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adam_reads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
A weird, surreal look about surviving, navigating, and changing the systems we are thrust in to as Americans.
courier's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ejo's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
marie_hermine's review
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
intorilex's review against another edition
4.0
Find this and other Reviews at In Tori Lex
This book was a wonderful rumination of what unites and divides us. The characters explore class, race, real or imagined borders and the violent realities of poverty. Emi and Gabriel are a couple who chase after stories, and Buzzworm is a man who has the skills and hope to assist a homeless community. All of the characters serve a purpose and their existence and dialogue works on multiple levels. After a slow start I became completely engaged in how the characters come together to show just how hard existing can be if your not apart of mainstream society. The book covers the span of a week and changes point of views between different connected characters.
The writing is politically driven and there is commentary that makes sense in the context of the LA Riots which happened around the time this book was published. The political nature of the book may turn some people off, but I enjoyed the philosophical musings thrown in between very weird events. The Tropic of Cancer is "the most northerly circle of latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead, " according to Wikipedia. The Tropic of Orange is a tangible representation of the borders that separate our planet's hemispheres and countries. The books' events start to unravel as the Tropic of Orange is moved, LA's highways completely shutdown, and time and space begins to bend.
I admire this book's scope and ability to describe many different cultures, as they collide in people and occupy very different spaces.This book illustrates how important it is to develop an understanding for those we may ignore, and appreciate the value of diversity. The ending wraps up the sprawling events and characters nicely. The magical realism in the book was used well to adapt to the events and feelings that are hard to describe in our reality. I would recommend this book to readers who don't mind a slow start into an engaging politically driven narrative filled with magical realism.
This book was a wonderful rumination of what unites and divides us. The characters explore class, race, real or imagined borders and the violent realities of poverty. Emi and Gabriel are a couple who chase after stories, and Buzzworm is a man who has the skills and hope to assist a homeless community. All of the characters serve a purpose and their existence and dialogue works on multiple levels. After a slow start I became completely engaged in how the characters come together to show just how hard existing can be if your not apart of mainstream society. The book covers the span of a week and changes point of views between different connected characters.
"The assemblage of military might pointed at one's own people was horrific, as was the amassing of weapons and munitions by the people themselves."
The writing is politically driven and there is commentary that makes sense in the context of the LA Riots which happened around the time this book was published. The political nature of the book may turn some people off, but I enjoyed the philosophical musings thrown in between very weird events. The Tropic of Cancer is "the most northerly circle of latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead, " according to Wikipedia. The Tropic of Orange is a tangible representation of the borders that separate our planet's hemispheres and countries. The books' events start to unravel as the Tropic of Orange is moved, LA's highways completely shutdown, and time and space begins to bend.
"Talked about mythic realities, like everyone gets plugged into a myth and builds a reality around it. Or was it the other way around? Everybody gets plugged into a reality and builds a myth around it."
I admire this book's scope and ability to describe many different cultures, as they collide in people and occupy very different spaces.This book illustrates how important it is to develop an understanding for those we may ignore, and appreciate the value of diversity. The ending wraps up the sprawling events and characters nicely. The magical realism in the book was used well to adapt to the events and feelings that are hard to describe in our reality. I would recommend this book to readers who don't mind a slow start into an engaging politically driven narrative filled with magical realism.
jayaxochitl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
yc0210's review
adventurous
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Faded by the end for me, sprawling and captivating to start, feels like a TV miniseries
eklsolo's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
rc90041's review against another edition
2.0
This is not a good book. Published in 1997, it reads today like a parody of an overly-academic attempt at fiction that just can't resist wearing its recently acquired postmodern learning on its sleeve. It's overflowing with all-too-obvious and on-the-nose references to standard hits of late-nineties Los Angeles-related pomo obsession (e.g., "City of Quartz," "Ecology of Fear," "Blade Runner," film noir, cyberpunk, "Neuromancer," Kuhnian "paradigm shifts," NAFTA, etc.), and at times, it feels as if Yamashita (as another reviewer here has noted) can't decide whether she's writing fiction or a critical essay to be included in some kind of compilation called "Postmodern L.A." or "L.A.: City of Postmodernity," to be published by Verso in 1997. The heavy handedness and clunkiness of the writing can at times leave the reader literally rolling her eyes. For example:
The book leaves no impression: the characters are flat parts of a cutesy, schematic plan, that devolves into a sloppy mess at the end -- an ending for which I feel confident the author had little to no idea what point was trying to be expressed (the facile late-90s pomo reply would be "that is the point!").
Beyond all of that, there are weird, distracting solecisms and tics that just piss off the reader: "Angel's Flight [sic]," the constant use of "Oouuu [sic]," "gamelons [sic]," "bee ess [sic]," "healing capitol [sic] of the nation," etc. I kept thinking, for a book that spends so much time waxing poetic about the "Net," a new and strange thing in 1997, Yamashita could've used that powerful tool to, I don't know, spellcheck her book.
They straddled the line--a slender endless serpent of a line--one peering into a private world of dreams and metaphysics, the other into a public place of politics and power. One peering into a magical world, the other peering into a virtual one. "Will you wait for me on the other side?" she whispered as the line in the dust became again as wide as an entire culture and as deep as the social and economic construct that nobody knew how to change.Page 254.
The book leaves no impression: the characters are flat parts of a cutesy, schematic plan, that devolves into a sloppy mess at the end -- an ending for which I feel confident the author had little to no idea what point was trying to be expressed (the facile late-90s pomo reply would be "that is the point!").
Beyond all of that, there are weird, distracting solecisms and tics that just piss off the reader: "Angel's Flight [sic]," the constant use of "Oouuu [sic]," "gamelons [sic]," "bee ess [sic]," "healing capitol [sic] of the nation," etc. I kept thinking, for a book that spends so much time waxing poetic about the "Net," a new and strange thing in 1997, Yamashita could've used that powerful tool to, I don't know, spellcheck her book.