Scan barcode
mama_vees_reads's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
carlyhackett's review against another edition
3.0
This was somehow not worth my time but also very much worth my time???
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
An interesting book that sidesteps the usual pitfalls of the 'doomed love affair' story by simply not telling it at all. What we get instead is much more interesting.
Dinah and Asa's affair is over. Dinah is a Jewish woman raised by not-particularly-religious parents and Asa is a pedigreed Boston WASP , handsome and charming and soulless. It was part of Dinah's obsession that she find Asa's inner-quality, his dormant spirit and bring it out into the open. But she failed. The bulk of this book is her last attempt to grant him flesh and blood on paper.
What really struck me at first was how unnostalgic this book was. Asa's story begins when he's 17 in 1955 and I braced myself for some dream-like 'better days' sentimentality or perhaps an overly gritty "this is how it really was" schtick. But Kaysen only (ha! "only") writes about his life and doesn't acknowledge any fads, even those of the 80s when this was written.
Asa's parent's house had rooms that "even in mid-July, they maintained a dim, cool atmosphere perfumed with oils rubbed into wood, dust settled on books, and died-down fires of hard, slow-burning, sweet branches. It was a house that in no way admitted to the extreme seasonal changes of Massachusetts....Its furnishings suggested a permanent early winter, and in this it reflected the climate of the three people who moved across the parquet floors."
Even better, Kaysen explores the sheltered and repressed Asa's inner reactions when he touches on a world outside his family's exclusive circles. For example, when he hears his friend Reuben and another boy joke about their outsider status as Jews at Andover Phillips Academy. His confusion and slow dawning comprehension of perspectives outside his experience is well done.
I'm not sure if Dinah (or Kaysen) entirely succeeded in their task of giving back humanity to the shell Asa had made of himself, but it made for a captivating book. The conceit of the story within a story does succeed because of the careful but direct way in which she does it. 'Asa, As I Knew Him' is very short, but I think exactly the right length. Kaysen knew her point had been made.
Dinah and Asa's affair is over. Dinah is a Jewish woman raised by not-particularly-religious parents and Asa is a pedigreed Boston WASP , handsome and charming and soulless. It was part of Dinah's obsession that she find Asa's inner-quality, his dormant spirit and bring it out into the open. But she failed. The bulk of this book is her last attempt to grant him flesh and blood on paper.
What really struck me at first was how unnostalgic this book was. Asa's story begins when he's 17 in 1955 and I braced myself for some dream-like 'better days' sentimentality or perhaps an overly gritty "this is how it really was" schtick. But Kaysen only (ha! "only") writes about his life and doesn't acknowledge any fads, even those of the 80s when this was written.
Asa's parent's house had rooms that "even in mid-July, they maintained a dim, cool atmosphere perfumed with oils rubbed into wood, dust settled on books, and died-down fires of hard, slow-burning, sweet branches. It was a house that in no way admitted to the extreme seasonal changes of Massachusetts....Its furnishings suggested a permanent early winter, and in this it reflected the climate of the three people who moved across the parquet floors."
Even better, Kaysen explores the sheltered and repressed Asa's inner reactions when he touches on a world outside his family's exclusive circles. For example, when he hears his friend Reuben and another boy joke about their outsider status as Jews at Andover Phillips Academy. His confusion and slow dawning comprehension of perspectives outside his experience is well done.
I'm not sure if Dinah (or Kaysen) entirely succeeded in their task of giving back humanity to the shell Asa had made of himself, but it made for a captivating book. The conceit of the story within a story does succeed because of the careful but direct way in which she does it. 'Asa, As I Knew Him' is very short, but I think exactly the right length. Kaysen knew her point had been made.
austindoherty's review
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Half about the Protestant erotic fascination with the other, half the feeling of maternal tenderness when you discover your boyfriend's baby pictures.
Obsessed with Dr Sola draining his pool, which somehow contains for me all of literature: the desire to re-enact, to simultaneously convey and control, to contemplate the mystery of a river only to discover in turn the prose of a concrete bottomed pool. The gap between expression and experience, what cures and what ails us, Dr Sola draining his pool is as much Dinah writing Asa as it is Kaysen writing Dinah. What don't you know, and how has that not stopped you from knowing it?
Obsessed with Dr Sola draining his pool, which somehow contains for me all of literature: the desire to re-enact, to simultaneously convey and control, to contemplate the mystery of a river only to discover in turn the prose of a concrete bottomed pool. The gap between expression and experience, what cures and what ails us, Dr Sola draining his pool is as much Dinah writing Asa as it is Kaysen writing Dinah. What don't you know, and how has that not stopped you from knowing it?
apolasky's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars, actually. I have yet to read Girl, Interrupted -one of my favorite movies- but now I can’t wait to get to it, because I thoroughly enjoyed Kaysen’s writing, though the story in itself not so much.
It is an OK read, but it’s not a book I’ll be particularly recommending.
It is an OK read, but it’s not a book I’ll be particularly recommending.
apolasky's review
3.0
2.5 stars, actually. I have yet to read Girl, Interrupted -one of my favorite movies- but now I can’t wait to get to it, because I thoroughly enjoyed Kaysen’s writing, though the story in itself not so much.
It is an OK read, but it’s not a book I’ll be particularly recommending.
It is an OK read, but it’s not a book I’ll be particularly recommending.
More...