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natesea's review
3.0
This is a beautifully written, though distracted story about family and community survival in a war-torn corner of the world. Certain passages are more engaging than others, and the structure seems a bit disjointed. It would have worked better with a linear telling, though I suppose the disjointedness has poetic purpose. I'm not familiar with Slavic stories or writers, so maybe there is something lost in translation. That said, I liked the book, but not invested to speed through this lovely little tale.
thegel's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
marianne92's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
eeleniiv's review
3.0
I really wanted to love this book, however it took me sooo long to finish, months. Maybe it was because I wasn’t reading it consecutively, but the book became very confusing to me at times. I feel as if this was intentional, and I wish I spent more time trying to dissect and understand the strange yet beautiful layout, but I didn’t have the energy. There were times where I was completely confused, but there were also times I was caught off guard but these profound yet simple sentences. I would love to read more by this author, maybe some of her early poems. Her writing is beautiful, it was just hard for me to keep up at times.
mbest75's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.25
yllebarn's review against another edition
4.0
Jag har skrivit en recension på min blogg: http://hce.blo.gg/2018/june/olja-savicevic-adjo-cowboy-2.html
priyastoric's review
3.0
Recommended by a friend, I found Adios, Cowboy to be well written with a melancholic edge. The language, at times verges on the fantastic. I enjoyed the book, even though at times the seemingly off tangent description pulled us away from the main narrative.
emilyinherhead's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Something about the pacing and style of this story threw me off a little; there are enough flashbacks that I would sometimes lose track of where in the main narrative timeline I was. Still, I liked what the author did with genre, particularly how she mixed in some conventions of westerns and also a bit of mystery. There are also interesting relationship dynamics between family members, and some townspeople drama. Overall I liked this novel well enough, but I think I’d understand it better if I read it again.
alic59books's review against another edition
challenging
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
leigh_ann_15_deaf's review
2.0
I want to start off by stating that I clearly don't understand the novel. The story is not what the blurb really promised, as far as I can tell. But I did finish it, and came across some problematic themes.
I liked that this story plays with memory (including the forgotten ones), and slowly unravels the life of an impoverished, postwar--or prewar, I'm unclear on that--childhood.
One thing I'm not sure worked well is the sort of teasing, queer-baity aspect of the novel. The vet is at first insinuated to be, then outed as, homosexual, and is the reason he was essentially run out of town. But the author repeated circles back to Karlo (the vet) and Daniel's (the narrator's brother) relationship, which Dada entertains might have been sexual in nature. The author led me to believe that Dada would uncover that her brother's death was not, in fact, by suicide, but perhaps the same perpetrators who beat Karlo accidentally or purposefully murdered Daniel. That was not the case.
The book is chock-full of casual, outdated racist terms/slurs/stereotypes (seemingly based on American Westerns) and remnants of nationalism/patriotism. Also, the mentally ill and addicted persons of the novel generally go untreated and ignored, even killed off. I found myself cringing throughout the novel at these.
I'm sure all this is supposed to be a metaphor for something or other, but I don't know what it is.
I liked that this story plays with memory (including the forgotten ones), and slowly unravels the life of an impoverished, postwar--or prewar, I'm unclear on that--childhood.
One thing I'm not sure worked well is the sort of teasing, queer-baity aspect of the novel. The vet is at first insinuated to be, then outed as, homosexual, and is the reason he was essentially run out of town. But the author repeated circles back to Karlo (the vet) and Daniel's (the narrator's brother) relationship, which Dada entertains might have been sexual in nature. The author led me to believe that Dada would uncover that her brother's death was not, in fact, by suicide, but perhaps the same perpetrators who beat Karlo accidentally or purposefully murdered Daniel. That was not the case.
The book is chock-full of casual, outdated racist terms/slurs/stereotypes (seemingly based on American Westerns) and remnants of nationalism/patriotism. Also, the mentally ill and addicted persons of the novel generally go untreated and ignored, even killed off. I found myself cringing throughout the novel at these.
I'm sure all this is supposed to be a metaphor for something or other, but I don't know what it is.