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margarrrita's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.5
jackgormley7's review against another edition
4.0
I’m undecided about how I feel. I definitely didn’t enjoy it to four stars (I’m not even sure if I enjoyed it at all), but I admire it’s gutsy experimentalism and innovate use of the form, so I think it deserves the four. To fully understand it, or to even understand it at all, I think I need to read it through again: it was just so so confusing, but nonetheless impressive. Many scenes were also graphic and very jarring to read, adding to how difficult it was to read. I really don’t know what to make of it, but I’m still thinking about it, so I suppose that’s something.
jart's review against another edition
4.0
It was kind of confusing to read at first, and I'm still not entirely sure I knew what was going on most of the time. But, the writing was beautiful.
kartail's review against another edition
4.0
“and I invest the stars now with great significance, because you don’t really see them in the city and they have for so long been a symbol of romantic love.”
cobydillon14's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
chickenz's review against another edition
Some awesome quotes, but the last one that resonated was “memory is my only possession, but it resists ownership”
raulbime's review against another edition
4.0
A strangely structured book, with stories set in a kind of episodic form. The two main characters in this book are Martin and John and both different people in each episode. An intriguing book but it's easy to be lost and confused as each new episode, which shares nothing with the one preceding it except the main characters, begins. It took some time to get used to the flow of the book but once one appreciates the stories within the story individually and as part of the book interconnected by the protagonists, then the tale becomes quite interesting in its multiplicity. There is a lot of abuse against children described here, a warning for those affected by such depictions. All stories have the children with strained and/or damaged relationships with their parents and guardians.
There is a particular part that involved such wonderfully described intimacy between the two characters that I loved. The gestures, the tenderness, it was so brilliant. I liked this book.
There is a particular part that involved such wonderfully described intimacy between the two characters that I loved. The gestures, the tenderness, it was so brilliant. I liked this book.
zefrog's review
3.0
John, Henry, Beatrice, Susan, Johnson, Harry and the eponymous Martin are the recurrent names of the characters in this book which its blurb describes as a novel.
This is how I began to read it but a few chapters in (around page 60), things start to shift and each chapter becomes more like a shirt story related to the other through the echoes created by the reuse of certain details and circumstances and of those names in different permutations.
The book becomes a sort of amorphous kaleidoscope where the realities described continually shift while still moving along some vaguely chronologically consistent narrative line.
Eventually it transpires that some of the material has to be autobiographical (those recurring circumstances presumably).
I found it difficult to get into the book but things definitely improved as the narrative moved on and as, I think, the elements described converged more closely with the author's experience.
I ended up almost liking this book which feels like an interesting experiment in style, though I'm not certain what this presentation brings to the reader that a more straight forward narration couldn't achieve.
This is how I began to read it but a few chapters in (around page 60), things start to shift and each chapter becomes more like a shirt story related to the other through the echoes created by the reuse of certain details and circumstances and of those names in different permutations.
The book becomes a sort of amorphous kaleidoscope where the realities described continually shift while still moving along some vaguely chronologically consistent narrative line.
Eventually it transpires that some of the material has to be autobiographical (those recurring circumstances presumably).
I found it difficult to get into the book but things definitely improved as the narrative moved on and as, I think, the elements described converged more closely with the author's experience.
I ended up almost liking this book which feels like an interesting experiment in style, though I'm not certain what this presentation brings to the reader that a more straight forward narration couldn't achieve.
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