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j04nna's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
infinitejoe's review
4.0
Subjective identity, the idea of self, choices and risk, alternate fates, one's desire for conflict to make life livable. All themes were addressed well in an interesting book that was bit of a different read for a Roth book.
tangereen's review
3.0
The writing is no doubt excellent but I just didn't care about the content itself much. I'm not sure I really get "the point" of the book. I am sure I would appreciate it more than I do if someone who really enjoyed it could explain it to me.
alyssa_tauber's review
2.0
This wasn't really a bad book-- the writing itself good-- it just wasn't the book for me. A lot of the book deals with issues of Judaism, with the characters going to Isreal, and dealing with being Jewish in East Coast America and England, and I just don't know enough about Judaism to be the audience for this book. At times I was very frusterated, because I didn't know enough about what the characters were talking about-- were their ideas 'normal,' or 'radical?'-- in order to form an opinion on it.
There were parts that I could get. I was interested in the idea of what was real and what was fiction, and those parts were engaging, but on the whole I was frusterated.
This is a good book, but it is a book for a niche audience, and I was not that audience.
There were parts that I could get. I was interested in the idea of what was real and what was fiction, and those parts were engaging, but on the whole I was frusterated.
This is a good book, but it is a book for a niche audience, and I was not that audience.
hardboogiemag's review
5.0
Philip Roth’s best book and one of the best of the 80s incredibly underrated
nicolemm_author's review
3.0
Strange book. I'm not Jewish, so I don't think I can relate as well to it.
larissascotting's review
5.0
Amazing! See my review here: http://twitchthethread.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/the-counterlife/