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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
2.0
Not sure how this ended up being not so good. The inside flap sounded interesting. I think the reviews were glowing. The events and plot twists had potential and I believe there was even Booker talk about this novel. But it just didn't deliver. Pretty uneventful. It also seemed like two or three novellas mashed together. And it finished with a sigh. Sad...it was just not great by any means. I'll give an extra star because it was well-written. But probably should be a one.
skrrtvonnegut's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I would be lying if I said I fully understood everything that McCarthy was trying to accomplish here, but there are so many masterful moments that getting a little lost from time to time was still totally worth it. In particular, the shift in tone from Serge's childhood in Versoie to being a WWI pilot was handled very well. In the early stages of the novel we get an absurd mythological pageant on the manor's lawn that calls to mind the off-kilter humor of a Wes Anderson film (complete with Serge's father Simeon, who I could only picture played by Ralph Fiennes), a fun and light scene that was among my favorite parts. And then, when Serge is flying in the war, McCarthy depicts the action through the both claustrophobic and dizzying perspective within the cockpit in ways that make the war feel all too real, nothing like the acted-out farce on the grass of Versoie. Even throughout the tensest parts, I found the novel kept a lot of its humor, which I really enjoyed. I think this is a book I will often think about and will only grow on me with time.
saintejeanne's review against another edition
very male novel, barely any female characters, embarrassing sex scenes and too much focus on military hardware
nbynw's review against another edition
5.0
In my pursuit to read all the Man Booker nominated books by October 12,I spent little time researching each book's plot. I understood this book to be a post-modern book about cocaine, but thankfully it's not. Not really.
Serge is the protagonist and this book is him as interpreted through the cryptic communications of his life. Be it phonetic sounds, Morris code, ancient hieroglyphs, or bodily functions we learn who Serge is and how he views his circumstances. We see him through many stages of his cognitive development, we see him thinking and interpreting as a child, a man, and yes, as a cocaine addict.
The historical setting of the early 1900s provides a small narrative track for his exploration of these everyday messages and developments. The settings: childhood, WWI, seances, or even dreams play against the context: deaf/drug addicted mother & a semi incestuous relationship, war observation & reconnaissance from the cockpit of a fighter plane, desire to talk with the dead, and drug filled dreams. Yet we only understand these circumstances as Serge experiences them & decodes their meaning or faces the consequences.
Although a bit of a technical, dry, emotionless (emotion-dulled?) narrative I thoroughly enjoyed the intricate layers of C. I mean that literally, the work as a whole, and I mean the author's ability to wind so much into that 3rd letter of our alphabet. It was like all my university comm classes as a fictional story, which here is a good thing.
Serge is the protagonist and this book is him as interpreted through the cryptic communications of his life. Be it phonetic sounds, Morris code, ancient hieroglyphs, or bodily functions we learn who Serge is and how he views his circumstances. We see him through many stages of his cognitive development, we see him thinking and interpreting as a child, a man, and yes, as a cocaine addict.
The historical setting of the early 1900s provides a small narrative track for his exploration of these everyday messages and developments. The settings: childhood, WWI, seances, or even dreams play against the context: deaf/drug addicted mother & a semi incestuous relationship, war observation & reconnaissance from the cockpit of a fighter plane, desire to talk with the dead, and drug filled dreams. Yet we only understand these circumstances as Serge experiences them & decodes their meaning or faces the consequences.
Although a bit of a technical, dry, emotionless (emotion-dulled?) narrative I thoroughly enjoyed the intricate layers of C. I mean that literally, the work as a whole, and I mean the author's ability to wind so much into that 3rd letter of our alphabet. It was like all my university comm classes as a fictional story, which here is a good thing.
alisonjfields's review against another edition
4.0
Really marvelous, dreamy and funny book about not-entirely sympathetic main character, his oddball family and the weirdness of communication. Also, lots and lots of drugs.
ekb523's review against another edition
1.0
This book left me feeling like I just plain missed something. There were glimpses of an interesting plot, but it never seemed to materialize for me. After reading this book, I read a book review of it which explained the book as "a novel steeped in both high modernism and continental philosophy" and a "1960s-style anti-novel that's fundamentally hostile to the notion of character and dramatises, or encodes, a set of ideas concerning subjectivity" which explains why it might not have been my cup of tea.
mikewa14's review against another edition
2.0
no idea what this book was actually about... - full review here
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/c-tom-mccarthy.html
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/c-tom-mccarthy.html
colorfulleo92's review against another edition
1.0
I don't know what I was expecting when I picked this audiobook up but unfortunately it still maneged to disappoint. Didn't gel at all with the story and will probably not read anything by Tom McCarthy in the future. But I never know what I might feel in the future
kidclamp's review against another edition
2.0
I gave up even before 100 pages. it wasn't bad, but it was too complicated to push through for the amount of pleasure I was getting from reading it.