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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
A powerful story about the potential for books to save our lives. Makkai’s closing passage dedicating this story to those who read the final lines of books first (like I did when I was Ian’s age) broke me. I’d love nothing more than to give this five stars, but some of Lucy’s personal reflections on her identity seemed out of place and tonally dissonant with the rest of the book. I stand by my initial claim that this is the adult companion to Matilda.
a tiiiny but slow at first but the END HIT ME LIKE A TRUCK
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was really happy with the ending. It lags a bit in the middle and I had a few complaints, but she really stuck the landing. Also, it's hard to find too much fault with a book about lonely people who like books.
Books mentioned in "the borrower"
Matilda
Little house in the big woods
Fantastic Mr fox
Green eggs and ham
Tales of a fourth grade nothing
D'aulaires Greek myths
Egypt game
Theater shoes
My side of the mountain
From the mixed up files of Mrs basil e. Frank writer
(Charlotte's Web opening line)
Tuck everlasting
Harry Potter
The golden goblet
Misty of chincoteague
Ellen tebbits
Vanity fair
The pushcart war
A wrinkle in time
The westing game
Huron and the sea of stories
Five children and it
The princess Bride
Bobbsey twins books
1,000 date nights
The polar express
The night before Christmas
The search for delicious
The BFG
Danny, the champion of the world
Number the stars
Anna Karenina
The 21 balloons
Heidi
The hobbit
Bunnicula
The giver
The golden compass
Lord of the flies
The catcher in the rye
A separate peace
The things they carried
David Copperfield
Middlesex
Where the red fern grows
Books mentioned in "the borrower"
Matilda
Little house in the big woods
Fantastic Mr fox
Green eggs and ham
Tales of a fourth grade nothing
D'aulaires Greek myths
Egypt game
Theater shoes
My side of the mountain
From the mixed up files of Mrs basil e. Frank writer
(Charlotte's Web opening line)
Tuck everlasting
Harry Potter
The golden goblet
Misty of chincoteague
Ellen tebbits
Vanity fair
The pushcart war
A wrinkle in time
The westing game
Huron and the sea of stories
Five children and it
The princess Bride
Bobbsey twins books
1,000 date nights
The polar express
The night before Christmas
The search for delicious
The BFG
Danny, the champion of the world
Number the stars
Anna Karenina
The 21 balloons
Heidi
The hobbit
Bunnicula
The giver
The golden compass
Lord of the flies
The catcher in the rye
A separate peace
The things they carried
David Copperfield
Middlesex
Where the red fern grows
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Recommended by Andrea, Jo and Ellen B.
You just gotta love Ian!
Check our catalog:
http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sborrower%20makkai__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&suite=pearl
You just gotta love Ian!
Check our catalog:
http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sborrower%20makkai__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&suite=pearl
I have a few problems with this novel. I expected to like Lucy Hull. But I didn't. In fact, by the end of the novel, I was pretty close to not being able to stand her. She LETS this 'kidnapping' happen, without having the OUNCE of common sense it would require to get Ian safely home, and then proceeds to drive aimlessly around America, exploring her mixed up feelings on her Russian heritage and not doing a whole lot to change Ian's life, though that's her weak justification for their jaunt.
Lucy didn't even feel real to me, though many of the other characters did. The whole Russian Mafia and stories/lies from her family history felt fake, concocted, and not even absurd, as they were supposed to- just irritating. I felt like as a reader, I deserved better than this jumbled, half-hearted mess.
The book is also hugely dissatisfying in the end. While I'm well-versed in the modernists, and am perfectly capable of recognizing and appreciating the way in which this whole plot amounted to nothing, it was in a bad way, not a good way. Ulysses does it right, this novel does not.
Also, I cannot believe Lucy just ABANDONED poor Rocky! The way she casually discarded him and Sophie Bennett makes her just seem cruel.
I was also really annoyed by how hard the author tried so hard to make her own writing Nabokovian. Yes, Nabokov is great. No, you are not Nabokov. And Lucy's so-called crime does not even come close to those of Nabokov's infamous villains. It really bothered me the way she kept forcing the story/her style into this Nabokovian defense of the accused type thing.
However, there were elements I did like. I liked Ian, I liked Tim and the theatre Lucy lived above (though gay actor is an easy enough cliche to write), I liked the Christian magazine filled with reading lists- that was a really nice touch. I just really didn't like that we found no meaning in the end, and were left with annoying, philosophizing Lucy trying to sleep at night. Waah. Poor her.
I feel like I've been unnecessarily harsh with this book. I did enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered reading the whole thing. This book proves a fun read, but not particularly amazing, life-changing, or moving.
Lucy didn't even feel real to me, though many of the other characters did. The whole Russian Mafia and stories/lies from her family history felt fake, concocted, and not even absurd, as they were supposed to- just irritating. I felt like as a reader, I deserved better than this jumbled, half-hearted mess.
The book is also hugely dissatisfying in the end. While I'm well-versed in the modernists, and am perfectly capable of recognizing and appreciating the way in which this whole plot amounted to nothing, it was in a bad way, not a good way. Ulysses does it right, this novel does not.
Also, I cannot believe Lucy just ABANDONED poor Rocky! The way she casually discarded him and Sophie Bennett makes her just seem cruel.
I was also really annoyed by how hard the author tried so hard to make her own writing Nabokovian. Yes, Nabokov is great. No, you are not Nabokov. And Lucy's so-called crime does not even come close to those of Nabokov's infamous villains. It really bothered me the way she kept forcing the story/her style into this Nabokovian defense of the accused type thing.
However, there were elements I did like. I liked Ian, I liked Tim and the theatre Lucy lived above (though gay actor is an easy enough cliche to write), I liked the Christian magazine filled with reading lists- that was a really nice touch. I just really didn't like that we found no meaning in the end, and were left with annoying, philosophizing Lucy trying to sleep at night. Waah. Poor her.
I feel like I've been unnecessarily harsh with this book. I did enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered reading the whole thing. This book proves a fun read, but not particularly amazing, life-changing, or moving.