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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
When I think back on certain parts of this book, I realize that there were some five star moments, but as a whole, the parts didn't seem to go together too well. I enjoyed reading the relationship between the main character and the little girl she baby sat. It brought back many wonderful memories of the two little girls I cared for all through college and truly loved.
The premise has such potential but the story became so preposterous. I hate to say this, but I thought reading this was largely a waste of my time, aside from one thought-provoking commentary on the Bible. It started out well but quickly fell into a storyline with one ridiculous turn followed by another.
I couldn't even finish this book. It felt to me that there were too many stories crammed into one and it made the story too random and odd. I got to a point where I skimmed the end to see if there was anything there that would pull me in but there was not.
Lorrie Moore is a beautiful writer, lushly descriptive and intimate, and I wouldn't describe this as a page-turner, I didn't realize I was really into it until I was running late two mornings in a row because I couldn't put it down. I think I may have to think on this for a few days before I can say what I really took away from this book.
Gosh. This book. Lorrie Moore's prose is so elegant, this story so sorrowful yet somehow your heart is left full. Moore's writing turns the everyday into something so oddly honest, illuminating the dull, the boring, with new hope. Tassie is a narrator full of spunk, tolling through the relentless mundanity of life, reaching around, lanky limbed, for some sense of a self. Oh and Tassie's descriptions of food are everything to me. Gooooood stufffff.
I'd had this book on my shelf for some time and wish I'd gotten to it sooner. Moore's prose is gorgeous, funny, and evocative, often all at the same time. There is a lot happening in it, and I almost felt like the narratives might have been better served in a set of linked short stories. A lot to think about in this novel, and I'm still processing it, but my sense is that it's about the blurry edges between good and evil. Lovely.
Although it ended up being a colossal bummer, I loved this book because of the sheer wonder of its prose, among other things. Sentence by sentence it astounded me. I'll probably have to reread it fairly soon...
While Ned Andrew loved this book -- going on and on about the prose -- I did not. Yes, there are interesting and gorgeously-written passages of prose, but the book felt like several of Moore's short stories stitched together with a too-mature, puppet character that she conveniently places where she needs her to witness and report the next scene. This character (I can't call her a protagonist) has these odd, spontaneous bursts of wisdom and foreknowledge, but is incredibly self-absorbed, immature, and totally passive. Her most assertive act is silence.
I would give the first half of this book 2 stars, then the last half 4 stars; so 3 stars evens it out.
I feel like whoever edited this book did a terrible job, and that the writing was overly verbose at times. But there were also some very nice moments; of dialogue, character musings, descriptions.
I didn’t think I would even finish this book because of how apathetic I felt about the writing and story at the beginning. Now, I don’t know that I would recommend it to friends unless they wanted something specific, but I can say that I liked it fine.
I feel like whoever edited this book did a terrible job, and that the writing was overly verbose at times. But there were also some very nice moments; of dialogue, character musings, descriptions.
I didn’t think I would even finish this book because of how apathetic I felt about the writing and story at the beginning. Now, I don’t know that I would recommend it to friends unless they wanted something specific, but I can say that I liked it fine.