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nixieknox's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the way the siblings were sort of a mirror reflection of each other - Nik obsessed with his made-up Chronicles, detailing his fictional music career, where Denise obsessed about the tragedies of others. I honestly did not understand the last chapter, when she went to Stone Arabia. That was kind of a downer - what am I missing? - in an otherwise interesting book.
manaledi's review against another edition
3.0
DNF. I was close to finishing this one, but my husband reminded me that life is too short to read books you don't like. Anyway, thinking about this book makes me make a grumpy face, but I can't really explain why.
stevienlcf's review against another edition
3.0
A moving (and depressing) portrait of mid-life siblings, Denise and Nik Kranis. Nik was a 1970s minor glam-punk-rock musician in Los Angeles who, three decades later, is a dive bartender and an alcoholic. He creates a fantasy vision of himelf as a legendary rock star. Denise is a personal assistant to a real estate magnate who uses her income to support Nik and uses her time to tend to their aging mother who is afflicted with early stage dementia. Although she has an adult daughter whom she loves, and a boyfriend who satisfies, Denise is fixated on random news reports (e.g., the spread of SARS, the murder-suicide of a former teen television star, Abu Ghraib). The novel explores themes such as alienation, the awareness of mortality and the passing of time, and paths not taken. A deeply sad novel.
blevins's review against another edition
3.0
Terribly titled novel set in Los Angeles and based around a brother and sister who are in their 40s as they take stock in their mostly unfulfilled lives. Brother is a musician who is lost in creating his own mythology that consumes him. Sister is the lifelong supporter who is wrapped up in his life while also wanting to be apart of her daughter's life as well. I didn't care for STONE ARABIA early on, but it kind of grew on me as it ebbed on. There's something appealing to "Nick" and his refusal to even attempt to make his creations public--he's satisfied with the intimate world he's manufactured for himself and to him, that's enough. That's an idea that all people who create have to contemplate whether you are a writer, musician, photographer, painter, whatever. Most of us do those things in absolute secrecy for our own pleasures. For some of us, that's okay, for others, not so okay. At times, Spiotta veers off-track unfortunately by bringing in outside events into the characters lives [droning on and on about Gulf War prison torture for one thing] that just felt out of place. Luckily this isn't that long a novel, so it's not too meandering when it goes away from the main characters. Some interesting ideas at work here, but it just didn't hit on all cylinders for me.
tbsims's review against another edition
3.0
The descriptions of the brother's imaginary world, and of Denise's boyfriend were excellent.
In thinking about it, after finishing, it is the parallel but divergent paths of two siblings. If he catalogs and collects, she throws away and cleans.
The write up says "Nik retreats and leaves Denise to navigate the real world on her own' and you feel very sorry for her - she seems capable, she did things as a younger person, she 'lived', but she seems at a slow ebb all the way toward the end of life.
In thinking about it, after finishing, it is the parallel but divergent paths of two siblings. If he catalogs and collects, she throws away and cleans.
The write up says "Nik retreats and leaves Denise to navigate the real world on her own' and you feel very sorry for her - she seems capable, she did things as a younger person, she 'lived', but she seems at a slow ebb all the way toward the end of life.
mattnixon's review against another edition
2.0
great sense of time, place and subculture/personality type...in the end, I found it surprisingly inert.
ommsetu's review against another edition
3.0
This book has gotten a lot of comparisons to Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan b/c they both use stories about the 70s/80s music scene as a narrative framework for an exploration of more personal issues, but I daresay this might be the better read.
annaelisereads's review against another edition
3.0
Given its spectacular reviews, I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. Honestly, it took me until about 50% of the way into the book to get all the themes straight and start enjoying how they built and played off of each other: what is real? is it objective? or it what we create? is all reality subjective? who are you? what makes you who you are? Nik - the aging one-hit wonder of a rocker - struggles with these as he creates an alternative history of a spectacular career, a sprawling collection of fake documents he calls “The Chronicles. Denise - his older sister - loses her sense of self (and her credit rating I assume) taking care of Nik, her elderly mother suffering from dementia (see theme again!), and even in her boundless empathy for the newsworthy tragedies you may remember from the recent past. If you would like a meta, post-modern story with lots of musical references, I vote to read it.
lila80's review against another edition
4.0
I have a love hate relationship with this book. it started out pretty tough to read got good then was slow again but i think the ending was great. i could relate to denise so much and i loved and hated her at times too. would love to read eat the document next