Scan barcode
likecymbeline's review against another edition
4.0
When I was in high school my English teacher loved Ondaatje, as did his favourite student, forming a book club of two that I observed and envied. It lent this title an air of enchantment when it was released in the spring I was in Grade 12, reading only old classics when I was well enough to read anything at all. I can't tell you my mentality towards it at the time, only that I ascribed to it a Significance yet Remoteness as something I could not approach. I wouldn't have wanted to read something just to attempt to impress my teacher and intelligent classmate. I knew of Ondaatje's contemporary literary merit and read (and quoted) some of his poetry. Yet I would not reach out for it and instead cultivated this strange fetishization of Divisadero as a book one day worth reading. It is, perhaps, simply the first time I was aware of a book publishing announcement as a "major literary event" and built up my mythologies around that.
Which is all to say, I brought a lot of baggage to this book. Made worse by the fact that I borrowed it in 2020, read the first 90 pages, then with the pandemic left off reading for a while. I kept meaning to finish, but literal years passed so I started over from the beginning. I love the opening section (not just for having read it twice, but that did mean I expected more appearances of our opening characters before we reached the end). The writing is beautiful, the characters are tenderly portrayed, with Ondaatje's natural and particular physicality: he dwells sensuously on the common body, the practical body - the characters live in their bodies. I also loved the mysterious duality (which could've gone wrong - the ability, twice!, to swap out one sister for another. But it's more complicated than that, because of the interiority Anna and Claire have), what it means to be divided, to be twinned or untwinned. While I didn't expect us to end on Lucien, it was another mesmerizing story to be told. Further, I read it while coming down with something, with a feverish and sometimes confused feeling in my own surroundings so that sometimes events of the book felt like memories from books long past because the novel is so much fuller than what it depicts and contains. Lost in my own elliptical reading, untethered from my past and that time of youth and what could've been instead if I had read it then (can a book make such a difference in a life, in how it turns out? One must ask). Or if it makes any difference at all. I was ready for the lessons it offered, this time, or so I like to think, but don't trust my own judgment.
Which is all to say, I brought a lot of baggage to this book. Made worse by the fact that I borrowed it in 2020, read the first 90 pages, then with the pandemic left off reading for a while. I kept meaning to finish, but literal years passed so I started over from the beginning. I love the opening section (not just for having read it twice, but that did mean I expected more appearances of our opening characters before we reached the end). The writing is beautiful, the characters are tenderly portrayed, with Ondaatje's natural and particular physicality: he dwells sensuously on the common body, the practical body - the characters live in their bodies. I also loved the mysterious duality (which could've gone wrong - the ability, twice!, to swap out one sister for another. But it's more complicated than that, because of the interiority Anna and Claire have), what it means to be divided, to be twinned or untwinned. While I didn't expect us to end on Lucien, it was another mesmerizing story to be told. Further, I read it while coming down with something, with a feverish and sometimes confused feeling in my own surroundings so that sometimes events of the book felt like memories from books long past because the novel is so much fuller than what it depicts and contains. Lost in my own elliptical reading, untethered from my past and that time of youth and what could've been instead if I had read it then (can a book make such a difference in a life, in how it turns out? One must ask). Or if it makes any difference at all. I was ready for the lessons it offered, this time, or so I like to think, but don't trust my own judgment.
ivostarr's review
4.0
Divisadero is the first book I've read by Michael Ondaatje. I was inspired to pick up one of his novels after reading his conversations with Walter Murch on the art of film editing. It was fascinating to read about Ondaatje's writing process, and his passion for literature, and then actually see how this all plays out in one of his novels.
Ondaatje has said he has taken up to seven years to write a novel, and I can understand why after reading Divisadero . He does not offer a traditional narrative or persistent lead characters. He gives you a a very solid, familiar setup, but then he asks you to just follow him through an exploration of the fine web of relationships that connect and disconnect individuals--and then take side excursions into the stories of those individuals.
I felt that all of these stories within stories were worth the jump away from the traditional narrative given the strength of his writing and the unique characters he molds. There are quite a few characters in this book, and you certainly get a sense of each of them as a person as well as the environment that helps to define them which goes from Las Vegas to a farm in Petaluma to Paris and more. I really enjoyed my time with this novel.
And, I also want to mention my favorite passage. There is a situation where a boy accidentally ends up on a wild ride on a horse after the animal is spooked by an eclipse. Ondaatje's description of the boy experiencing the wildness of the horse on that ride is really beautiful.
Ondaatje has said he has taken up to seven years to write a novel, and I can understand why after reading Divisadero . He does not offer a traditional narrative or persistent lead characters. He gives you a a very solid, familiar setup, but then he asks you to just follow him through an exploration of the fine web of relationships that connect and disconnect individuals--and then take side excursions into the stories of those individuals.
I felt that all of these stories within stories were worth the jump away from the traditional narrative given the strength of his writing and the unique characters he molds. There are quite a few characters in this book, and you certainly get a sense of each of them as a person as well as the environment that helps to define them which goes from Las Vegas to a farm in Petaluma to Paris and more. I really enjoyed my time with this novel.
And, I also want to mention my favorite passage. There is a situation where a boy accidentally ends up on a wild ride on a horse after the animal is spooked by an eclipse. Ondaatje's description of the boy experiencing the wildness of the horse on that ride is really beautiful.
kayewiththebooks's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
coralrose's review against another edition
4.0
I still don't know if I loved this book or hated it. I had to shut it off twice because it hurt my soul.
I have read some complaints about the book, because 2/3s of the way through Ondaatje abruptly abandons the characters from the first part of the book for a whole new narrative. I would just like to say that I think that's part of the divisadero...
I have read some complaints about the book, because 2/3s of the way through Ondaatje abruptly abandons the characters from the first part of the book for a whole new narrative. I would just like to say that I think that's part of the divisadero...
kpwerker's review against another edition
4.0
Spoiler
x-posted from my blog:As you well know, novels usually have a plot. I don’t know if the term as applied to stories is in any way related to the term as applied to charting data, but we do often talk about both types of plot using similar descriptors: We have plot lines, we have story arcs, we describe a plot as circular.
The unsettling feature of Divisadero is that the plot might best be described in charting terms as a step function. It’s not technically an apt description, but it’ll do. There’s a small amount of continuity between the otherwise fairly unrelated stories. Also, “unrelated” isn’t a good word, but I couldn’t put my finger on a better one; the stories are related to varying extents.
Divisadero begins with the story of a cobbled-together family on a California farm in the mid-20th century, and although the three siblings do figure—sometimes prominently, often not—throughout the rest of the book, the novel moves without plot-driven break from one nearly self-contained vignette to another, non-linearly spanning decades and continents. Divisadero is almost like a set of short stories; it’s almost like an arc-driven novel but with major plot points missing; it’s almost like hang-on-every-word poetry.
The progression of the novel is measured not in the growth of its characters, nor the unveiling of secrets, nor in the illumination of greater truths, but in the reader’s own experience of the stories, the characters, and the settings. I keep thinking about the book because my mind keeps filling in holes, or wondering how the holes might be filled in. Or I remember a scene. Or I think about how Ondaatje managed to convey so much richness by leaving so much unsaid.
Because of this unusual framework, all of us at book club had a tough time figuring out what we thought about the book. And so we had an excellent discussion. Nobody had started out severely disliking it, but by the end of our gathering I do think most of our opinions of the book improved. I know mine did.
It’s the poetic aspect of the storytelling that I think is the book’s major draw. The language is beautiful, and each story evokes vivid imagery, whether it’s of the California working-farmer life, the seediness of gambling life, or the life of a writer in the French countryside.
Even now, after weeks of pondering and an evening of insightful conversation, I’m unable to put more words to my non-linguistic impressions of this book. I’ll sum up as such: I highly recommend you read Divisadero. And I highly recommend you find someone or a group of people to talk about it with once you’ve finished. It’s a [b:slow burn|2956|The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Mark Twain|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1161831948s/2956.jpg|1835605], both during the reading and in the weeks that ensue, which, if nothing else, signifies to me that in my struggle to decide whether I think the book was mediocre or genius, genius wins.
k80bowman's review against another edition
4.0
The writing was absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure he pulled this kind of story off as well as some others that I've read, but I still truly enjoyed it. I think the last section was probably my favorite.
margyly's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure what to do with a book like this -- you never quite find out what happens to everyone and there's no neat ending. But the writing is beautiful. So -- frustrating but I liked it.
kelly_virginia's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
heidiimmes's review against another edition
2.0
For the first two thirds of this book, I struggled with the pace--it felt like constant starts and stops--but managed to hang on well enough. And then it changed, into some back story, that never really felt connected or significant or interesting. Ugh. And, I know this is very American of me, but I was looking for some kind of closure, or discovery, or something satisfying with the main characters--obviously I didn't get it. Frustrating!
scheu's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent characterization. Ondaatje can paint a picture of great depth without saying so much. However, I would much rather have read about the characters from the beginning than the characters at the end. I started to get invested, but for no reason!