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moviebuffkt's review against another edition
i need everyone in book club to explain this book to me. i was so confused, and i can't even think of adding stars. did i like it, did i hate it? i have no idea.
kill_so_kind's review against another edition
I have so many thoughts about this and none of them make any sense.
bahoulie's review against another edition
5.0
I truly loved the first 3/4 of this book, and I could see basically where it was headed when I lost some of my love for it. It's quite internally consistent and in many ways just lovely reading. I just felt like the last turn happened a little quickly for me.
celiananas's review against another edition
3.0
je suis pas sûre d'avoir tout compris mais dans l'ensemble c'était sympa
la misogynie par contre ça l'était un peu moins
la misogynie par contre ça l'était un peu moins
treya's review against another edition
4.0
memory, thoughts, stream of conscious, hopeful but devastating.
factual- in the life goes on manner.
factual- in the life goes on manner.
mrswythe89's review against another edition
4.0
I think this is more of a graphic novel than a comic book, but I am so not creating separate shelves for graphic novels and comics, so suck it, invisible fairy advocates for a divide between high art and low entertainment. Anyway Art Spiegelman goes on a bit of a spiel in his introduction to this about graphic novels and how the term is a silly bid for respectability for books with pictures in, so I don't think he'd object.
I read this before I read the text-only version, because a) it wouldn't take as long as reading a whole book, and so would not make me feel guilty about reading instead of working, and b) in light of what I knew of the tastes of the giver (who also gave me The New York Trilogy), I figured a comic book would be more painless to get through if it turned out to be the kind of medium-over-message thing I generally don't enjoy.
I'm not sure reading this first turned out to be the right thing to do. I ended up very impressed with both this and the text-only version of the story, but I like this version better. I think Peter Stillman comes off as a lot creepier and more pathetic in the comic than in the novella, but I can't tell if I think this because I read the comic first, so the effect was diluted by the time I got to the novella. I do think the Peter Stillman monologue is a lot more effective with the pictures added in; reading it and then comparing the scene in the graphic novel with the scene in the novella was really one of those "oh wow, possibilities of the medium!" moments.
Anyway, it is great. I coulda done with more of a resolution, but I get that this is not that kind of book that gives you resolutions. I like that it is about words. I'm not sure what to think about Paul Auster being in it. It is very pointedly clever, which may or may not be why I think of it as being very much a Dude Book -- by which I do not mean that only dudes would want to read it or that the book is solely concerned with dudes, but that it just, um, well, it's a dude book. Possibly it's the whole thing where Auster is taking off the tropes of detective noir. Also the odd bit in the graphic novel where Virginia Stillman is shown naked in (presumably) Quinn's imagination for one panel. That strikes me as a very dude thing to do in a book -- I can't imagine many female writers who would've put in something like that.
I read this before I read the text-only version, because a) it wouldn't take as long as reading a whole book, and so would not make me feel guilty about reading instead of working, and b) in light of what I knew of the tastes of the giver (who also gave me The New York Trilogy), I figured a comic book would be more painless to get through if it turned out to be the kind of medium-over-message thing I generally don't enjoy.
I'm not sure reading this first turned out to be the right thing to do. I ended up very impressed with both this and the text-only version of the story, but I like this version better. I think Peter Stillman comes off as a lot creepier and more pathetic in the comic than in the novella, but I can't tell if I think this because I read the comic first, so the effect was diluted by the time I got to the novella. I do think the Peter Stillman monologue is a lot more effective with the pictures added in; reading it and then comparing the scene in the graphic novel with the scene in the novella was really one of those "oh wow, possibilities of the medium!" moments.
Anyway, it is great. I coulda done with more of a resolution, but I get that this is not that kind of book that gives you resolutions. I like that it is about words. I'm not sure what to think about Paul Auster being in it. It is very pointedly clever, which may or may not be why I think of it as being very much a Dude Book -- by which I do not mean that only dudes would want to read it or that the book is solely concerned with dudes, but that it just, um, well, it's a dude book. Possibly it's the whole thing where Auster is taking off the tropes of detective noir. Also the odd bit in the graphic novel where Virginia Stillman is shown naked in (presumably) Quinn's imagination for one panel. That strikes me as a very dude thing to do in a book -- I can't imagine many female writers who would've put in something like that.
beckydham's review against another edition
2.0
Just not my kind of thing, although it did make me miss New York a little.
abookgoblin's review against another edition
3.0
I had to read this book for school and I must say, most literary books I 'have' to read are usually not that enjoyable, but I did enjoy reading this one! I loved the mistery and weird connection with the author!
If you have to read a literary book for school, I'd certainly recommend this one!
3/5 stars though since it's not my genre so I did have to push myself to continue reading and the huge descriptions of surroundings, ways the main character walks etc were just too much for me.
If you have to read a literary book for school, I'd certainly recommend this one!
3/5 stars though since it's not my genre so I did have to push myself to continue reading and the huge descriptions of surroundings, ways the main character walks etc were just too much for me.
intentional_practices's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.75