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jess_mango's review
3.0
3.5 stars
Jozef Pronek is our Nowhere Man. He grew up in Bosnia and was a typically angsty teenager. He was inspired to pick up guitar based on a Beatles songbook and formed a Beatles cover band with some of his friend that then morphed shortly into punk then into blues. As an adult, Pronek moves to the States where he finds work and also tries to improve his English skills. Our narrator is someone who knew Pronek overseas and then again runs into him years later in America. I don't quite understand this narrator and when he pops into first person on the rare occasion I was like "oh, he's back. hmm."
This book is highly lauded by some and has much critical acclaim. Yet, for me, it didn't quite connect. Maybe it is because I am lacking something personally (brains, maybe??) but I didn't fully "get it". I can appreciate the author's mastery of the English language, particularly since it is not his native tongue. I got this book in a book swap forever ago and I finally picked it up because it was randomly chosen for me in the 1001 TBR Takedown challenge for the month of July.
What to listen to while reading (or taking a break)
Nowhere Man by The Beatles
Yellow Submarine by The Beatles
Yesterday by The Beatles
Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin
Something Stupid by Frank Sinatra
I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult
Black Star by Radiohead
Shadow of a Doubt by Sonic Youth
Jozef Pronek is our Nowhere Man. He grew up in Bosnia and was a typically angsty teenager. He was inspired to pick up guitar based on a Beatles songbook and formed a Beatles cover band with some of his friend that then morphed shortly into punk then into blues. As an adult, Pronek moves to the States where he finds work and also tries to improve his English skills. Our narrator is someone who knew Pronek overseas and then again runs into him years later in America. I don't quite understand this narrator and when he pops into first person on the rare occasion I was like "oh, he's back. hmm."
This book is highly lauded by some and has much critical acclaim. Yet, for me, it didn't quite connect. Maybe it is because I am lacking something personally (brains, maybe??) but I didn't fully "get it". I can appreciate the author's mastery of the English language, particularly since it is not his native tongue. I got this book in a book swap forever ago and I finally picked it up because it was randomly chosen for me in the 1001 TBR Takedown challenge for the month of July.
What to listen to while reading (or taking a break)
Nowhere Man by The Beatles
Yellow Submarine by The Beatles
Yesterday by The Beatles
Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin
Something Stupid by Frank Sinatra
I Put a Spell on You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult
Black Star by Radiohead
Shadow of a Doubt by Sonic Youth
ericfheiman's review against another edition
4.0
If not as widescreen and devastating as The Lazarus Project, Hemon still shows a command of the English language most native speakers only wish they possessed. The fractured narrative suits well the story of a Bosnian man upended by the 1990s war in Yugoslavia. Disconnection and alienation has rarely been written about so poetically—almost every sentence in Nowhere Man is a keeper.
michaeldebonis's review
4.0
This is a novel that is hard to classify. There is no PLOT. Each chapter has a seductive narrative all its own but the only constant connecting them is the main character Josef.
The most important thing to know about this novel is that the writing is superb. I found myself often admiring Hemon's ability to describe the gritty landscapes of Chicago and Eastern Europe as well as the awkward intimacies of human interaction..
This is one of those books that you can't wait to get back to during your lunch break.
(My only hesitation is that I found the last chapter a little out of place. It was entertaining but I thought it had a very different feel than the rest of the chapters.)
The most important thing to know about this novel is that the writing is superb. I found myself often admiring Hemon's ability to describe the gritty landscapes of Chicago and Eastern Europe as well as the awkward intimacies of human interaction..
This is one of those books that you can't wait to get back to during your lunch break.
(My only hesitation is that I found the last chapter a little out of place. It was entertaining but I thought it had a very different feel than the rest of the chapters.)
mcintoshheidi's review against another edition
4.0
This book started off with great promise, but the last chapter let it down somewhat. The writing is brilliant, and every sentence is very evocative and pops out of the page at you, insisting you have a mental picture of it. Wonderful writing and wonderful story.
schenkelberg's review
4.0
I had no idea what this book was going to be about, going in, and for readers doing that with Nowhere Man, its really disorienting at first. Hemon is a marvelously talented writer, but his tendency to spiral away from the plot into examinations of the refuse piles of human existence are at once shocking and distracting.
That being said, I loved this book, I loved Jozef Pronek and all the people around him. There's tender, heart-warming moments (however few and far between, I think I can actually only really think of one), bitter grief, anguished unrequited passion, horror, and basically every other dark and foul emotion mixed into it. Jozef's imagination is brilliantly done, vivid and stunning. He's a perpetual foreigner, tortured and aimless, but as far as a 'nowhere man', he's beautiful.
That being said, I loved this book, I loved Jozef Pronek and all the people around him. There's tender, heart-warming moments (however few and far between, I think I can actually only really think of one), bitter grief, anguished unrequited passion, horror, and basically every other dark and foul emotion mixed into it. Jozef's imagination is brilliantly done, vivid and stunning. He's a perpetual foreigner, tortured and aimless, but as far as a 'nowhere man', he's beautiful.
onyxisalive's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
The narrative voice of this book is all over the place. When the book changes perspective it’s clear who we’re following, but it’s never clear what the narrative voice is/who- whether it’s third person/first person, omniscient narrator etc; it’s never clear what it is as it changes constantly throughout (and at random points), this makes it difficult to get a lot for the structural points of the novel.
The narratives themselves while centring around the lives of Jozef Pronek (with the exception of the last one that felt really pointless) feel very disconnected, like the awful laid out the ground work to make an interesting point but stopped and changed perspective before he could, causing the book to feel like it was constantly ending prematurely. This made a lot of the potentially interesting stuff in this book feel entirely pointless.
As a result, you just have this lost character aimlessly wandering around. Just when you think the book is about to get interesting the perspective ends.
It felt like this book could’ve been good, but in the end it was just disappointing.
The similes and metaphors in this book were hit or miss- a lot of them were different from what I typically see done, but that doesn’t mean they are good. I liked some, but others came across as nonsense trying to sound clever. The beginning of the book is so dense in them it’s hard to read.
All in all, it was just disappointing really, had potential but stopped short of saying anything interesting.
The narratives themselves while centring around the lives of Jozef Pronek (with the exception of the last one that felt really pointless) feel very disconnected, like the awful laid out the ground work to make an interesting point but stopped and changed perspective before he could, causing the book to feel like it was constantly ending prematurely. This made a lot of the potentially interesting stuff in this book feel entirely pointless.
As a result, you just have this lost character aimlessly wandering around. Just when you think the book is about to get interesting the perspective ends.
It felt like this book could’ve been good, but in the end it was just disappointing.
The similes and metaphors in this book were hit or miss- a lot of them were different from what I typically see done, but that doesn’t mean they are good. I liked some, but others came across as nonsense trying to sound clever. The beginning of the book is so dense in them it’s hard to read.
All in all, it was just disappointing really, had potential but stopped short of saying anything interesting.
poenaestante's review
5.0
I jumped on this book because I read his short story (Love and Obstacles) from The New Yorker wherein a naive young boy hops on a bus to the outer reaches of Slovenia in search of adventure and his family's brand new refrigerator. The main character in Nowhere Man displayed the same deep naivete but also tortured deepness that is very characteristic of the Balkan personality. The story had many laugh out loud moments and many disturbing moments, but it all wove into something very beautiful. I highly recommend it!
kirstiecat's review
4.0
I finished this over a week ago but hadn't had a chance to write about it.I probably should have read Hemon's Question of Bruno first but I found this one at City Books and not the other. Well, basically, his book could have been five/five stars if he had just ended it earlier. It seems strange but (without giving away too much) the second to last chapter is intense, challenging, and honest. It is s confrontation which is successful in getting the characters and the reader to be really engaged in what is happening and would have made for an uneasy but still more satisfying conclusion. Instead, Hemon wraps up some of the characters in a completely different setting and time period in a way that feels disjointed and completely disconnected from anything else earlier in the book. In a way, it's probably best to just consider the last chapter to be some add on short story not in connection with the rest imo...though perhaps that is just me.
missnicolerose's review
3.0
Much like the narrator and his identity, I am torn when it comes to "Nowhere Man."
While I initially liked the format of the smaller vignette and shifting narrators, I expected these snippets to come together into a more cohesive form by the end of the story. Unfortunately, the lack of continuity and lack of formal plot were intended by Hemon and left me wanting more.
I suppose this perspective contributes to the whimsical, dreamlike, and "complicated" nature of Josef Pronek and his exploration of his own identity. While he is of Ukrainian descent, Pronek is a Bosnian national, and finally an émigré/refugee to the US.
I give 3 stars as I understand what Hemon is going for, but I just really didn't enjoy the book. I look forward to reading "The Lazarus Project" to see if I can gain a better insight into Hemon's writing...
While I initially liked the format of the smaller vignette and shifting narrators, I expected these snippets to come together into a more cohesive form by the end of the story. Unfortunately, the lack of continuity and lack of formal plot were intended by Hemon and left me wanting more.
I suppose this perspective contributes to the whimsical, dreamlike, and "complicated" nature of Josef Pronek and his exploration of his own identity. While he is of Ukrainian descent, Pronek is a Bosnian national, and finally an émigré/refugee to the US.
I give 3 stars as I understand what Hemon is going for, but I just really didn't enjoy the book. I look forward to reading "The Lazarus Project" to see if I can gain a better insight into Hemon's writing...
vtlism's review against another edition
3.0
certainly great writing. perfectly enjoyable. i keep recommending hemon to everyone, with no hope that anyone will remember his name.