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bookalong's review
5.0
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This book hit me hard. I needed time to process after finishing it.
It was so moving and enthralling. I became so invested in these characters. They were so deep and real to me. I enjoyed their journeys. I loved the alternate history in this story. It was a facinating look at a particular part of the 1960's and 70's I hadn't read much about before. Focusing on political activism and radicalism and the space program. Alcott's writing is strong. She drew me in from the first page.
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Thank You to the publisher for sending me this #ARC. This book will publish on May 14th.
•
This book hit me hard. I needed time to process after finishing it.
It was so moving and enthralling. I became so invested in these characters. They were so deep and real to me. I enjoyed their journeys. I loved the alternate history in this story. It was a facinating look at a particular part of the 1960's and 70's I hadn't read much about before. Focusing on political activism and radicalism and the space program. Alcott's writing is strong. She drew me in from the first page.
•
Thank You to the publisher for sending me this #ARC. This book will publish on May 14th.
ellenrhudy's review
2.0
The first fifty pages were amazing, and I kept plugging away, hoping the book would recapture something it had there. No one feels like a fully formed person—they’re more archetypes plugged into historical periods. The letters in particular revealed how little voice individuals have—those letters sounded like the author, not a 25-year-old man. And other smaller failings of characterization...one that struck me was in one chapter, where it’s referenced that Faye’s son (forget his name...ack) keeps lavender satchels with his clothes, just like his mother did. A new detail on her. Later in the same chapter there’s a reference from the roommate about those lavender satchels his roommate carries around. It’s so clumsily done, these two references within pages about something that doesn’t appear anywhere else in the novel, and felt representative of how everyone was a collection of details rather than a person. Frustrating read, language too pretty for itself.
pinwheeling's review
4.0
i ended up LOVING parts of this -- the writing was so lush that I just felt drawn in and didn't want to stop. it's an ambitious novel and i think parts of it don't quite work because the text is so withholding about its characters. in particular i think the pieces about write and fay's time in the us part of the revolutionary group feel a little flat, whereas vincent, despite being a more distant character, feels more realized. it took me over a month to read the first fifty pages and once i moved past that, i was fully immersed and finished the rest in a weekend (also it was overdue and the library is harassing me).
sophronisba's review
3.0
There are few things more frustrating that a novel that you should like--but you don't, not really. Alcott's writing is stellar; I like that she's trying to tell a big, bold story; she's concerned with political and cultural conflicts; the setting (1960s America) should be just my thing -- but somehow it never came together for me. I will be curious about her next, though.
drewsof's review against another edition
4.0
I love a good sprawling novel, one that swings for the fences -- perhaps even more so when it doesn't quite get there. There's something to be said for ambition, especially when so much of the book is so wonderful, and Alcott really makes it into orbit several times with this one. The first section is superb, all dry-heat and summer sun, the thrill of scientific progress mixed with the thrill of sex. And just about any time Vincent ends up back on the page, later in the novel, I was transfixed. Fay and Wright, however, are more fitful characters and their fitfulness feels intentional, but just doesn't always feel as vivid. Put another way, nothing about the middle of the book is bad; it just doesn't do what the first third did for me.
The ending, however -- the last dozen or so pages -- are a tremendously daring feat and one that had me gripping the cover of the book and drilling my eyes into the words again and again to catch a glimpse of... well, of what happened.
This is a great summer read, warts and all.
The ending, however -- the last dozen or so pages -- are a tremendously daring feat and one that had me gripping the cover of the book and drilling my eyes into the words again and again to catch a glimpse of... well, of what happened.
This is a great summer read, warts and all.
intothevolcano's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 rounded up to 4, because I've been watching alot of Drinking By My Shelf and I liked how she handles the rating system (2 is a thumbs down, 3 is "eh", 4 is a thumbs up). Also because the first and last 50 pages of the book are a much higher quality than the rest of it.
I'll start with the positives, which is that the writing style of this book is beautiful. It's lyrical, it flows, I found myself staying up past my bedtime three nights in a row to keep reading.
However (!) the narrative itself is piecemeal - there are so many loose ends which are just never picked up again. I realise this can be a stylistic choice, but coupled with the lack of real character development (everyone was a cardboard cutout of themselves, and I would have liked some more insight into people's motivations) this made for quite an unfulfilling read.
I'll start with the positives, which is that the writing style of this book is beautiful. It's lyrical, it flows, I found myself staying up past my bedtime three nights in a row to keep reading.
However (!) the narrative itself is piecemeal - there are so many loose ends which are just never picked up again. I realise this can be a stylistic choice, but coupled with the lack of real character development (everyone was a cardboard cutout of themselves, and I would have liked some more insight into people's motivations) this made for quite an unfulfilling read.
brattyreads's review against another edition
Just couldn't make it past the first few chapters and it's not what I'm excited to read. Will try again in a few months to see if I gravitate to reading it again.
tonstantweader's review against another edition
4.0
What drives people to achieve greatness or infamy? In America Was Hard to Find, Kathleen Alcott tells the story of a brief love affair and the child who resulted. It beings in the late Fifties where Vincent Kahn, a married jet pilot marking time while hoping to join the space program has an affair with a young woman named Fay Wren. Fay does not tell him she is pregnant, aware of the harm they have done Vincent’s wife and, perhaps, realizing how unworthy he is. Strangely both of them will become famous, one for walking on the moon and the other for political terrorism.
The story is told in three parts. First the love story, then the story of Vincent and Fay achieving the fame and infamy that seem fated. Fay raises their child Wright in precarity, with the future uncertain, often on the run and underground. Vincent achieves his goal, but seems to be emptied out, an empty man.
Wright grows up longing for normalcy. One of his big rebellions against his mom is going to a public school for a day. He gets that normalcy when he goes to live with his grandparents, but it’s not all he hoped for. No one has ever told him who his father is, but time and again, people tell him he looks like the famous astronaut, the first man who walked on the moon. He suspects they may be on to something He seems alienated from himself, even as he begins his own self-discovery in the San Francisco of the Eighties.
I liked America Was Hard to Find a lot even though it left me with so many questions. I cared about Fay and Wright and even Vincent. I wondered how differently their lives would have progressed if they had been honest about their emotions. That is what I want from a book, the questions and sometimes the anger about how a character behaves. I was angry with Vincent, Fay, and even Wright.
Alcott does a great job of setting the stage in terms of the history and the social milieu. She based Shelter on Weather Underground and did a lot of research and interviews with astronauts to get an authentic sense of who Vincent would be. The main characters seem emotionally broken and I wonder if that is the point, that they cannot be so obsessed with their causes if they were not broken.
America Was Hard to Find will be released on May 14th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
America Was Hard to Find at Ecco Books | Harper Collins
Kathleen Alcott author site
★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/05/10/9780062662521/
The story is told in three parts. First the love story, then the story of Vincent and Fay achieving the fame and infamy that seem fated. Fay raises their child Wright in precarity, with the future uncertain, often on the run and underground. Vincent achieves his goal, but seems to be emptied out, an empty man.
Wright grows up longing for normalcy. One of his big rebellions against his mom is going to a public school for a day. He gets that normalcy when he goes to live with his grandparents, but it’s not all he hoped for. No one has ever told him who his father is, but time and again, people tell him he looks like the famous astronaut, the first man who walked on the moon. He suspects they may be on to something He seems alienated from himself, even as he begins his own self-discovery in the San Francisco of the Eighties.
I liked America Was Hard to Find a lot even though it left me with so many questions. I cared about Fay and Wright and even Vincent. I wondered how differently their lives would have progressed if they had been honest about their emotions. That is what I want from a book, the questions and sometimes the anger about how a character behaves. I was angry with Vincent, Fay, and even Wright.
Alcott does a great job of setting the stage in terms of the history and the social milieu. She based Shelter on Weather Underground and did a lot of research and interviews with astronauts to get an authentic sense of who Vincent would be. The main characters seem emotionally broken and I wonder if that is the point, that they cannot be so obsessed with their causes if they were not broken.
America Was Hard to Find will be released on May 14th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
America Was Hard to Find at Ecco Books | Harper Collins
Kathleen Alcott author site
★★★★
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/05/10/9780062662521/
kcfray's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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