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terranovanz's review
3.0
Beautifully written, but too far out there for me. Moments of stunning beauty surrounded by a lot of "huh"?
biedermeier_margo's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
2.5
teagueamania's review
2.0
The author loves the Michigan landscape where he grew up, but doesn't have much luck populating it: the characters are thin and I couldn't care about any of them. The book within a book device seemed entirely superfluous to what story there was, as was the alternative history motif. Only duty got me to the halfway point, whereupon I skimmed to the end.
ebokhyllami's review
3.0
Forsåvidt velskrevet, interessant tema, til tider spennende! Men så var det dette da, at denne kjedet meg en smule også...
aaroncbabcock's review
3.0
Probably 3.5 stars, really.
It's an odd book that has (rightly) been compared to the works of Robert Stone, Pynchon, and "Catch-22." Mean's prose is flawless and the work has an interesting frame of a book-within-a-book, but the potential of this frame is never fully capitalized upon. On some level, the work feels incomplete (mostly because we learn so little about -- and hear so little from -- the author of the book within the book, Eugene Allen).
That said, as far as alternative histories go, this is one of the better ones to come out recently in a genre that is pretty crowded and, frequently, a bit tired.
It's an odd book that has (rightly) been compared to the works of Robert Stone, Pynchon, and "Catch-22." Mean's prose is flawless and the work has an interesting frame of a book-within-a-book, but the potential of this frame is never fully capitalized upon. On some level, the work feels incomplete (mostly because we learn so little about -- and hear so little from -- the author of the book within the book, Eugene Allen).
That said, as far as alternative histories go, this is one of the better ones to come out recently in a genre that is pretty crowded and, frequently, a bit tired.
charliezegers's review
1.0
The sort of narration the author attempts here is really hard to do well... and I think he missed the mark. Also didn't really get how the JFK subplot was necessary to the story - but that was what caught my eye when I picked up the book in the library. I guess the muddled storytelling was meant to convey the muddled feeling of characters whose memories had been manipulated, but to me it just felt... muddled.
cav241's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
millieu's review
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
3.5