You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I really loved this book; funny, moving, thought-provoking, utterly compelling. Lizzie works in a university library in New York City, a job which makes her kind of like a counsellor. She also needs these skills to support her mother, her brother with addiction problems, and a world gone mad. The style won't be for everyone - choppy, poetic, spare - but I loved the NYC setting, and the rumination on how to live, love, parent, and thrive in what seem like end times.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Passages were quite good and the concept captured in the title is indicative of a thoughtful, poetic mind ruminating on global warming.
But it seemed as if there were multiple competing narratives that did not sit well with each other within the over-arching narrative that is the book. The addicted brother, the narrator’s own excessive drinking, the MYBAS affair, the charitable mother, and then there are the unproblematic husband, son and eccentric but generous boss/former advisor. If it all came together somehow, maybe it would work but the book is way, way too short for that ... mostly conflicts are resolved by a character who disappears or just somehow gets better. And the end is more optimistic than the narrator’s understanding of climate change would suggest. There is really little thought about what next.
Book could be entitled “a single, dark, egocentric cloud in a clear blue sky.” All of the plot, the personal stuff got in the way of exploring changes in the weather.
But it seemed as if there were multiple competing narratives that did not sit well with each other within the over-arching narrative that is the book. The addicted brother, the narrator’s own excessive drinking, the MYBAS affair, the charitable mother, and then there are the unproblematic husband, son and eccentric but generous boss/former advisor. If it all came together somehow, maybe it would work but the book is way, way too short for that ... mostly conflicts are resolved by a character who disappears or just somehow gets better. And the end is more optimistic than the narrator’s understanding of climate change would suggest. There is really little thought about what next.
Book could be entitled “a single, dark, egocentric cloud in a clear blue sky.” All of the plot, the personal stuff got in the way of exploring changes in the weather.
I liked the more poetic style of writing, the snippets of thought, the simplicity that highlights feeling. Not quite a 5 for me because I didn't quite attach emotionally, but still good and an interesting read, especially right now.
A 2016-themed tired-sad-girl book with a few really beautiful lines that I forgot to write down.
I don't understand the hate fragmentary novels get. Offill seems to write directly under my skin, and yet it's like candy too.
librarian having existential dread about the end of the world? I didn't give the rights to my life story
(jk I'm not a librarian yet)
(jk I'm not a librarian yet)
I went back and read the book jacket after finishing the novel bc I wasn’t sure what I’d just read. Weather is written in block paragraphs w spaces between, each paragraph a discrete thought in the mind of Lizzie, a librarian, mom, wife, and sister (to an addict of some type in the case of the latter).
Characters reappear and there are some elements of plot, mainly in regards to Lizzie’s brother, Henry, who becomes a father and stops using.
Mostly, the paragraphs feel disjointed, taking on varied aspects of Lizzie’s life and psyche. I enjoyed it, sort of, but wondered if it was a book that needed to be read all in one gulp. Every time I returned to it in the evening, it was utterly disorienting.
The writing is smart and clever. I just couldn’t assemble it.
Characters reappear and there are some elements of plot, mainly in regards to Lizzie’s brother, Henry, who becomes a father and stops using.
Mostly, the paragraphs feel disjointed, taking on varied aspects of Lizzie’s life and psyche. I enjoyed it, sort of, but wondered if it was a book that needed to be read all in one gulp. Every time I returned to it in the evening, it was utterly disorienting.
The writing is smart and clever. I just couldn’t assemble it.
fantastic, creative and timely novel addressing the current climate crisis and the impending apocalypse. it's from the point-of-view of a middle-aged woman --so definitely relatable to me (I want to read more novels about older women). She's married and has a son. Her brother is a recovering drug addict and she's had to care for him throughout the years. Jenny Offill excels at this observational narrative. It's short, riveting, potent. It's really the perfect thing to read during this COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine we're all experiencing.
quotes I particularly liked:
"Henry and Catherine come over for dinner. She brings giant sunflowers and I try to find a vase to hold them. She seems unnerved by all the books. 'Have you read all of these?' she asks me. Later, she starts a conversation based on the idea that we're living in unprecedented times."
"The woman has just turned fifty. She tells me about her blurriness, the way she is hardly seen. She supposes she is not so pretty anymore--fattish, hair a bit gray. What she has noticed, what gives her a little chill, she tells me, is how if she meets a man out of the context of work, he finds her to not be worth much. He looks over her shoulder as he talks or pawns her off on a woman her own age."
"So sure, maybe I could charm him for a while, but when the shine wore off? How long until he figured out I can't chop wood or light a fire? Ben is used to my all talk, no action ways, but it took a long time to bank all that goodwill."
"The thought of having to be with someone else long enough to deserve it again. That's what feels impossible. Because the part where they are charmed by you, where are are every good thing, and then the part later--sooner, maybe, but always later-- where they tire of you, of all your repetitions, of all your little and big shames, I don't think I could bear that."
"All I would have to do is take my clothes off with a stranger who has no particular interest in my long-term well-being or mental stability... Especially if said stranger go all my jokes, and liked how I never nagged and how I never asked if I looked fat, and would agree to make me go to the dentist and doctor even though I don't ever want to (because of death, death, the terrible death), and would be okay with my indifferent housekeeping and my seventies-style bush, and would be okay with us having to take care of my brother financially and emotionally for the rest of his life, also my mother, who is good and kind, but doesn't have a cent, then I'm totally into it, I'd happily fuck him whichever way he fancied until the bright morn."
quotes I particularly liked:
"Henry and Catherine come over for dinner. She brings giant sunflowers and I try to find a vase to hold them. She seems unnerved by all the books. 'Have you read all of these?' she asks me. Later, she starts a conversation based on the idea that we're living in unprecedented times."
"The woman has just turned fifty. She tells me about her blurriness, the way she is hardly seen. She supposes she is not so pretty anymore--fattish, hair a bit gray. What she has noticed, what gives her a little chill, she tells me, is how if she meets a man out of the context of work, he finds her to not be worth much. He looks over her shoulder as he talks or pawns her off on a woman her own age."
"So sure, maybe I could charm him for a while, but when the shine wore off? How long until he figured out I can't chop wood or light a fire? Ben is used to my all talk, no action ways, but it took a long time to bank all that goodwill."
"The thought of having to be with someone else long enough to deserve it again. That's what feels impossible. Because the part where they are charmed by you, where are are every good thing, and then the part later--sooner, maybe, but always later-- where they tire of you, of all your repetitions, of all your little and big shames, I don't think I could bear that."
"All I would have to do is take my clothes off with a stranger who has no particular interest in my long-term well-being or mental stability... Especially if said stranger go all my jokes, and liked how I never nagged and how I never asked if I looked fat, and would agree to make me go to the dentist and doctor even though I don't ever want to (because of death, death, the terrible death), and would be okay with my indifferent housekeeping and my seventies-style bush, and would be okay with us having to take care of my brother financially and emotionally for the rest of his life, also my mother, who is good and kind, but doesn't have a cent, then I'm totally into it, I'd happily fuck him whichever way he fancied until the bright morn."