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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Stefan Blau runs away from his home in Germany when he is a young man. He's always dreamed of living in America. He eventually finds himself in New Hampshire, building a beautiful apartment building, running a restaurant, and doing his best to provide for his family.
Honestly, this book might have suffered from too many interruptions. My review is definitely suffering from allowing too much time to go by between finishing the book and reviewing it.
I mostly enjoyed this, my problem was that I felt a little too distanced from the characters. An immigrant acclimating to America, German-Americans living through WWII, love, loss, family, strange neighbors--any of these should have made a book that I loved. The third-person narration felt so very distant from the action though that I just couldn't click with anyone. Also, this family is just desperately unhappy. The narration changes from Stefan to Helene to Robert to Emma and not one of them is happy. I just can't take that.
The meaning of the title just dawned on me. I was understanding it as "Emma Blau's Vision," and it has a little to do with that, but mostly it's about "Stefan's Vision of Emma." If that had clicked earlier, I might have gotten a little more out of this. I kept waiting for Emma to show up and she didn't make her appearance until page 268. That's a lot of waiting.
Once Emma did appear, she was actually my least favorite character. She's so very pushy and clingy, I felt a little smothered just reading about her. As an adult, she makes horrible choices in her life and doesn't really understand why she's unhappy. She's terrified of change and fights it however she can. She's one character in a line that takes care of the inheritance of the apartment house in a less-than-optimal way.
I honestly feel like there was a deeper meaning to this book that I just didn't understand. Without that, I just feel lost writing this review, so I'm just going to stop here.
Honestly, this book might have suffered from too many interruptions. My review is definitely suffering from allowing too much time to go by between finishing the book and reviewing it.
I mostly enjoyed this, my problem was that I felt a little too distanced from the characters. An immigrant acclimating to America, German-Americans living through WWII, love, loss, family, strange neighbors--any of these should have made a book that I loved. The third-person narration felt so very distant from the action though that I just couldn't click with anyone. Also, this family is just desperately unhappy. The narration changes from Stefan to Helene to Robert to Emma and not one of them is happy. I just can't take that.
The meaning of the title just dawned on me. I was understanding it as "Emma Blau's Vision," and it has a little to do with that, but mostly it's about "Stefan's Vision of Emma." If that had clicked earlier, I might have gotten a little more out of this. I kept waiting for Emma to show up and she didn't make her appearance until page 268. That's a lot of waiting.
Once Emma did appear, she was actually my least favorite character. She's so very pushy and clingy, I felt a little smothered just reading about her. As an adult, she makes horrible choices in her life and doesn't really understand why she's unhappy. She's terrified of change and fights it however she can. She's one character in a line that takes care of the inheritance of the apartment house in a less-than-optimal way.
I honestly feel like there was a deeper meaning to this book that I just didn't understand. Without that, I just feel lost writing this review, so I'm just going to stop here.
This was a beautifully written story, but unfortunately, I found it slow and ended up skimming large parts of it. It is one of those stories that would have been better off written as a short story.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this book - the characters were intriguing.
I really loved this book. Its not the kind of book I would have probably stuck with reading, but listening to the audiobook kept me compelled the entire time. The reader adds so much to the rich prose through her luscious pronunciation of all of the German that is laced throughout the book. The story is very real and beautifully told, especially when its read by someone with familiarity with the German language.
The writing is beautiful - a whirlwind of history and character that reminds me of James Michener’s Chesapeake / Elena Ferrante’s Naples. Ultimately, though I couldn’t put it down, and while I savoured each chapter, I hoped for a more satisfying ending, wanting a story that began with a curse to end with a blessing. Others might say it does, and maybe that’s true. Maybe I’m being greedy and wanting a blessing and an epilogue.
Hmmm. This is a difficult one to categorize. I loved the first two books in the "cycle" (I feel compelled to put quotes around the word because it feels like this was not meant to be a series per se, but rather something that perhaps a publisher suggested in order to capitalize on the success of "Stones From the River."). This novel however lacks the coherence of those previous entries. It was wildly uneven, and so great description was given to things such as Robert's alter ego, Fatboy, while at the same time (spoiler alert!) the entire affair of Emma and Justin Miles which results in the conception of their son is literally given one line before the kid is born. By the last few pages, I kinda hoped Emma would just drop the damn match on the roof. Oh well. I have higher expectations for the last book in the series, "Children and Fire," which takes us back to Bergdorf.
This was a good book, although not as good as Stones from the River, by the same author. I wouldn't call this a 'sequel' although there is some character overlap. The two books stand alone though. The strength of this book lies in its characters. Everyone is likeable yet flawed, but not overly-flawed. Some, more flawed than others. Some, more likeable than others. Even the "bit" characters are wonderful. I especially liked the way the characters interacted. How they loved and fought like real people -- the relationships were very believable. My favorite character was Helene Montag/Blau. She was wonderfully human. Impetuous and dreamy, self-conscious and yet confident, petty and generous at the same time, loving but still holding back her love too. I would love her if I were ever to meet her in real life. The story itself was fine -- it kept my attention and I liked the way the house became a character unto itself. I struggled with the part of the story about Emma as an adult... it just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the book, and I had a hard time immagining Emma allowing that to happen to herself. But maybe that's supposed to be the tragedy of it.Anyhow, very good book.