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ingridbergman's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault
wordssearched's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is the perfect book to explain the distinction between “It’s bad” and “It’s not for me.” It’s not a bad book. I mean, yes, it is way too long and the editor clearly took a long vacation in the middle third of it. The pacing is terrible. It’s overly dense, and bordering on pretentious. But it’s not bad. Chang-rae Lee writes gorgeous prose. His command of language and character is up there with the best writers of contemporary fiction. The novel’s structure, jumping back and forth between two periods of time, months apart, is intriguing and sets up a series alternating cliffhangers that kept me from giving up on the book entirely even while I took multiple long breaks while reading it.
So why did I have to talk myself into that third star? Because, it is quite simply not for me. If there is a demographic for this beautiful, bloated bildungsroman about a directionless 20 year old whose generic New Jersey life takes an abrupt turn when a local entrepreneur takes him under his wing, I don’t know what it is. Don’t be fooled by the title. This is not a pat little story about an American traveling through pretty foreign landscapes in search of self. There is travel, there are beautiful foreign landscapes, and there is a college kid, “Tiller,” finding himself, but the slog through which he (and the reader) must endure is raw, visceral, right at the edge of believability and just plain bizarre. I wanted to connect to this book but never quite did. To say “I didn’t get it” feels like a cop out, but by the end I was just happy for it to be over.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship
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