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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Pretty quickly after starting, I knew I was not going to enjoy this one.
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A beautifully written meditation on love between a family. I cried so hard at the end. I think this is one that will stay with me.
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Abe and Jane have been together for decades. The book opens with them reflecting on their marriage, remembering the idyllic early days, the tough ones in the middle, and cherishing their current moment. Jane is an artist and Abe is a writer. They're parents to Max. They're partners. They've walked through it all.
This book had a strong opening and ending. I liked the way that Abe and Jane communicated in these sections, catching the remnant of a thought, recording partial memories, and tiring before recalling the whole story. The way postpartum depression is represented, along with the struggle to be an independent person and artist while also raising a dependent and aligning one's life with a partner felt true to life.
Interspersed throughout are vignettes of Central Park, all the people who frequent it, smaller portions of the park, particular benches, community groups, and the like; it's an homage to New York City. For the most part I liked these asides, but sometimes struggled to focus in on them. I think they may have had important messages buried within and I found myself tuning out just a tad.
I also got a little lost during the Max sections and didn't feel as connected to him as a character. That being said there were still some thought-provoking and lovely passages in his POV.
On the topic of POV, the Jane and Abe sections were initially hard for me to parse because this book lacks quotation marks—not an issue in and of itself, but it took some getting used to along with the poetic style, sentence fragments, and the quick shifts from Abe's voice to Jane's. I didn't always know who was remembering which part of a paragraph.
Overall, despite my momentary disconnectedness (which could have had more to do with timing than the actual book), I think this was a beautifully written book about love and family and an ode to Central Park, writers, and artists everywhere.
This book had a strong opening and ending. I liked the way that Abe and Jane communicated in these sections, catching the remnant of a thought, recording partial memories, and tiring before recalling the whole story. The way postpartum depression is represented, along with the struggle to be an independent person and artist while also raising a dependent and aligning one's life with a partner felt true to life.
Interspersed throughout are vignettes of Central Park, all the people who frequent it, smaller portions of the park, particular benches, community groups, and the like; it's an homage to New York City. For the most part I liked these asides, but sometimes struggled to focus in on them. I think they may have had important messages buried within and I found myself tuning out just a tad.
I also got a little lost during the Max sections and didn't feel as connected to him as a character. That being said there were still some thought-provoking and lovely passages in his POV.
On the topic of POV, the Jane and Abe sections were initially hard for me to parse because this book lacks quotation marks—not an issue in and of itself, but it took some getting used to along with the poetic style, sentence fragments, and the quick shifts from Abe's voice to Jane's. I didn't always know who was remembering which part of a paragraph.
Overall, despite my momentary disconnectedness (which could have had more to do with timing than the actual book), I think this was a beautifully written book about love and family and an ode to Central Park, writers, and artists everywhere.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Death of parent
emotional
reflective
slow-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
I enjoyed the story but the way it was articulated in the writing I didn’t enjoy. Mainly the splits in paragraphs often
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just couldn’t. The writing style was not for me and I found I just did not care about the characters and life is too short to read a book you’re not into
Written in an interesting way but I just wasn't into it. I knew, if I spent my time on it, it would be a 2star and thats on me.