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candacesiegle_greedyreader's review against another edition
5.0
This mysterious and captivating novel weaves two story strands together into an unexpected and gratifying end. I'm pretty sure it's not like anything else you've read, which is a treat in itself.
One storyline revolves around Nora, living on a sun-blasted ranch during the 1892 Arizona drought. Her husband has left to buy water from the waterman in town, and her older sons have gone into town to publish their newspaper. None have returned. She's at home with her youngest son, who has had what seems to be a whale of a concussion, and their servant, a young woman who says she can occasionally speak to the dead. And her stroke-impaired, wheelchair-bound mother who mysteriously manages to move her chair to prime spots in the house.
Story two involves Lurie Mattie, which is not his real name, brought to the US as a child, lived as a street kid, and who relates his story to Burke, his camel. Lurie has two dead friends who follow him because he has absorbed their want. Where he encountered his camel you will have to read "Inland" to find out.
Anyone who follows my reviews knows how I try to avoid stories with supernatural elements, and that's because they are usually stupid. Tea Obrecht taps into the spirit of people of that time and place to create beliefs that fit. The west was haunted, and the people who came there brought their own ghosts to cohabit with the new ones they encountered.
Obrecht is a beautiful writer who captures the frying southwest and how people survive in areas where people were not really meant to live. Only Burke the camel is in the right place. What a wonderful book.
One storyline revolves around Nora, living on a sun-blasted ranch during the 1892 Arizona drought. Her husband has left to buy water from the waterman in town, and her older sons have gone into town to publish their newspaper. None have returned. She's at home with her youngest son, who has had what seems to be a whale of a concussion, and their servant, a young woman who says she can occasionally speak to the dead. And her stroke-impaired, wheelchair-bound mother who mysteriously manages to move her chair to prime spots in the house.
Story two involves Lurie Mattie, which is not his real name, brought to the US as a child, lived as a street kid, and who relates his story to Burke, his camel. Lurie has two dead friends who follow him because he has absorbed their want. Where he encountered his camel you will have to read "Inland" to find out.
Anyone who follows my reviews knows how I try to avoid stories with supernatural elements, and that's because they are usually stupid. Tea Obrecht taps into the spirit of people of that time and place to create beliefs that fit. The west was haunted, and the people who came there brought their own ghosts to cohabit with the new ones they encountered.
Obrecht is a beautiful writer who captures the frying southwest and how people survive in areas where people were not really meant to live. Only Burke the camel is in the right place. What a wonderful book.
heyheatherelise's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
leighreadsalot's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mondovertigo's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death and Child death
bookswithmaddi's review
2.0
This is one of the most absolutely wildest books I've ever read. I genuinely cannot even provide a general synopsis of this book because I don't know what happened. I listened to it as an audiobook which could've been my mistake, but honestly I've never really had a hard time understanding audiobooks before so it seems like I'm probably not the problem here. I think one of the most shocking revelations that this book offered was when I realized five hours into reading it that one of the narrators was addressing a second person you, and that "you" was a camel. He was talking to a camel the whole time. I want to emphasize that this is not a spoiler it just took me five hours to figure it out because I did not want to believe I was listening to a grown man address a camel.
In addition the way that the two narrators come together at the end is supposed to be crazy and shocking and wild and I completely predicted it. Worse than that the way I predicted it was thinking to myself "what is the stupidest thing that could happen?" and that very thing happened.
I didn't have high hopes for this book as I was just reading it to fulfill a popsugar prompt but I do realize that I can't get the several hours I spent listening to this book back and that hurts a little bit.
I'm obviously not here to trash this book completely, if you enjoy it I can totally see why and I'm happy for you. But as someone who actively recommends people books I would recommend this to a very narrow group of people. If that's the author's intentions than I'm all for that, but usually it's not, especially with this kind of fiction. So if you're wondering if you should read this book think long and hard about how much you like descriptions of dry landscapes, if you want to read large portions of text dedicated to a camel, and if you want there to be too many characters who have too similar names that you can't keep up with. If you want all of those things then this is the perfect book for you.
In addition the way that the two narrators come together at the end is supposed to be crazy and shocking and wild and I completely predicted it. Worse than that the way I predicted it was thinking to myself "what is the stupidest thing that could happen?" and that very thing happened.
I didn't have high hopes for this book as I was just reading it to fulfill a popsugar prompt but I do realize that I can't get the several hours I spent listening to this book back and that hurts a little bit.
I'm obviously not here to trash this book completely, if you enjoy it I can totally see why and I'm happy for you. But as someone who actively recommends people books I would recommend this to a very narrow group of people. If that's the author's intentions than I'm all for that, but usually it's not, especially with this kind of fiction. So if you're wondering if you should read this book think long and hard about how much you like descriptions of dry landscapes, if you want to read large portions of text dedicated to a camel, and if you want there to be too many characters who have too similar names that you can't keep up with. If you want all of those things then this is the perfect book for you.
sara_shocks's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars, rounded down here
Beautiful descriptions of the vast, terrifying American West, and a compelling, entangled narrative I wanted to see through to the end. One of these days, I'll read it again and probably catch some of the foreshadowing and hints I missed on this initial read.
Beautiful descriptions of the vast, terrifying American West, and a compelling, entangled narrative I wanted to see through to the end. One of these days, I'll read it again and probably catch some of the foreshadowing and hints I missed on this initial read.
ben_r's review
4.0
A western of a different type. Obreht writes like the air coursing through the cottonwoods standing tall above an Arizona river.