Scan barcode
katymvt's review against another edition
3.0
Pop Sugar Challenge 2022-A winner of the Annisfield-Wolf award.
This was sort of interesting, but it was longer than it needed to be. The main character/narrator wasn't particularly likeable.
This was sort of interesting, but it was longer than it needed to be. The main character/narrator wasn't particularly likeable.
sobolevnrm's review against another edition
4.0
This book was hard work and seemed to drag on for a long time... however, it was well worth it. I love [author:Russell Banks] and this is one of his best books (that I've read).
kather21's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
For those who like their stories rolled out verrrry slowwwwly. Also, ugh, men.
theomarmuniz's review against another edition
3.0
Other reviewers have summarized this book better than I can, so I'll only offer this. I enjoyed this book. But I enjoyed it like a picky eater enjoys a meal. Cloudsplitter is a big juicy burger and before ever biting into it, I knew it was going to be really tasty. It looked great. And though very good, I could only enjoy it by picking out some of the onions and scraping off the pickles. What I mean to say is, the book does drone on too long, especially that first chapter. You would understand this to be the case, with the subject matter being so dynamic and all-encompassing. And I'm sure an author feels obliged to pay homage to the real life characters their depicting as much as possible, which, in this case, is done by providing more and more detail.
In the end, I don't think being long-winded ruins the book. There's still a lot to chew on (back to the burger analogy). But I do feel I would have enjoyed it more had it been written in the 3rd person, not from the perspective of Brown's son, Owen. It's true, Owen is a very complex character and it a champion narrator of the story. But as the story meandered its way towards the middle, and finally the end, I felt the story could have held up to its magnetism if told by an omniscient actor.
But I guess I'm splitting hairs. The subject matter is polarizing enough, juicy enough, to carry the story through its few rough patches, making it a worth-while read. Banks does a wonderful job at placing us in antebellum times. I may recommend reading a bit on John Brown before diving in though. I knew John Brown's story overall, but it may have helped me if I had at least skimmed through a biography, so that I was introduced to the principle characters and events that preceded Bleeding Kansas and Harper's Ferry.
In the end, I don't think being long-winded ruins the book. There's still a lot to chew on (back to the burger analogy). But I do feel I would have enjoyed it more had it been written in the 3rd person, not from the perspective of Brown's son, Owen. It's true, Owen is a very complex character and it a champion narrator of the story. But as the story meandered its way towards the middle, and finally the end, I felt the story could have held up to its magnetism if told by an omniscient actor.
But I guess I'm splitting hairs. The subject matter is polarizing enough, juicy enough, to carry the story through its few rough patches, making it a worth-while read. Banks does a wonderful job at placing us in antebellum times. I may recommend reading a bit on John Brown before diving in though. I knew John Brown's story overall, but it may have helped me if I had at least skimmed through a biography, so that I was introduced to the principle characters and events that preceded Bleeding Kansas and Harper's Ferry.
danbydame's review against another edition
4.0
I'm picking this for some pretty odd reasons:
1) it's been hanging around on the shelf for awhile. Time to bite the bullet and give it a go.
2) bite the bullet? Yes, it is 758 pages long. I can't let Emma be the only person in the house that reads bricks.
3) It is historical fiction, which is different than history-making fiction (Frankenstein) or hysterical fiction (Johannes Cabal).
4) While still about the Civil war (ish), it might be more to my liking than March.
I figure this one I can definitely give a 100 pages to suck me in, or I can ditch it with no guilt, like I should have done with Moby Dick.
Here goes nothing!
8/8: At last! I am done. The issue was not the book, but my calendar ... and the nightly Olympics.
This was a wonderful book. I was expecting something a bit more dry, more tightly woven with real history. I thought I was gong to get a dramatization of the Harper's Ferry raid and the lead-ups. It wasn't this at all. Then I thought it was going to be an origin story for a pivotal yet not well known figure in American history. It was only one third that. What it really is -- it is the story of a young man struggling (and failing) to be his own person under the shadow of a father named John Brown.
It is common to believe that John Brown's actions, rooted in his strong abolitionist and religious beliefs, triggered the Civil War. This story hypothesizes that John Brown was only the flashpowder ignited by his son, and for much less honorable reasons than love of God and fellow Man.
So many themes, so little time (for me). The two most interesting to me were
(1) the effect on a child of having a father like a John Brown. He was so intent on saving the world yet not "there" for his family. He wasn't there in the familiar sense as all his interactions were caught up in lecturing and sermonizing and teaching. And he wasn't there physically as his work and abolitionist goals kept him on the road. And further than that, John Brown was fully willing to sacrifice his family for his own ideals. Abraham and Isaac is a strong thread throughout the story.
(2) there are other kinds of slavery and Owen Brown was a slave of another kind -- a slave to his father, his father's ideals, his own yearning for fatherly approval, his own sense of responsibility to head the family in his father's absence. In other words, a slave of family. Just a darker way of stating "You can't pick your family" but you gotta love them?
1) it's been hanging around on the shelf for awhile. Time to bite the bullet and give it a go.
2) bite the bullet? Yes, it is 758 pages long. I can't let Emma be the only person in the house that reads bricks.
3) It is historical fiction, which is different than history-making fiction (Frankenstein) or hysterical fiction (Johannes Cabal).
4) While still about the Civil war (ish), it might be more to my liking than March.
I figure this one I can definitely give a 100 pages to suck me in, or I can ditch it with no guilt, like I should have done with Moby Dick.
Here goes nothing!
8/8: At last! I am done. The issue was not the book, but my calendar ... and the nightly Olympics.
This was a wonderful book. I was expecting something a bit more dry, more tightly woven with real history. I thought I was gong to get a dramatization of the Harper's Ferry raid and the lead-ups. It wasn't this at all. Then I thought it was going to be an origin story for a pivotal yet not well known figure in American history. It was only one third that. What it really is -- it is the story of a young man struggling (and failing) to be his own person under the shadow of a father named John Brown.
It is common to believe that John Brown's actions, rooted in his strong abolitionist and religious beliefs, triggered the Civil War. This story hypothesizes that John Brown was only the flashpowder ignited by his son, and for much less honorable reasons than love of God and fellow Man.
So many themes, so little time (for me). The two most interesting to me were
(1) the effect on a child of having a father like a John Brown. He was so intent on saving the world yet not "there" for his family. He wasn't there in the familiar sense as all his interactions were caught up in lecturing and sermonizing and teaching. And he wasn't there physically as his work and abolitionist goals kept him on the road. And further than that, John Brown was fully willing to sacrifice his family for his own ideals. Abraham and Isaac is a strong thread throughout the story.
(2) there are other kinds of slavery and Owen Brown was a slave of another kind -- a slave to his father, his father's ideals, his own yearning for fatherly approval, his own sense of responsibility to head the family in his father's absence. In other words, a slave of family. Just a darker way of stating "You can't pick your family" but you gotta love them?
jarjarblingg's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
For all its flaws (#1 being length) I really think this is one of the best American book ever written. Complex in composition and ideas, profound yet accessible, it will never leave me.
kyleroyer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
wingneedle's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed this book. It was a very long that is true, but the descriptions of how they lived in that time period are wonderful. And the insight of the family dynamics from the point of view of the son (Owen)is fabulous. Owen has a love/hate relationship with his father. And although not factual does give a plausible account of how they came to be at Harper Ferry and what happened there.
britakate's review against another edition
I'm impressed that Banks could take a truly fascinating character like John Brown and manage to make his son as much if not more interesting. Owen is infuriating at times, but generally compelling and even familiar. Makes me want to go back to Harper's Ferry, even though that's not really where the action takes place.