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knitter22's review
4.0
Thank you, Brian Doyle, for writing a book unlike any other I've read. I've been trying to read Martin Marten (another by Brian Doyle) on my Kindle, and to be honest, I've had to put it aside. Doyle writes the world's longest and most digressive sentences, long enough that I too often lost the idea by the time I reached the period. I decided to try Mink River as an audiobook, and that was the ticket for me. Having this interesting, creative, original book read to me was wonderful, and I'll be thinking about the characters, setting, and language for a long time. Better yet, listening to Mink River led me to several of Doyle's other books that I'm anxious to read, [b: The Wet Engine|938354|The Wet Engine Exploring Mad Wild Miracle of Heart|Brian Doyle|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328757012s/938354.jpg|923329] and [b: A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary|21972323|A Book of Uncommon Prayer 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary|Brian Doyle|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400869232s/21972323.jpg|41282500].
toniapeckover's review
4.0
My first introduction to Doyle and he did not disappoint. Beautifully written prose, mythology, humanity, love, hope, despair. I loved it.
flor2398's review
3.0
3.5 stars for this one. I liked it much more when I approached it more as poetry and short stories than as a novel. I liked the snapshots of the people and the town, and a lot if the imagery was beautifully done. Some of the sections still felt a bit tedious.
kim_hoag's review
5.0
Taking place in Oregon, it is a mixture of Irish and Indian stories; of people with needs; of stories with needs; of a crow that talks and is best friends with a character; of powerful emotions and loves of life. What could be better? So many different stories all swirled together along with stories of the Irish past (the Hunger, in particular) and of a tribe of the First Peoples. It does have a marvelous Under Milk Wood feel to it. I gave this book a blue star as one of the best books I've read. It falls into a category I call quixotic drama, a twilight world that brushes against fantasy but, in the half-light it seems real because our soul says so. Haruki Murikami and Fredrik Backman also fall into this category.
chrisiant's review
4.0
It was a little depressing, but mostly hopeful. So this actually occurs before The Plover, and I think I would've experienced the main character in The Plover a little differently if I'd read this one first. I'm sort of glad I didn't. Lots of the same beautiful, musical writing that made me stop and take deeper breaths. Lots of the same focus on the natural world and folks' relationship to it woven tightly into the narrative. Lots more characters in this one than Plover, so ever more braids and weaves and patterns of relationships in this small town. Plenty of pain, but also lots of love and community and hope and intention to take care of one another.
spectra37's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Loved this book, loved the people, loved how it showed the fraying edges of a community and then how people started to knit them back together.
maddykpdx's review
4.0
While not heavy on plot, this magical, stylistic novel has heart, and is composed of hundreds of micro stories about the people and animals who populate a fictional Oregon coast town. This passage sums it up: "Human people, Moses [a talking crow] said, think that stores have beginnings, middles, and ends, but we crow people know that stories just wander on and on and change forms and are reborn again and again. That is who they are. Stories are not only words, you know. Words are just the clothes that people drape on stories."
aggief's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25