Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
I really tried to enjoy this...but unfortunately found myself to be terribly bored. I know I'm a sinic, but this was just plain cheesy!
I went into this with low expectations — it was chosen as our university's annual campus read, and the colleagues who'd read it said they didn't like it very much. I also don't generally like short stories collections, and I thought at first this was one, but then you realize that all of the characters are connected in one way or another. It's kind of like Olive Kitteridge, except that the person at the center of this story is real-life high-wire artist Philippe Petit, whose August 1974 walk between the Twin Towers is largely peripheral to the main characters' lives but nonetheless presents a focal point around which many people's stories are woven.
The writing was beautiful and sucked me in quickly, particularly once I got to the second chapter. This is a book that celebrates the feeling of small moments in a way that is not dull but bursting with true life. As the book progresses we see how each character's individual thread is connected to all the others, sometimes in very small ways — the computer hackers in California who call a New York payphone to get someone to describe the tightrope walker — to the very large, with love and death and parenthood and friendship all playing roles. Some aspects stretch credulity, but for the most point the characters feel real, even though some are presented in first-person narration and some in third-person.
As a daily reader of Writing with Color, I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable that McCann felt it necessary to focus so much attention on the sex workers who made up most of the characters of color in this book. There's also a black woman whose story focuses a lot on her poverty and her experiences of racism. As WWC would say, these are important stories to tell, but those that focus disproportionately on the suffering of people of color should really stay within the purview of writers of color. With all the diversity of lives that McCann conjures within these pages, it's unclear why it's only in the last chapter, when we jump to 2006, that we get a character of color whose story isn't primarily about their suffering.
On the whole, I found this an enjoyable read. I'm undecided whether I liked it enough to go see the author speak when he comes to campus, but I'm glad to have read it regardless, and I look forward to discussing it with my colleagues who also read it.
The writing was beautiful and sucked me in quickly, particularly once I got to the second chapter. This is a book that celebrates the feeling of small moments in a way that is not dull but bursting with true life. As the book progresses we see how each character's individual thread is connected to all the others, sometimes in very small ways — the computer hackers in California who call a New York payphone to get someone to describe the tightrope walker — to the very large, with love and death and parenthood and friendship all playing roles. Some aspects stretch credulity, but for the most point the characters feel real, even though some are presented in first-person narration and some in third-person.
As a daily reader of Writing with Color, I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable that McCann felt it necessary to focus so much attention on the sex workers who made up most of the characters of color in this book. There's also a black woman whose story focuses a lot on her poverty and her experiences of racism. As WWC would say, these are important stories to tell, but those that focus disproportionately on the suffering of people of color should really stay within the purview of writers of color. With all the diversity of lives that McCann conjures within these pages, it's unclear why it's only in the last chapter, when we jump to 2006, that we get a character of color whose story isn't primarily about their suffering.
On the whole, I found this an enjoyable read. I'm undecided whether I liked it enough to go see the author speak when he comes to campus, but I'm glad to have read it regardless, and I look forward to discussing it with my colleagues who also read it.
The book was very frustrating for several chapters. I wasn’t sure if it was just short snapshots of different characters. But eventually, you see how they are tied together not only through the occurrence of a tightrope walker, but through other connections.
The voices of the characters are different which is interesting. I had a really hard time even listening to the group of guys from Palo Alto, but I wouldn’t want to spend time with them in real life. So I guess they came across as authentic.
The author enjoys using long lists. For me, sometimes too long.
Favorite part was the time Gloria returns to Claire’s apartment-how they become true friends.
Book club read, and I would have put it down if not for that. But now that it’s over, glad I read the whole thing.
The voices of the characters are different which is interesting. I had a really hard time even listening to the group of guys from Palo Alto, but I wouldn’t want to spend time with them in real life. So I guess they came across as authentic.
The author enjoys using long lists. For me, sometimes too long.
Favorite part was the time Gloria returns to Claire’s apartment-how they become true friends.
Book club read, and I would have put it down if not for that. But now that it’s over, glad I read the whole thing.
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Alas, I read this in my early 20s and loved it, but I can’t say the same reading it now. Like the movie Crash, but for 9/11 [derogatory].
The writing is so beautiful 20% of the time, but unfortunately just entirely too purple for the rest. Needed to kill many more darlings, I fear. The first and last 80 pages are the strongest. Middle sags.
The writing is so beautiful 20% of the time, but unfortunately just entirely too purple for the rest. Needed to kill many more darlings, I fear. The first and last 80 pages are the strongest. Middle sags.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Car accident
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
no finer a writer than McCann. this book rocked my world. it gives life to the stories of people who are usually not written about as full people but sidelined.
Solid fiction, but not spectacular. It felt as if the author was aiming for some great, universal truth but got lost on the way to greatness.