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Max, Mischa & Tetoffensiven by Johan Harstad

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leoreader94's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

obscuredbyclouds's review against another edition

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4.0

It took me a year to finish the 1250 pages of "Max, Mischa & the Tet Offensive". This book is too long, there were several hundred pages that needed cutting, and from a literary standpoint there is a lot of wrong with this (everyone is always the best at everything, it's very constructed, the whole war sequences from another POV did not work, stylistic choices are clumsy at times), but I can't in good conscience give this less than 4 stars.

This novel goes all out and tries to do so much. It wants to talk about love, friendship, art, war, cultural identity issues (with a heaping of cultural imperialism), Norway, the USA (and New York specifically), mental health; while really it just tells the life story of someone we grow attached to very quickly, the playwright and theatre director Max Hansen who moved from Stavanger, Norway to the U.S.A. as a teenager.

It's easy to read and a little predictable at times, but those aren't necessarily downsides, especially with a novel of this size. Overall, a very impressive novel, where you can feel how much heart and soul the author put into every page, but ultimately not fully satisfying and too long. The first half and the main protagonist's youth is more engaging than the ending.

This hasn't been translated into English yet. I read the German translation of the Norwegian text and found it adequate for the most part. If you can't speak German or any of the Scandinavian languages, it's also available in Dutch. I'm hoping an English translation will follow at some point.