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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
I wanted to love this book, and maybe once I let it sink in a little more I will. It’s the second meandering novel I’ve read this week, and sometimes you’re just not in the mood.
As I read this I kept thinking of Coates’s book We Were Eight Years in Power. This story, while fiction, provides an interesting counterpoint.
As I read this I kept thinking of Coates’s book We Were Eight Years in Power. This story, while fiction, provides an interesting counterpoint.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Vinson Cunningham is a New Yorker critic and former campaign worker/staffer for Barack Obama, and this debut novel got quite a bit of buzz and some glowing reviews. I was a bit stumped by it, though. It's a bildungsroman novel, with our main character David's formative years spent working on the campaign of the Senator/Candidate. David is a very passive character and didn't join the campaign due to any particular feeling about the candidate but because the wealthy Beverly, whose son he tutors, sets him up for it.
David's role as fundraiser exposes him not to the idealistic "hope" side of the campaign, but the side of wealthy donors courting access (of which Beverly plays a big part). We shuffle with him from experience to experience, where he skates by, exerting minimal effort or enthusiasm. In between events (or sometimes frustratingly in the midst of them), we get pages and pages of digressions, many of which have little connection to the main narrative, on everything from religion, to basketball, to past memories. While some of these were very well-written, they often caused the story to lose all momentum. For example, David is at a club and witnesses a man's fall from a balcony. In the midst of all this drama, we get several pages of David flashing back to a school education program, with its only connection being David's use of a calming technique. Then we jump back to the club and only get two sentences of David reacting to the man's death. That being said, one of those digressions, a scene at a bar with David and a waiter sharing their opinions on the Celtics, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, was one of my favorite scenes in the book.
All of the religious references subtly led to consideration of the parallels between politics and religion, and that of Obama and his followers. But David is such a detached narrator, that it was hard to form a personal connection or to even really understand his point of view or beliefs at all. David is also a father to a young daughter, of which we get a few mentions but not many of his personal feelings about. This makes one of the "lessons" the bildungsroman reveals in the book's final pages, though elegantly written, difficult to buy because we don't get much evidence of change in David's behavior or thinking up until that point.
David's role as fundraiser exposes him not to the idealistic "hope" side of the campaign, but the side of wealthy donors courting access (of which Beverly plays a big part). We shuffle with him from experience to experience, where he skates by, exerting minimal effort or enthusiasm. In between events (or sometimes frustratingly in the midst of them), we get pages and pages of digressions, many of which have little connection to the main narrative, on everything from religion, to basketball, to past memories. While some of these were very well-written, they often caused the story to lose all momentum. For example, David is at a club and witnesses a man's fall from a balcony. In the midst of all this drama, we get several pages of David flashing back to a school education program, with its only connection being David's use of a calming technique. Then we jump back to the club and only get two sentences of David reacting to the man's death. That being said, one of those digressions, a scene at a bar with David and a waiter sharing their opinions on the Celtics, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, was one of my favorite scenes in the book.
All of the religious references subtly led to consideration of the parallels between politics and religion, and that of Obama and his followers. But David is such a detached narrator, that it was hard to form a personal connection or to even really understand his point of view or beliefs at all. David is also a father to a young daughter, of which we get a few mentions but not many of his personal feelings about. This makes one of the "lessons" the bildungsroman reveals in the book's final pages, though elegantly written, difficult to buy because we don't get much evidence of change in David's behavior or thinking up until that point.
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
informative
reflective
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:
Yes
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this but wasn't wowed by it. My impression is that Cunningham had the idea to reimagine Great Expectations with the Obama campaign as the backdrop, and he succeeds with that, but it feels very intellectualized and thematically something is missing. But Cunningham can definitely write.
reflective
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:
Yes
vinson cunningham is a very skilled writer, expert at portraying david's inquisitive, introspective mindset as well as both the intense devotion and desperation for status surrounding the candidate. however, i did find this book quite slow at points, in particular whenever we veered away from david's work on the campaign. the flashbacks which allowed us a peek into his past and helped us understand his deeply christian background did play nicely into the theme of belief, but at the same time some of those scenes slowed down the novel quite a bit.
i also enjoyed the brief moments of humor and wished that more of vinson cunningham's sharp, funny voice (as i've gleaned from obsessively listening to critics at large, which he cohosts lol) was at play in this novel. but that's really more of a me thing, not a knock on the novel. i also wished his daughter played more of a role in the novel — not exactly that she was more of a character, but that david's thoughts on her and his relationship with her and the kind of father he wants to be were more clearly woven in among the themes of fatherhood and searching for someone or something to believe in that were very much at play in this novel.
overall, though this wasn't a new favorite book, i liked it and will def be on the lookout for more of cunningham's work in the future
i also enjoyed the brief moments of humor and wished that more of vinson cunningham's sharp, funny voice (as i've gleaned from obsessively listening to critics at large, which he cohosts lol) was at play in this novel. but that's really more of a me thing, not a knock on the novel. i also wished his daughter played more of a role in the novel — not exactly that she was more of a character, but that david's thoughts on her and his relationship with her and the kind of father he wants to be were more clearly woven in among the themes of fatherhood and searching for someone or something to believe in that were very much at play in this novel.
overall, though this wasn't a new favorite book, i liked it and will def be on the lookout for more of cunningham's work in the future