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hatrireads's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting book - enjoyed reading it - drawn into two very different stories that did not overlap. The third section helped me to put it all together a bit, but it wasn’t until I read the reviews that I really understood what this talented writer was doing here. Read the novel without knowing anything and see what you think.
lilygc's review against another edition
3.0
The beginning of this book was good- engaging, tender, upsetting, raw. The second story/novella was a slog and considering the subject matter it really shouldn’t have been, but I guess the purpose it was intended to serve in terms of the overall structure of the book -almost- justified it. I agree with other reviewers who have noted this book may have worked better if the second part had been interwoven with a continuation of the first. The third and final bit, or coda, was painful and despite being extremely brief felt like it took ages to finish. Sure it tied things together I guess but I didn’t find it necessary.
Most of the writing, especially in the first part “Folly” was exquisite with many rich and interesting themes and ideas scattered throughout. However the end of the book, for me at least, did not serve to skewer things together or make anything feel cohesive. Ultimately, though the structure was kind of cool and I had some “I see what you’re doing there” moments it felt pretentious and heavy handed. This book was frustrating. The more obviously personal/autobiographical parts were lovely and although I get the purpose for the rest, and those parts were still....interesting- I think this book would have been much stronger if the author hadn’t tried to do so many different things and had stuck with what was working.
Most of the writing, especially in the first part “Folly” was exquisite with many rich and interesting themes and ideas scattered throughout. However the end of the book, for me at least, did not serve to skewer things together or make anything feel cohesive. Ultimately, though the structure was kind of cool and I had some “I see what you’re doing there” moments it felt pretentious and heavy handed. This book was frustrating. The more obviously personal/autobiographical parts were lovely and although I get the purpose for the rest, and those parts were still....interesting- I think this book would have been much stronger if the author hadn’t tried to do so many different things and had stuck with what was working.
yousrabushehri's review against another edition
1.0
This is the longest I’ve stayed with a book that’s under 300 pages. And that’s not a good sign.
I honestly had such high hopes for this book. The synopsis sounded interesting, I’d read a lot of good reviews saying that this book is funny, wonderful, a masterpiece. And I didn’t see evidence of any. I’d read that this book tackles ideas on ageism, sex, gender, religion, and culture. Yes, there was an old guy in the book (Ezra Blazer), but he wasn’t exactly a likable character. To me, he was kind of a weirdo with a huge ego. As for ageism and gender, Ezra (a dude in his late 70’s) dates a young woman in her 20’s, Alice. So Alice is the “female” in this story and to me she was the most annoying character. What sane 20-something year old woman gets into a sexual relationship with 70 year old? She seemed lost, naive, stupid, and off her kilter. Their relationship boarded on neglectful and it just seemed like he was her sugar daddy. It was weird. As for culture and religion, the second half of the novel centered around Amar, an Iraqi-American PhD student stuck at Heathrow airport trying to get back to Iraq to see his family and brother. Now this is a section that I felt a little bit better about, and solely because i could relate to some of things Amar was talking about. But aside from that, it was all just jumbled. But a step up from the whole Alice and Ezra saga of what-the-hell’s. The third and last part of the novel is an interview with Ezra, and in Ezra’s true weird nature, he ended the book with asking out his interviewer who is a married woman with 2 kids.
I’ve never been happier to finish a novel in my life. I want to put this behind me and move on. I ended up downloading the audiobook because I just couldn’t get passed page 80 and I really wanted to see if this book somehow got better.
Honestly, I’m not saying this book is a bad book, but I feel this book is just modern art. It’s created for a certain type of audience and not everyone gets it (me included). I just ended up squinting at it and tried to make sense out of it, but all I could see were random shapes and random colours. This is definitely a book I can see myself writing papers on and analyzing critically, but it’s just not the type of book I imagine anyone would read while on vacation or after a long day.
I honestly had such high hopes for this book. The synopsis sounded interesting, I’d read a lot of good reviews saying that this book is funny, wonderful, a masterpiece. And I didn’t see evidence of any. I’d read that this book tackles ideas on ageism, sex, gender, religion, and culture. Yes, there was an old guy in the book (Ezra Blazer), but he wasn’t exactly a likable character. To me, he was kind of a weirdo with a huge ego. As for ageism and gender, Ezra (a dude in his late 70’s) dates a young woman in her 20’s, Alice. So Alice is the “female” in this story and to me she was the most annoying character. What sane 20-something year old woman gets into a sexual relationship with 70 year old? She seemed lost, naive, stupid, and off her kilter. Their relationship boarded on neglectful and it just seemed like he was her sugar daddy. It was weird. As for culture and religion, the second half of the novel centered around Amar, an Iraqi-American PhD student stuck at Heathrow airport trying to get back to Iraq to see his family and brother. Now this is a section that I felt a little bit better about, and solely because i could relate to some of things Amar was talking about. But aside from that, it was all just jumbled. But a step up from the whole Alice and Ezra saga of what-the-hell’s. The third and last part of the novel is an interview with Ezra, and in Ezra’s true weird nature, he ended the book with asking out his interviewer who is a married woman with 2 kids.
I’ve never been happier to finish a novel in my life. I want to put this behind me and move on. I ended up downloading the audiobook because I just couldn’t get passed page 80 and I really wanted to see if this book somehow got better.
Honestly, I’m not saying this book is a bad book, but I feel this book is just modern art. It’s created for a certain type of audience and not everyone gets it (me included). I just ended up squinting at it and tried to make sense out of it, but all I could see were random shapes and random colours. This is definitely a book I can see myself writing papers on and analyzing critically, but it’s just not the type of book I imagine anyone would read while on vacation or after a long day.
cradman's review against another edition
4.0
From time to time, I read a literary novel that makes me feel kind of dumb. Asymmetry was one of those. I’m ranking it 4 starts because once I figured out the connecting threads, I was amazed. Structurally, this book takes some effort on the part of the reader (or, in my case, several reviews and podcasts) to follow along. But it’s worth it.
gregpreads's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed the three sections individually, and the writing, but with the three stories being so separate I struggled to see a cohesive takeaway message.
laurazdavidson's review against another edition
2.0
Odd. I fully expected the first two parts of the book to seem unrelated, but I believed that the final segment would bring it all together for me... but then I didn't get it even then. The writing is beautiful, the stories are compelling, but, yeah, I didn't get it.
cslanzi's review against another edition
4.0
This book is two separate unrelated stories. I LOVED the first one (5 stars) and disliked the second one (2.5-3 stars). I get that the author was trying to contrast of love, wealth, and privilege with racism and judgement but to me it just felt like two books. She didn’t connect the two in anyway.
In the first story she captures the subtleties of a relationship and love between an older famous author and a younger woman. It was well written and a joy to read.
The second story included a lot of facts about Iraq and the political and religious climate that for me was too much of a left turn from the first story. I wasn’t in the mood - it was a jarring 180 degree turn.
In the first story she captures the subtleties of a relationship and love between an older famous author and a younger woman. It was well written and a joy to read.
The second story included a lot of facts about Iraq and the political and religious climate that for me was too much of a left turn from the first story. I wasn’t in the mood - it was a jarring 180 degree turn.
cojack's review against another edition
3.0
Mixed feelings about this one. Prob a 3.5 star rating. It feels like it was written for other writers* in that the first section is supposedly based on Halliday’s relationship with Phillip Roth, the second section tackles whether authors should or can imagine the lives of others who are the completely different from them in race, gender, etc., and the last section...well I guess that’s about throwing us some reveals and about how authors present themselves?? The character Alice was written at such a remove that I barely cared what happened in the first part. I enjoyed the second section more, especially when I considered the notion of how different a white American’s life was like post 9/11 vs. that of an Iraqi American. Some passages were beautiful and thoughtful and showed me that Halliday is an excellent writer, i just felt like she was trying to do too much in this book and didn’t deliver. And honestly? This felt like the longest 300 page book I’ve ever read. It took me forever. Much of it didn’t stick with me.
* Whenever other writers fall all over themselves to praise a book, as many did with this one, I often don’t care for the book.
* Whenever other writers fall all over themselves to praise a book, as many did with this one, I often don’t care for the book.
giorgia0510's review against another edition
2.0
Abbandonato a pagina 165, speravo che la seconda parte fosse meglio
sbaylouny's review against another edition
1.0
I felt like there was supposed to be a lot to unpack with this book, but I couldn't find any of it. This book was an extremely slow read for me, and I feel slightly dumb for not being able to even understand the basic premise of it. After reading other reviews, I can see what might be interesting about the structure and the writing of the novel, and I should recognize that there were times I was very impressed with the writing. Still, I found myself disappointed with the story after reading all of the praise for this book.