out. The issue was the lack of a logically flowing timeline. Random memories were interspersed between working on the presidential campaign fundraising team, and they were illogically placed. There was also no sense of the passage of time while working on the campaign itself.
This whole novel was just an unfocused mess, really.
Awful with a few glimmers of hope here and there that just never panned out. The issue was the lack of a logically flowing timeline. Random memories were interspersed between working on the presidential campaign fundraising team, and they were illogically placed. There was also no sense of the passage of time while working on the campaign itself.
This whole novel was just an unfocused mess, really.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated