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davygibbs's review against another edition
5.0
One of the most beautiful and emotionally devastating books I've ever read. A father attempts to gain an understanding of his daughter's disappearance through obsessively writing about it.
beentsy's review against another edition
5.0
Kevin Brockmeier's writing makes me so happy that I am a reader. His words just sing to me and hit all the most beautiful notes. Even when he's describing the saddest thing in the world, the words sing.
minniepauline's review against another edition
4.0
This is a beautiful, haunting, sad book. I read it very quickly - devoured it, really.
whaydengilbert's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book after my best friend was killed in a car accident, and it really deeply affected me. Recommend to anyone who has ever felt a personal loss of a child, sibling, or friend.
kirstiecat's review against another edition
4.0
In some ways Brockmeier is a bit of an enigma to me. He's writing about a topic numerous other authors have written about, the disappearance of a child but the way he writes it seems so real and engaging without any sort of pretense or phony tear jerking scenes and yet one can't help but feel so drawn in to the characters and the story, to their alternate versions of history. Some of it is more fantastical in terms of its ideas and others of it are grand hallucinations the reader believes are truly happening just as the protagonist is. Borckmeier is honest and touching in his ability to write this kind of story, a delicate wonder that could easily become a stale cliché. When it seemed all words and worlds had already been explored, Brockmeier managed to transcend the limitations of already used language and make it all seem so real again.
Favorite Quotes:
pg 11 "She likes the way the joke makes a perfect ring, wrapping around on itself again and again, like a pinwheel or a revolving door, but not everyone thinks it's funny."
pg. 45 "NOTHING MAKES GOD LAUGH LIKE WHEN WE TELL HIM OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE"
pg. 91 "The school projector always sounded like a bicycle with a playing card pinned between the spokes, rattling softly then loudly and then softly again, and it gave the movies they watched in the classroom a stuttering sort of rhythm, a cadence of music that lay just beneath the action and came to seem inseparable from it."
pg. 106 "Janet felt an unexpected lightness inside her. There was no behavior so outlandish that it wasn't a believable human response to the world."
pg. 136 "Frank Lentini, Magician," and he headed for the front door. Just before he left, Micah took his sleeve and asked him a question: 'You're not me coming back from the future to tell me about my life, are you."
...
"No, son," he finally said. "No, I wish I was. Some tricks even a magician can't perform."
pg. 194 "...as if the words were crawling up from underneath his tongue."
pg. 207 "Sometimes he thinks that the world as we know it is as thin as a tissue of cloud-that we can pierce through it without even trying, stepping sideways out of ourselves, and end up in some other world altogether, or in no worked at all. Sometimes he thinks that the shout he heard that afternoon was the sound Celia made as the tissue closed behind her.
Favorite Quotes:
pg 11 "She likes the way the joke makes a perfect ring, wrapping around on itself again and again, like a pinwheel or a revolving door, but not everyone thinks it's funny."
pg. 45 "NOTHING MAKES GOD LAUGH LIKE WHEN WE TELL HIM OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE"
pg. 91 "The school projector always sounded like a bicycle with a playing card pinned between the spokes, rattling softly then loudly and then softly again, and it gave the movies they watched in the classroom a stuttering sort of rhythm, a cadence of music that lay just beneath the action and came to seem inseparable from it."
pg. 106 "Janet felt an unexpected lightness inside her. There was no behavior so outlandish that it wasn't a believable human response to the world."
pg. 136 "Frank Lentini, Magician," and he headed for the front door. Just before he left, Micah took his sleeve and asked him a question: 'You're not me coming back from the future to tell me about my life, are you."
...
"No, son," he finally said. "No, I wish I was. Some tricks even a magician can't perform."
pg. 194 "...as if the words were crawling up from underneath his tongue."
pg. 207 "Sometimes he thinks that the world as we know it is as thin as a tissue of cloud-that we can pierce through it without even trying, stepping sideways out of ourselves, and end up in some other world altogether, or in no worked at all. Sometimes he thinks that the shout he heard that afternoon was the sound Celia made as the tissue closed behind her.
library_brandy's review against another edition
5.0
In a word: lovely.
In another: heartbreaking.
A series of short stories, written by a man (not the author; this is the frame narrative) wondering what has become of his daughter, who disappeared when she was seven years old. Some of the stories are realistic, imagining what happened that day or how the townspeople reacted or the adult Celia might have grown up to be.
It's how a father struggles to hold on while a mother struggles to move past. It's different ways to deal with grief. It's the hopeful thoughts and dreams, no matter how realistic. And it's all wonderful.
In another: heartbreaking.
A series of short stories, written by a man (not the author; this is the frame narrative) wondering what has become of his daughter, who disappeared when she was seven years old. Some of the stories are realistic, imagining what happened that day or how the townspeople reacted or the adult Celia might have grown up to be.
It's how a father struggles to hold on while a mother struggles to move past. It's different ways to deal with grief. It's the hopeful thoughts and dreams, no matter how realistic. And it's all wonderful.
daaan's review against another edition
2.0
I was expecting to like this better than I did, having lost a close family member it's a subject that is close to home. It just didn't click at all. The section switching characters seemed to serve no purpose, it felt completely flat. I'd have cut it some slack if the language was particularly good, but the verb constructions were all very weak, it felt very flat and lifeless, which is suppose is a reflection of the grief, but I think a better writer would have found a better way of expressing that.
cosbrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Incredibly poignant, and an interesting take on how one father deals with grief and lack of closure. Different points of view make it a unique read.
rlambertdo's review
4.0
I'm going to go with..."haunting". This book is troubling and deliberate as it draws the reader into the nightmare created when a child disappears.
This is the story of a seven year old girl who is suddenly gone, leaving her father with grief, guilt and a touch of madness. The book is presented from the perspective of the father, an author, as he imagines his Celia and the circumstances which may have surrounded her disappearance. He considers that she may be growing-up in a different circumstance than the life that he and his wife had created. He folds-in on himself, unable to return to a functional life and losing his marriage to the incident.
[a:Kevin Brockmeier|16967|Kevin Brockmeier|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282067408p2/16967.jpg] is one of the most imaginative contemporary writers whom I have encountered. His characters are real and appealing, but he introduces aspects of fantasy as he fabricates his story. He thinks like no other author whom I have found.
I also recommend his [b:The Brief History of the Dead|30072|The Brief History of the Dead|Kevin Brockmeier|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168051103s/30072.jpg|836000].
This is the story of a seven year old girl who is suddenly gone, leaving her father with grief, guilt and a touch of madness. The book is presented from the perspective of the father, an author, as he imagines his Celia and the circumstances which may have surrounded her disappearance. He considers that she may be growing-up in a different circumstance than the life that he and his wife had created. He folds-in on himself, unable to return to a functional life and losing his marriage to the incident.
[a:Kevin Brockmeier|16967|Kevin Brockmeier|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282067408p2/16967.jpg] is one of the most imaginative contemporary writers whom I have encountered. His characters are real and appealing, but he introduces aspects of fantasy as he fabricates his story. He thinks like no other author whom I have found.
I also recommend his [b:The Brief History of the Dead|30072|The Brief History of the Dead|Kevin Brockmeier|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168051103s/30072.jpg|836000].
spygrl1's review
4.0
Kevin Brockmeier's "The Truth About Celia" contains within it The Truth About Celia, a collection of stories by stricken father Christopher Brooks. 7-year-old Celia vanished on March 15, 1997 -- one moment she was playing in the yard, and the next she was gone. No trace, no clues, no resolution. Nothing Christopher Brooks has done since could really be described as coping -- he agonizes, he blames, he yearns, and he speculates. Was Celia kidnapped? Is Celia dead? Did Celia slip through the membrane separating our world from another? Could Celia come back? Could Celia contact him? Has Celia grown up? Has she forgotten her childhood? From his tortured speculations he spins these stories, The Truth About Celia. Of course, the only true truth about Celia is that she's gone. She's a mystery that will never be solved.
So, a word about the post-modern nature of the text is in order, I suppose. Experiencing the authorship of the book is interesting. How often as you read do you consider the author? As you're reading The Truth About Celia you can forget all about the author for a time; then when you remember the author, you first think of Christopher Brooks, the bereaved father: How much of this is true? How accurate is he being in his descriptions of himself, his wife, the police officer, the priest, the drunk? What does his wife think about how he told her story? How well did he know Celia? Which Celia is the "true" Celia? How is Christopher holding up? How did he manage to transmute his grief into literature? How do you begin to shape and edit such painful source material? Then you remind yourself of Kevin Brockmeier, and of the fact that Christopher Brooks doesn't exist. Which starts a new chain of questions: What does Brockmeier want to say about loss? How does it feel to erase yourself as the author? To what extent is Christopher Brooks Kevin Brockmeier? Is Christopher a creation or a stand-in? How accurate is Brockmeier's portrayal of loss and grief? And does Kevin Brockmeier know what happened to Celia -- did he invent a secret history for her that he withheld from Christopher?
So, a word about the post-modern nature of the text is in order, I suppose. Experiencing the authorship of the book is interesting. How often as you read do you consider the author? As you're reading The Truth About Celia you can forget all about the author for a time; then when you remember the author, you first think of Christopher Brooks, the bereaved father: How much of this is true? How accurate is he being in his descriptions of himself, his wife, the police officer, the priest, the drunk? What does his wife think about how he told her story? How well did he know Celia? Which Celia is the "true" Celia? How is Christopher holding up? How did he manage to transmute his grief into literature? How do you begin to shape and edit such painful source material? Then you remind yourself of Kevin Brockmeier, and of the fact that Christopher Brooks doesn't exist. Which starts a new chain of questions: What does Brockmeier want to say about loss? How does it feel to erase yourself as the author? To what extent is Christopher Brooks Kevin Brockmeier? Is Christopher a creation or a stand-in? How accurate is Brockmeier's portrayal of loss and grief? And does Kevin Brockmeier know what happened to Celia -- did he invent a secret history for her that he withheld from Christopher?