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khveronika's review against another edition
2.0
Es scheint so, als ob mir dieses Buch über den Weg gelaufen ist, um mir eine Lektion zu erteilen... Dass ich endlich aufhören sollte, in Airbnbs hinterlassene Bücher zu lesen, mit der Hoffnung dadurch über einen verborgenen 5/5 ★ Schatz zu stolpern. Es ist das zweite Buch, das ich von T. C. Boyle gelesen habe (nach "The Inner Circle" in 2011) und vielleicht sind seine Werke einfach nicht wirklich was für mich...
Fangen wir mit den positiven Seiten an und zwar, dass dieses Buch mir zumindest eine neue Welt eröffnet hat, da ich es mir selber niemals ausgesucht hätte. Die darin geschilderte Geschichte greift tatsächliche historische Elemente auf, und zwar wie LSD zum ersten Mal entdeckt wurde, spinnt diese Ereignisse jedoch weiter. Dies geschieht in der üblichen Art des Autors, wo er sich eine bekannte Person aussucht und seiner Kreativität freien Lauf lässt, um eine fiktive Erzählung darum zu erfinden. Es geht um einen sektenartigen Kult, in welchen die Hauptcharaktere hineingeraten, wobei alles wie ein normales Experiment beginnt, das zu Forschungszwecken auf der Universität dienen sollte.
Dadurch dass Fiktion und Realität darin ziemlich verzweigt sind, brachte mich das zu weiteren Recherchen. Zum Beispiel ließ mich das Buch mehr Informationen über den Schweizer Chemiker Albert Hofmann oder den amerikanischen Psychologen Timothy Leary suchen, um mehr über ihre Beziehung zu dieser Droge zu erfahren. Ansonsten aber auch um herauszufinden, wo der Strich zwischen Realität und Erfindung gezogen werden kann. Es war spannend nach dem Lesen zu erfahren, dass die Atmosphäre der damaligen Zeit tatsächlich sehr gut eingefangen wurde, wie es in einem NPR Artikel beschrieben wird.
Was gut und spannend angefangen hat, nahm ziemlich schnell ein Ende, denn das Buch hat wenige Überraschungen parat, wie es auch in einem New York Times Artikel erwähnt wird. Was aus psychologischer Sicht interessant dargestellt wird, ist die Bildung einer Gemeinschaft, die in diesem Fall direkt mit dem Konsum von LSD zusammenhängt. Man bekommt einen guten Einblick darin, wie man nur das positive an den Erfahrungen sieht, wenn man mittendrin ist. Weiterhin aber auch, wie schwierig es sein muss, sich aus so einer Situation wieder rauszuziehen, wenn man langsam zu ahnen beginnt, dass es doch nicht die ideale Welt ist, die man sich ausgemalt hat. In dem ersten Drittel des Buches, waren die Wechsel der Erzählperspektiven der Charaktere sehr gut gelungen, was mir jedoch am Ende fehlte. Ohne zu viel von der Handlung zu verraten, hätte ich gerne über die Gedanken und die Sicht der Leute delesen, die es aus dieser Gemeinschaft ausgetreten sind.
Im Endeffekt sagt aber normalerweise die Lesedauer des Buches alleine schon viel darüber aus, ob es mir gefallen hat. In diesem Fall habe ich mich über einen Monat lang durch die Geschichte durchgequält, ohne sonderlicher Motivation es fertig zu lesen. Es war langwierig und es wurde kein sonderliches Interesse geweckt, so dass man erfahren wollen würde, wie sich das Buch fortsetzt und endet. Meiner Meinung nach hätte es gekürzt werden müssen, um knapper und spannender zu sein.
club_der_lebenden_leser's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
monty_reads's review against another edition
4.0
I know other authors meld fact and fiction in their work, but I’d be shocked to learn any do it as seamlessly (and compellingly) as T.C. Boyle. He’s done it many times before (architect Frank Lloyd Wright in The Women; explorer Mungo Park in World’s End; breakfast cereal magnate John Harvey Kellogg in The Road to Wellville; sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle), and in Outside Looking In he turns his eye on the 1960s LSD explorations of Timothy Leary.
Leary isn’t the book’s protagonist, but he looms large over the proceedings. The focus is ostensibly on a group of Leary’s Harvard grad students, and the focus of THAT group is Fitz Loney and his wife Joanie, struggling young parents who find themselves inexorably drawn into Leary’s inner circle. What begins as a series of gatherings where the students (and their spouses) dabble – quite modestly – with psilocybin escalates over several years into an extended experiment in communal living and herculean drug ingestion stretching across Mexico and practically the whole of New England.
Look: I’m not a drug guy. I’m anxious and neurotic and too much of a control freak to think hallucinogens could EVER be good for me. I generally find most books and movies detailing this kind of thing to be sort of tedious. Watching someone else’s good time isn’t much fun.
But it’s to Boyle’s credit that I was fascinated with this entire book, from its lengthy Swiss-set prologue detailing scientist Albert Hofmann’s ingestion of the world’s first LSD to its cynical, bleakly funny conclusion where we see the ultimate cost of this experimentation on FItz and his marriage. (It also sports one of modern literature’s greatest last lines.)
Like all Boyle’s stuff, Outside Looking In somehow manages to be laugh out loud funny while also wrapping tendrils of creeping dread around your ankles. I’ve seen him do this trick before, and I still don’t know how he pulls it off. You know it’s not going to end well for anyone, but you still have a hell of a time watching it happen.
Leary isn’t the book’s protagonist, but he looms large over the proceedings. The focus is ostensibly on a group of Leary’s Harvard grad students, and the focus of THAT group is Fitz Loney and his wife Joanie, struggling young parents who find themselves inexorably drawn into Leary’s inner circle. What begins as a series of gatherings where the students (and their spouses) dabble – quite modestly – with psilocybin escalates over several years into an extended experiment in communal living and herculean drug ingestion stretching across Mexico and practically the whole of New England.
Look: I’m not a drug guy. I’m anxious and neurotic and too much of a control freak to think hallucinogens could EVER be good for me. I generally find most books and movies detailing this kind of thing to be sort of tedious. Watching someone else’s good time isn’t much fun.
But it’s to Boyle’s credit that I was fascinated with this entire book, from its lengthy Swiss-set prologue detailing scientist Albert Hofmann’s ingestion of the world’s first LSD to its cynical, bleakly funny conclusion where we see the ultimate cost of this experimentation on FItz and his marriage. (It also sports one of modern literature’s greatest last lines.)
Like all Boyle’s stuff, Outside Looking In somehow manages to be laugh out loud funny while also wrapping tendrils of creeping dread around your ankles. I’ve seen him do this trick before, and I still don’t know how he pulls it off. You know it’s not going to end well for anyone, but you still have a hell of a time watching it happen.
ghem_'s review against another edition
2.0
this book could have been a 4 star. the plot was relatively engaging, the characters interesting.
however. the narration was FILLED with perverse misogynistic phrases including (but not limited to) describing a woman as a “fleshsack”, implying that the sweat a man could smell came from between a woman’s legs, comparing a hot dog bun to a woman’s genitalia, not to mention detailing the breasts of every woman in any scene (and including how they compared to those of every other woman present.) additionally, vaguely racist remarks were also scattered around the book, for little more than shock value. i understand the book is set in the 60s, however many of these phrases were NOT dialogue, nor were they from a first person viewpoint.
while i was prepared to make mild concessions when i operated under the assumption that this book was published in the 70s or 80s, after learning that t. c. boyle had the gall to write like this in 2019? i am appalled.
however. the narration was FILLED with perverse misogynistic phrases including (but not limited to) describing a woman as a “fleshsack”, implying that the sweat a man could smell came from between a woman’s legs, comparing a hot dog bun to a woman’s genitalia, not to mention detailing the breasts of every woman in any scene (and including how they compared to those of every other woman present.) additionally, vaguely racist remarks were also scattered around the book, for little more than shock value. i understand the book is set in the 60s, however many of these phrases were NOT dialogue, nor were they from a first person viewpoint.
while i was prepared to make mild concessions when i operated under the assumption that this book was published in the 70s or 80s, after learning that t. c. boyle had the gall to write like this in 2019? i am appalled.
ashybear02's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Animal death
ergordon4's review against another edition
4.0
I was a little disappointed with the ending, but TC Boyle is such a great story teller I was fast turning pages to get there. Interesting look at an era when I was young enough to know but not to participate, growing up.
nanana's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
nahlabooks's review against another edition
3.0
2,9/3
Arghhh i don’t know how to rate this book. I loved the writing style and enjoyed the slow paced novel, although the plot was close to non existence.
This isn’t a book you pick for intrigues or plot twist but rather curiosity.
I do recognise T.C Boyle’s impressive way of writing such a flat story, however a book needs more than immersive writing to be good.
My favourite part was Part II, Joanie’s perspective was much more interesting and enjoyable then Fitz.
I was hoping the ending would wrap up the novel quiet nicely, unfortunately it made the book even more hazardous, as we have 0 conclusion.
In spite of all these critics and comments, I found myself still thinking of the story and characters. This novel was very different from what I usually read, it was innovative in a way that wasn’t obvious.
I will most likely try and get my hands on another work by this author as a lot of people were disappointed by this novel, I hope his previous work will have both plot and writing style.
Arghhh i don’t know how to rate this book. I loved the writing style and enjoyed the slow paced novel, although the plot was close to non existence.
This isn’t a book you pick for intrigues or plot twist but rather curiosity.
I do recognise T.C Boyle’s impressive way of writing such a flat story, however a book needs more than immersive writing to be good.
My favourite part was Part II, Joanie’s perspective was much more interesting and enjoyable then Fitz.
I was hoping the ending would wrap up the novel quiet nicely, unfortunately it made the book even more hazardous, as we have 0 conclusion.
In spite of all these critics and comments, I found myself still thinking of the story and characters. This novel was very different from what I usually read, it was innovative in a way that wasn’t obvious.
I will most likely try and get my hands on another work by this author as a lot of people were disappointed by this novel, I hope his previous work will have both plot and writing style.