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evermck's review
4.0
An interesting book to "read" again and again, if only for the surreal effect of flipping the pages.
leelee_draws_pictures's review
3.0
This book is another book with words literally die-cut out of it to create a narrative. The pages must be handled carefully to ensure that nothing rips. The narrative that's been created here seems to be -- although I'm not sure, because bits of it were hard to follow -- the story of a man, torn apart by depression, as told through his child's eyes. The depression seems to tear across the physical landscape: the houses are described as sinking, and the petals fall from the floral wallpaper. The story seems to go in another direction after the first half, something about an apocalypse that the father averts with his own mind (?), but somehow that's all right. I really enjoyed Foer's ability to create a new, mostly cohesive story from another, and the beautiful imagery contained therein.
iampotassium's review
3.0
This book is a die cut book of another book. I didn't even know you could do that. Who do you ask for permission if the original author is dead? Do you? That part is haunting me.
Anyway moving on - reading this book was an interesting experience. First you have to figure out how to read it. Then you have to figure out what is happening. I enjoyed the first 2/3 more than the last third. The very middle has some interesting ideas that spoke to me. The end was meh.
Favorite part: 'Only a few people noticed the lack of color, as in black and white photographs....anonymous gray which did not throw shadows and did not stress anything, a screen placed to hide the true meaning of things, a facade behind which there was an overintense coloring.'
I kinda liked the die cuts. It made for kind of a halting prose and I enjoyed the sound of it in my head. Especially when 'i' was lowercase and alone on a line.
Anyway moving on - reading this book was an interesting experience. First you have to figure out how to read it. Then you have to figure out what is happening. I enjoyed the first 2/3 more than the last third. The very middle has some interesting ideas that spoke to me. The end was meh.
Favorite part: 'Only a few people noticed the lack of color, as in black and white photographs....anonymous gray which did not throw shadows and did not stress anything, a screen placed to hide the true meaning of things, a facade behind which there was an overintense coloring.'
I kinda liked the die cuts. It made for kind of a halting prose and I enjoyed the sound of it in my head. Especially when 'i' was lowercase and alone on a line.
bibliovermis's review
2.0
When you get past the gimmicky cut-out pages, this book is basically a book of poetry. I find the concept of producing a work from the words in another work interesting, and I'm certain the poetry produced is fine. However, the execution of the book, with its die cut pages, makes the actual process of reading the book nigh impossible. Each page had to be lifted away from those behind it and inspected for content.
Many people found this process to be a fascinating part of the book experience. I just found it really, really annoying. For me, it made it even harder to keep track of what was going on.
Many people found this process to be a fascinating part of the book experience. I just found it really, really annoying. For me, it made it even harder to keep track of what was going on.
katy_byrns's review
3.0
More like a long poem. A little over my head. Maybe if I had been an English major...
theardentone's review
4.0
difficult to read for obvious reasons, but intriguingly poetic and artful. If not a grasping read, nevertheless a worthwhile one.