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brenna_law's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
thomasgoddard's review against another edition
4.0
The beautiful thing about the book is that it just races through connections, thoughts, fears, to do lists... It is mundane, but therein lies the magic, pretty quickly you begin to learn her pathways. You become like a neuron, zipping down the ignited wires of her memories and ideas. A certain amount of Stockholm Syndrome sets in, you're confronted with this absolute WALL of text. But if you let it take you, you're whisked up into a familiar meringue of association and connection.
Sometimes I read her thoughts and I agreed, other times she said something really dumb and I marvelled at it. Because reading a character with flawed thinking and dumb moments is underrated. It makes them more human. Funnier sometimes. More tragic.
Very few writers can write a character well. Rooney and others today fall back on old tricks. Write a hollow shell and draw a few complicated situations (usually romantic) around them to disguise their simplicity. Don't worry about making them dynamic, they'll be mistaken for being interesting because they are involved in an interesting will-they-won't-they drama. Modern writers write simple characters because they're easy for a reader to customise. The reader reads them, fills in the gaps and ends up loving the characters because 'they' made them, not the writer. Instant bestseller. Zero cognitive demand.
Example:
If you took Ellmann's characters for a meal at a restaurant, you'd know what they'd order without thinking. You'd know what restaurant they'd enjoy. You'd know how they'd treat the waiter and how much they would tip. And anyone else who read it would be able to tell you, approximately the same. That's good writing. It's nourishing.
If you took Connell and Marianne for a meal, they'd spent an hour deciding what to order. End up eating bites of each other's food and squabble about who would pay. But you wouldn't be able to be sure of their choices. Because you can't 'know' them. You can guess. But someone else would guess entirely differently. You don't end up learning or growing. You just... consume.
Ordinarily, I usually start a book at half speed, I'm regular speed by the 100th page and then I zoom along at full speed until I'm finished.
You can't do that with a book that's 1000 pages. Instead you take little pit stops of a day or two. You need a break to process things. To gather your metal focus for the next section. I ended up reading the majority of this over two days and the rest of the time was just little blasts of 50 pages.
I got caught between the mental taxation and the sublime joy of exploring this interesting and engaging novel.
It is a tough book, but a rewarding book. I'd have liked more mountain lion and less creeks (if you read it, you'll get me).
If you are tired of books about superficial nonsense and really want a book to challenge you, but you're scared of the challenge, this is ideal because it uses superficial nonsense in order to stealthily elevate your reading experience... Pick this up (you'll need both hands).
In terms of book levels... I'd put this at about a 7.5... where Joyce is a 10, regular literary fiction is a 5 and your poolside bestseller is a 2-3 (at best).
Read this before you attempt Joyce. It would be a perfect palate cleanser.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5)
Sometimes I read her thoughts and I agreed, other times she said something really dumb and I marvelled at it. Because reading a character with flawed thinking and dumb moments is underrated. It makes them more human. Funnier sometimes. More tragic.
Very few writers can write a character well. Rooney and others today fall back on old tricks. Write a hollow shell and draw a few complicated situations (usually romantic) around them to disguise their simplicity. Don't worry about making them dynamic, they'll be mistaken for being interesting because they are involved in an interesting will-they-won't-they drama. Modern writers write simple characters because they're easy for a reader to customise. The reader reads them, fills in the gaps and ends up loving the characters because 'they' made them, not the writer. Instant bestseller. Zero cognitive demand.
Example:
If you took Ellmann's characters for a meal at a restaurant, you'd know what they'd order without thinking. You'd know what restaurant they'd enjoy. You'd know how they'd treat the waiter and how much they would tip. And anyone else who read it would be able to tell you, approximately the same. That's good writing. It's nourishing.
If you took Connell and Marianne for a meal, they'd spent an hour deciding what to order. End up eating bites of each other's food and squabble about who would pay. But you wouldn't be able to be sure of their choices. Because you can't 'know' them. You can guess. But someone else would guess entirely differently. You don't end up learning or growing. You just... consume.
Ordinarily, I usually start a book at half speed, I'm regular speed by the 100th page and then I zoom along at full speed until I'm finished.
You can't do that with a book that's 1000 pages. Instead you take little pit stops of a day or two. You need a break to process things. To gather your metal focus for the next section. I ended up reading the majority of this over two days and the rest of the time was just little blasts of 50 pages.
I got caught between the mental taxation and the sublime joy of exploring this interesting and engaging novel.
It is a tough book, but a rewarding book. I'd have liked more mountain lion and less creeks (if you read it, you'll get me).
If you are tired of books about superficial nonsense and really want a book to challenge you, but you're scared of the challenge, this is ideal because it uses superficial nonsense in order to stealthily elevate your reading experience... Pick this up (you'll need both hands).
In terms of book levels... I'd put this at about a 7.5... where Joyce is a 10, regular literary fiction is a 5 and your poolside bestseller is a 2-3 (at best).
Read this before you attempt Joyce. It would be a perfect palate cleanser.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5)
rebeccatulloch's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dannymason_1's review against another edition
4.0
I had quite the soulacoaster with this book. I started on my physical copy and found it to be grating and gimmicky within 100 pages, so I gave up. Then I tried the audiobook and started to really enjoy it - wandering around listening to this stream-of-consciousness had a hypnotic effect and I felt the book starting to replace my internal monologue. After a while, I started to get a bit bored and frustrated with it again, it's just So Much and So Little at the same time and I wasn't sure it fully earned the amount of time you have to dedicate to it. By the end though, I felt it really paid off without ever entirely deviating from what it had already been doing. I found the last 100 or so pages extremely powerful in a way that I could see in retrospect was being set up by the rest of the book. Not sure I could recommend this to anybody because you need to come to it on your own terms, but it was a completely unique experience and deserves all its plaudits for that alone.
jola_g's review against another edition
5.0
The fact that I loved Ducks, Newburyport to bits, although I am aware that some things did not go so well, the fact that since I finished reading this novel I have been feeling like a part of me is gone, the fact that now I have to literally force myself not to start all over again, the fact that I am grateful to my Goodreads friends for following my crazy - crazee! - journey and making this reading experience even more special.
Review to come.
Review to come.
mistercrow's review against another edition
4.0
Disclaimer: Did Not Finish.
So this book is super fascinating but it’s long and gets a bit tedious. I think if I had more patience then I’d read it through but I have piles of books to go through.
Anyways I did enjoy what I read and it looks very interesting.
So this book is super fascinating but it’s long and gets a bit tedious. I think if I had more patience then I’d read it through but I have piles of books to go through.
Anyways I did enjoy what I read and it looks very interesting.
nate_meyers's review
5.0
Of interest for a while, I snagged Ducks, Newburyport for TWO dollars at Goodwill
As everyone notes, this book is ONE run-on, stream-of-consciousness sentence for 1000 pages
After reading it, I have ZERO doubt this book will go down as one of the definitive American novels of modern times
From the jump, I was immersed in the narrator's character, as she fretted over finances, baking pies, and her family. Her anxieties widened in scope to the biggest issues plaguing America including global warming, guns, and politics. It's hard not to resonate with these anxieties and get lost in the narrator's constantly running mind. Yet, as the narrator's daily activities and thoughts chronicle almost every aspect of global warming, Donald Trump, and mass shootings, the novel gets really bleak in the middle. Lucy Ellman (and by proxy the narrator) has an antipathy towards religion. But there is little hope for the future or reason to have children that can withstand the myriad challenges of life if one doesn't adhere to a religion and/or an idyllic vision of mankind's evolution. Further, the narrator becomes increasingly crushed by her passivity, parenting & daughtering regrets and brokenness (in a way that has us longing to reach through the book with a big hug). Never stopping too long to dwell on this bleak outlook, the novel barrels towards a finish that weaves the parallel story of a mother cougar searching for her lost cubs perfectly into the plight of the narrator's family. The payoff is extremely well-executed and imbues the narrator and reader with some sense of victory (along with a sense of shared trauma). But even as I closed the last page, the challenges posed by the novel linger with me. Are the innocence of children or the love of a great spouse enough to give us hope amidst an increasingly violent and polarized society that is raping the environment? Or do we need something more solid and lasting?
I think this book is excellent and absolutely every American should read it. The themes contained in its pages challenge us in a way that most books don't, while also encouraging us to think deeply and wrestle with every question of daily life - from the smallest to the biggest.
As everyone notes, this book is ONE run-on, stream-of-consciousness sentence for 1000 pages
After reading it, I have ZERO doubt this book will go down as one of the definitive American novels of modern times
From the jump, I was immersed in the narrator's character, as she fretted over finances, baking pies, and her family. Her anxieties widened in scope to the biggest issues plaguing America including global warming, guns, and politics. It's hard not to resonate with these anxieties and get lost in the narrator's constantly running mind. Yet, as the narrator's daily activities and thoughts chronicle almost every aspect of global warming, Donald Trump, and mass shootings, the novel gets really bleak in the middle. Lucy Ellman (and by proxy the narrator) has an antipathy towards religion. But there is little hope for the future or reason to have children that can withstand the myriad challenges of life if one doesn't adhere to a religion and/or an idyllic vision of mankind's evolution. Further, the narrator becomes increasingly crushed by her passivity, parenting & daughtering regrets and brokenness (in a way that has us longing to reach through the book with a big hug). Never stopping too long to dwell on this bleak outlook, the novel barrels towards a finish that weaves the parallel story of a mother cougar searching for her lost cubs perfectly into the plight of the narrator's family. The payoff is extremely well-executed and imbues the narrator and reader with some sense of victory (along with a sense of shared trauma). But even as I closed the last page, the challenges posed by the novel linger with me. Are the innocence of children or the love of a great spouse enough to give us hope amidst an increasingly violent and polarized society that is raping the environment? Or do we need something more solid and lasting?
I think this book is excellent and absolutely every American should read it. The themes contained in its pages challenge us in a way that most books don't, while also encouraging us to think deeply and wrestle with every question of daily life - from the smallest to the biggest.
sebswann's review
5.0
If you like stream-of-consciousness stories commenting on present-day America; ambitious, intelligent, and real, Ellman has crafted a truly unique and impressive novel perfect for this moment in American history.