Reviews

This was an interesting book and I personally give a lot of credit for interesting. It was such sharp writing that I often marveled at sentences. It didn't go much of anywhere--there's a lot of internal musing and some dialogue, but not much happens. I felt like the characters needed more movement, globally and perhaps personally, to make it a true four stars.

teapotsonfire's review against another edition

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3.0

i randomly came upon this book. i had never heard of it and i by chance walked by it on a bookshelf. i thought the cover was striking. the book is very much so too. there is something about the way it is written that drags you into the story. you can't help but want to help this man search for his lost Rema. you find yourself questioning your own loyalties and if you too could notice the subtle differences in the ones you love. i really really liked this book. very different from all of the books i've read. i felt like there were still secrets to uncover in the end. things that weren't quite spelled out for you, left for you to infer.

shortforvalkyrie's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

jeninmotion's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Do you ever just have a moment where you're like "I...I just don't know, man" about a book? The audiobook has a great narrator, and not all characters have to be sympathetic, but also it's like

"I'm not sure what I can pull from a story where the narrator sinks deep into a delusion and his younger wife pulls him partially out of it but not really and he's kind of a weird dick anyway?"

. The portrait of a marriage angle doesn't really do it for me, and watching Leo face nothing also doesn't do anything for me, though of course I loved the casual dismissal in Patagonia that kind of shatters this grandiose delusion.

But...I just don't know, man. I just don't know.

smeschke's review against another edition

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3.0

Three and a half stars… really unique but I was also like …. What exactly is Going On. But beautiful in many places also

jimmylorunning's review against another edition

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3.0

[On the doppler effect...] Being aware of this distortion of perception allows scientists to take advantage of the distortion itself in order to gather accurate data about the actual, and not just the perceived, world. ... these distortions [when] properly understood enable a more accurate understanding of the real world. p 45

Obviously Galchen is not only referring to the doppler effect here, but also to other types of distorting effects. Like the one she is using--the unreliable narrator.

The problem with unreliable narrators is that there must be a truth worth discovering beyond the distortion. In Atmospheric Disturbances the truth beyond that distortion is entirely uninteresting and trivial. The characters were flat and seemed like exaggerations. Pretty soon the distortion itself (which in the first 50 pages was at least somewhat interesting and funny) also loses its steam.

The unreliable narrator also poses another challenge. One of mapping. In some sense, everything the narrator says must be mapped onto a reality that is at odds with the narrator's worldview. But that mapping must not become predictable or obvious, must not become 1:1. There can't be a sense of the author winking behind every line. The unreal must seem real, as if it were an unreality existing only for itself.

Because it failed on this second point as well, the book just came across as incredibly contrived.

And lastly, not to be too negative, but the ending sucked. I don't need resolutions or anything, I get the open endedness thing. But this book just built up all these questions and then petered the fuck out. The last 100 pages were all of the same frequency. It could have petered out 100 pages earlier and not much would have changed in terms of overall book-ness... There was no variation to the plot or characters, no turbulence whatsoever that would have even made things more interesting.

However, I still managed to enjoy this book mostly because:

1. I imagined it as a Haruki Murakami book if Murakami had the good sense to laugh at himself once in a while. We have a disappearance and a search and dogs instead of cats. Although there is a disturbing lack of breasts and no cooking of spaghetti. Perhaps that is its main flaw. It is actually more intelligent than (some of) Murakami's novels, though it is less interesting plot-wise.

2. I really enjoyed the use of science and scientific theories as a metaphor for other general-life things. A personal weakness of mine. In truth I probably gave this book an extra star just for that. (Rest assured, my rating system is otherwise scientifically sound and completely objective!). I liked the intellectual gymnastics Galchen was trying out here. I just wish it worked with an actual novel instead of a series of skits.

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