Reviews

Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen

stacialithub's review against another edition

4.0

This was a random selection from the library shelves & I hit a winner. The cool, clinical tone was perfect for the story of mental derailment from reality. The story brought up some provoking thoughts about reality (what it is vs. what we perceive), how we rationalize things, how we engage or detach from the world around us, how we cope. I'd recommend it to some, but I realize it is not a book that will appeal to others.

sarawithac's review against another edition

2.0

This was a strange book. I can't say it was a good book but I wanted to finish it to find out what the outcome was. By the way, it was never explained. I kept thinking maybe I was just missing something that was over my head and way too intelligent for me. Is he psychotic? Does he find his real wife? I got to the end of the book and was disappointed that this was never really resolved. Some of the writing was way too scientific for me and I found myself glossing over it. Often, the writing was superfluous and unnecessarily flowery. After reading some others' reviews, I was glad to see that I was not the only person with these mixed feelings about the book.

runkefer's review against another edition

4.0

Borgesian. I really liked this. My book group probably will not. It's heavy on philosophy and intellectual argument and light on touchy-feely (although the emotion is definitely there under the surface.) I loved the questioning of the permanence of identity. Interesting, as I just listened to an episode of RadioLab entitled "Who Am I" which was about the very same set of questions. The latest research: the self is a story constructed by the brain.

jocpanic's review against another edition

2.0

I guess it was creative and interesting, but I was just really bored and was waiting for something more to happen.

corrompido's review against another edition

3.0

Another really bizarre book that I read recently. Very interesting story, I probably would have given this another star if the ending hadn't been such an unsatisfying conclusion to the central mysteries of the story.

sensormellow's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

cforss's review

challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

four_sharks's review against another edition

3.0

I liked the journey in this book. There were a few things that made this book an unsatisfying read, however:
- There was no resolution to the protaganist's quest.
- The conversations in the book never made any sense.
- The author never took a stand on whether the protagonist was crazy or there were truly multiple worlds, or went into that idea much at all.
- The character "Harry" which is a patient of Dr. Leo's, could have provided a mirror for Dr. Leo in a more apt way. I assumed this was the author's intention, but it wasn't done gracefully.

frasersimons's review against another edition

challenging funny informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An analyst pulls on various knowledge in his field when he convinces himself of the Doppler effect, and determines his wife is a doppelgänger herself. He then discerns esoteric clues based on esoteric clues as to where he might find his real wife. But it’s actually a story about rifts in identity shifting  the perception of people. A literalization of the “I don’t even know who you are anymore”, but from a psychological travelogue romp where you don’t know if he’s right or wrong, or what that quite means. It won’t be the kind of story some people will be able to be invested in, but I found it engaging and insightful, and quirky—in a good way. Just the right amount of challenging. Plus, lots of interesting analyst shop talk. A confluence of stuff I’m interested in, basically. 

youshouldreadthisif's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0