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vganesh's review against another edition
the fact that. idk ill come back to it i couldnt do the stream of consciousness the whole book though its challenging for sure
whogivesabook'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)
annrhub's review against another edition
Stream of consciousness first person narrative, I found it boring
keegan_leech's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It's hard to express what I liked so much about this book. At times, I found it very difficult to read. Typically not because of the unusual style, the single train of thought. It's actually surprisingly easy to just drift along, letting the words flow over you and through you. But because the novel consists so heavily of the fears and worries and everyday stresses of another ordinary person, it can be very difficult to read when you'd like to get away from your own fears and worries and everyday stresses.
It took me months to read, not because of the length or the density of the writing (although it is a very long book), but because I so often found myself unable to pick it up and worry alongside the narrator. Worry about gun culture and colonialism in the United States, about whether the windows of her house need re-varnishing, about ongoing environmental catastrophe, about whether a person can ever recover from the death of a parent, about what her daughter thinks of her favourite musicals, about the cruelties of industrial poultry farming, and so on for 1000 pages.... It was just difficult to read sometimes.
Despite this, I really would encourage anyone to try the book. Although I was often intimidated by it, I found it to be an immensely rewarding experience. It is an experiment that may not accomplish all it set out to do and may be a lot to take in, but which is exceptionally illuminating for the questions it forces you to ask while reading. I think that anyone who teaches say, an honours-level English literature course, could teach this novel on its own for a semester course, and have new discussions about it with their students for years on end. There is so much in the book to provoke thought and interest and exploration.
Even the most basic aspects of the book provoke interesting questions. There is a glossary of acronyms at the back of the book. I doubt that all of them are used in the book itself, and there isn't a practical reason for the glossary to be there, but it fascinates me! Why is it so important that I, the reader, be able to flip to the back of the book and check the two included definitions of "CGI"? Why have the definitions been "sanitized for your comfort" (for example "POS", is defined "piece of [scat]", square brackets in the original)? Why, since we're asking about the choices made in the book, is it called "Ducks, Newburyport" in the first place? It's a regularly-repeated phrase in the book, but not one that would feel defining or even especially noteworthy if it weren't the title.
There's more to the book than intellectual curiosity. At times I was enthralled, overcome with emotion, or wrapped up in the story (I was actually surprised to discover how much of a narrative there is in the book, because like the everyday stories we tell ourselves, it's a narrative that only really comes together in hindsight). Just the fact that the setting of the novel is so mundane, makes for a unique and charming read. But so much thought has gone into this novel, which elevates it from charming and unusual, to something that I'd urge people to seek out and try.
A decade from now, Ducks, Newburyport might not be remembered as a ground-breaking work of experimental literature. It might not even be a book that I remember or think of often. But right now, I can't stop thinking about how it made me feel, and how it made me think. I really do believe that the most anyone can ask of any book is that it provoke them, at least a little, that it change something about how they think, or make them feel something that they wouldn't have otherwise. In my case, this book has done all that and more.
It took me months to read, not because of the length or the density of the writing (although it is a very long book), but because I so often found myself unable to pick it up and worry alongside the narrator. Worry about gun culture and colonialism in the United States, about whether the windows of her house need re-varnishing, about ongoing environmental catastrophe, about whether a person can ever recover from the death of a parent, about what her daughter thinks of her favourite musicals, about the cruelties of industrial poultry farming, and so on for 1000 pages.... It was just difficult to read sometimes.
Despite this, I really would encourage anyone to try the book. Although I was often intimidated by it, I found it to be an immensely rewarding experience. It is an experiment that may not accomplish all it set out to do and may be a lot to take in, but which is exceptionally illuminating for the questions it forces you to ask while reading. I think that anyone who teaches say, an honours-level English literature course, could teach this novel on its own for a semester course, and have new discussions about it with their students for years on end. There is so much in the book to provoke thought and interest and exploration.
Even the most basic aspects of the book provoke interesting questions. There is a glossary of acronyms at the back of the book. I doubt that all of them are used in the book itself, and there isn't a practical reason for the glossary to be there, but it fascinates me! Why is it so important that I, the reader, be able to flip to the back of the book and check the two included definitions of "CGI"? Why have the definitions been "sanitized for your comfort" (for example "POS", is defined "piece of [scat]", square brackets in the original)? Why, since we're asking about the choices made in the book, is it called "Ducks, Newburyport" in the first place? It's a regularly-repeated phrase in the book, but not one that would feel defining or even especially noteworthy if it weren't the title.
There's more to the book than intellectual curiosity. At times I was enthralled, overcome with emotion, or wrapped up in the story (I was actually surprised to discover how much of a narrative there is in the book, because like the everyday stories we tell ourselves, it's a narrative that only really comes together in hindsight). Just the fact that the setting of the novel is so mundane, makes for a unique and charming read. But so much thought has gone into this novel, which elevates it from charming and unusual, to something that I'd urge people to seek out and try.
A decade from now, Ducks, Newburyport might not be remembered as a ground-breaking work of experimental literature. It might not even be a book that I remember or think of often. But right now, I can't stop thinking about how it made me feel, and how it made me think. I really do believe that the most anyone can ask of any book is that it provoke them, at least a little, that it change something about how they think, or make them feel something that they wouldn't have otherwise. In my case, this book has done all that and more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Colonisation
Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment
That's a lot of content warnings! Most of that content is mentioned in passing, with little more detail than might be in a news headline or summary. It's relatively clinical, and even the topics which appear most often or most directly tend not to be covered in detail. If it's "minor" then it's probably no more distressing than what you'd see in a news feed. However, loss of a parent, while there are almost no details mentioned, is a very persistent theme. Maybe not "graphic", but it's mentioned almost constantly throughout the almost 1000 pages. I've also given colonisation a "graphic", because of a very explicit quote describing a massacre of native Americans, althoughwendyblacke's review
5.0
I learned about this book from a couple of amazing book pals on Instagram when they invited me to their group read. I hadn't heard of this book before but a quick Googling had me intrigued.
Lucy Ellman has done something unique with this book. I have never seen a woman, much less a mother, portrayed with such a profound depth in a book before. I felt connected with the narrator's love of her children, thoughts of her community, and fears of the society she lives in. The stream-of-consciousness way the book is written, without full stops or paragraph breaks (aside from the gentle interruptions of the second storyline) made this read very meditative for me. Diving back into the narrator's thoughts each day became a comfort to me.
I also struggled with this book at times, and that is the only thing that stopped me from giving this 5 stars. By the half-way point, I was starting to feel like everything the author intended me to feel and experience had already passed and I wasn't gaining anything new with each passing page. However, by the last 20% of the book it got really interesting to me again.
I'm so glad I stuck it out and finished this book. Many in our reading group didn't. This book has the capacity to make you laugh, cry, get pissed off, wallow in ennui, and sometimes you'll do all of those things on one page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something a little different, something intimate and all-encompassing, and something with a great deal of heart.
Update: days after finishing and having time to process this book, I had to upgrade to 5 stars. What Lucy did with this book was genius.
Lucy Ellman has done something unique with this book. I have never seen a woman, much less a mother, portrayed with such a profound depth in a book before. I felt connected with the narrator's love of her children, thoughts of her community, and fears of the society she lives in. The stream-of-consciousness way the book is written, without full stops or paragraph breaks (aside from the gentle interruptions of the second storyline) made this read very meditative for me. Diving back into the narrator's thoughts each day became a comfort to me.
I also struggled with this book at times, and that is the only thing that stopped me from giving this 5 stars. By the half-way point, I was starting to feel like everything the author intended me to feel and experience had already passed and I wasn't gaining anything new with each passing page. However, by the last 20% of the book it got really interesting to me again.
I'm so glad I stuck it out and finished this book. Many in our reading group didn't. This book has the capacity to make you laugh, cry, get pissed off, wallow in ennui, and sometimes you'll do all of those things on one page. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something a little different, something intimate and all-encompassing, and something with a great deal of heart.
Update: days after finishing and having time to process this book, I had to upgrade to 5 stars. What Lucy did with this book was genius.
julenazcona's review against another edition
4.0
Me ha gustado mucho, me ha hecho pensar en mi madre, me ha hecho entender algunas cosas. Es una historia sencilla, humana y conmovedora. No es tanto una frase de 1.200 páginas, como se ha vendido, sino más bien un listado minucioso, exhaustivo, aparentemente caótico pero muy medido, de todas las cosas que pasan por la cabeza de la protagonista, con cuatro temas principales: la maternidad, las armas, el cambio climático y el animalismo. Es una pena que sea tan larga; creo que con la mitad de páginas ganaría en precisión; no sé si todo el mundo llegará a las últimas 200, que es cuando la novela empieza a mostrar todas sus cartas y giros narrativos. Ah, y está plagado de referencias al cine y la música pop, que siempre es un plus.
magsisreadingagain's review
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
annalieegk's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
amarasanti's review against another edition
1.0
Wow! I couldn't even start reading this book. I tried the first page and then flipped through some others. My blood pressure went up just thinking about reading this. It is random thoughts and not just thoughts but words all jammed together and it goes on for 1,000 pages. Not happening!!