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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
EMOTIONS.
It's been a while since I've devoured a book in under a day. And I did devour this, from staying up way too late last night to trying to read it while walking around the house.
This book was fantastic. I loved every quirky, misfit bit of June Elbus. She felt so real and wonderful and naive, and I couldn't be mad at her, even when she was being ridiculous. I loved how totally un-self-conscious she was about being herself. And in a lot of ways, I identified with her, too, so I'm sure that helped.
I'm really struggling to come up with more that I want to say about this book without getting into all of the intricacies that made it so good. Maybe I need to recover from this post-finishing well of emotions.
But seriously though. Read this.
It's been a while since I've devoured a book in under a day. And I did devour this, from staying up way too late last night to trying to read it while walking around the house.
This book was fantastic. I loved every quirky, misfit bit of June Elbus. She felt so real and wonderful and naive, and I couldn't be mad at her, even when she was being ridiculous. I loved how totally un-self-conscious she was about being herself. And in a lot of ways, I identified with her, too, so I'm sure that helped.
I'm really struggling to come up with more that I want to say about this book without getting into all of the intricacies that made it so good. Maybe I need to recover from this post-finishing well of emotions.
But seriously though. Read this.
A good book, I enjoyed it. It took a long time to get into. I read it because it was rated as one of the best books last year. I don't agree that it should be on that list.
This book was sooooooo amazing. Highly recommended!
(Also, I really thing June is asexual. Which is quite revolutionary and awesome for a book so mainstream as this one! I'm very happy about that. :) )
(Also, I really thing June is asexual. Which is quite revolutionary and awesome for a book so mainstream as this one! I'm very happy about that. :) )
4.5 stars. Excellent. I was sad for it to come to an end.
Obviously incredibly well-written and intricately woven together -- I especially like how the sisters end up calling out to each other through the portrait -- but it seemed to fall into an over-emotional quagmire somewhere about 2/3rds of the way in. The character of June was excellent, but her sister Greta's personality/challenges/issues felt somewhat contrived. Overall, though, a very good book!
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Between a 3 and a 4. I just spent most of this book being angry at all the characters. This book carries an emotional weight and I’m happy to have finished so I can breathe, but I struggled to get through.
you know this was p good until there was incest out of nowhere. Also toby saying that he knows about forbidden love? I’m p sure having a crush on ur uncle is diff from being gay…
Wow. This was wonderful. There's tension and emotion and it all unspools in this wonderful way. I didn't want to put it down. I was charmed by the narrator. I was surprised at several turns. I'm delighted.
My only disappointment with this novel was that I bought the iBook version; I needed this book to be tangible. I needed to hold this book the way it held me.
I have always loved period pieces- WWII, the 20’s, basically any story that can take me back to another time, I enjoy. The setting of this novel, in the height of the 1980‘s at the US’s first real awareness of AIDS, was no exception. Off that bat, one might not consider this “period novel”. It was, after all, not that long ago, chronologically speaking. But socially, it was ages ago. It’s interesting to be thrust into that time when AIDS was just emerging and there was so much confusion and uncertainty.
In addition to the setting, the characters are all phenomenal and very well developed. This is something I base most of my “favorites” on- character development. I loved how each of June’s family members has their own personality that unfolds throughout the story. While June is ultimately the main character, she serves as a vehicle for the others to move and grow along with the story. Through her voice and observations, we learn of her mother’s regret, her father’s sadness, and her sister’s loneliness. It is through June’s keen, wise-beyond-her-years observations that we learn of the details that make up each member of her family and ultimately how they all function together as a “normal” family, despite underlying feelings of sadness and remorse. Similarly, it is through Toby’s character that we really get to know the dead Finn. I loved this piece of writing- Finn is still a main character throughout the novel, fully developing along with the rest of the family, although he dies quite early on.
The point that the author made to make the family fairly normal and functioning, despite it’s controversy, was something I really took away from this book. My initial instinct was to paint this family as dysfunctional, to give a reason behind June’s eccentricities and her sister, Greta’s loneliness. But that was not the case. They were a typical American family made up of busy accountants and scared teenagers. The main story line -June’s “wrong” love for her AIDS ridden Uncle Finn- is a provocative subject that paved the way for more typical traits of the American family: loving parents, busy and just slightly too absent to keep close enough tabs on the kids, a sad teenager putting on a brave face, and a quirky girl muddling through adolescence. I found myself identifying with both sisters’ feelings of growing up faster than they were ready. (This was another interesting thread: both sisters ultimately in similar turmoil, but showing it in different ways.)
In the end, I was never quite sure whether or not June actually was “in love” with her uncle, in the “wrong” way, or if she just deeply loved him for the person he was and the person he made her feel she was. Ultimately, despite this being the main story line, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that a loved family member was gone and the remaining were left to move through life without him, each person changed by Finn in some way.
This is the book I have been waiting for all year. I recommend it to all. Again, I wish I had the hard-back so I could share with fellow readers.
I have always loved period pieces- WWII, the 20’s, basically any story that can take me back to another time, I enjoy. The setting of this novel, in the height of the 1980‘s at the US’s first real awareness of AIDS, was no exception. Off that bat, one might not consider this “period novel”. It was, after all, not that long ago, chronologically speaking. But socially, it was ages ago. It’s interesting to be thrust into that time when AIDS was just emerging and there was so much confusion and uncertainty.
In addition to the setting, the characters are all phenomenal and very well developed. This is something I base most of my “favorites” on- character development. I loved how each of June’s family members has their own personality that unfolds throughout the story. While June is ultimately the main character, she serves as a vehicle for the others to move and grow along with the story. Through her voice and observations, we learn of her mother’s regret, her father’s sadness, and her sister’s loneliness. It is through June’s keen, wise-beyond-her-years observations that we learn of the details that make up each member of her family and ultimately how they all function together as a “normal” family, despite underlying feelings of sadness and remorse. Similarly, it is through Toby’s character that we really get to know the dead Finn. I loved this piece of writing- Finn is still a main character throughout the novel, fully developing along with the rest of the family, although he dies quite early on.
The point that the author made to make the family fairly normal and functioning, despite it’s controversy, was something I really took away from this book. My initial instinct was to paint this family as dysfunctional, to give a reason behind June’s eccentricities and her sister, Greta’s loneliness. But that was not the case. They were a typical American family made up of busy accountants and scared teenagers. The main story line -June’s “wrong” love for her AIDS ridden Uncle Finn- is a provocative subject that paved the way for more typical traits of the American family: loving parents, busy and just slightly too absent to keep close enough tabs on the kids, a sad teenager putting on a brave face, and a quirky girl muddling through adolescence. I found myself identifying with both sisters’ feelings of growing up faster than they were ready. (This was another interesting thread: both sisters ultimately in similar turmoil, but showing it in different ways.)
In the end, I was never quite sure whether or not June actually was “in love” with her uncle, in the “wrong” way, or if she just deeply loved him for the person he was and the person he made her feel she was. Ultimately, despite this being the main story line, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that a loved family member was gone and the remaining were left to move through life without him, each person changed by Finn in some way.
This is the book I have been waiting for all year. I recommend it to all. Again, I wish I had the hard-back so I could share with fellow readers.