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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
Prima vermakelijk boek. Ik vond de delen die vanuit de twee tieners verteld worden, niet heel geloofwaardig. Het voelde een beetje alsof een ouder iemand bedacht hoe jonge mensen denken. Het plot is interessant. Maar er is niet echt één hoogte punt. En het einde vond ik was zoetsappig.
I think this book was okay. Maybe slightly better than okay, closer to a 2.5 stars. It definitely had a lot of potential. It’s a contemporary novel about a small group of friends from college who are now in their 50s. It revolves around their every day lives—their marriage, their careers, and their teenage children. I usually love books like this where each character is dealing with their own issues and we delve into the dynamics of everyone’s relationship with each other. But, this book lacked any sort of depth or meaning. It stayed at a shallow level and therefore it was hard to form any attachment to any of the characters.
I really wanted to like this more, but I found the characters both unlikeable and uninteresting, which is not a good combo. Short chapters helped keep me going.
I liked this book. It kept me interested the whole time. My complaint is how Straub writes the two teens, Ruby and Harry. They were both written like terrible stereotypes. Especially Ruby; sometimes it sounded like Straub is just a grumpy old person who has a bone to pick with young people and just wanted to make fun of them.
Maybe this was her intention. Maybe the whole book was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, kind of satire? But that didn't come through very strongly on the adult characters, if at all.
Overall, good. And I liked how the ending was set up.
Maybe this was her intention. Maybe the whole book was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, kind of satire? But that didn't come through very strongly on the adult characters, if at all.
Overall, good. And I liked how the ending was set up.
Men/women/teens/marriages falling apart..none of these are plot lines I enjoy. But I still thought this book was a great read. Very summer, very New York, very modern. Reminded me at times of Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen, as well as Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.
This book was a pleasant surprise for me considering how much I did NOT like "The Vacationers", also by the same author. Whereas "The Vacationers" felt shallow and lacking in character development, "Modern Lovers" was fun and light while still having some depth and I actually liked the majority of the characters! By no means was this a literary masterpiece, but it was an entertaining and quick read and I'm glad I decided to give Emma Straub a second chance!
48: Modern Lovers by Emma Straub. Since first learning of Straub earlier this month, I seek to read everything she has ever written, eventually, with our upcoming book club read, All Adults Here, to be the third, and this book club read the second.
Straub is a talented and thoughtful author who does smart things fluidly, majoring in storytelling and character development but not clunkily checking off boxes of the inclusion of all figurative devices and such. Her writing is not without such things, but one doesn't read her to say, "Ooooooh! That metaphor" so much but rather thinks ah, these characters: I can see them and feel I'm right there with them throughout. I know them.
Modern Lovers tells the story of two generations of loving relationships, and ultimately questioning how they become that, and what it really means to love: husband to wife, wife to wife, person to work, girl to boy, boy to girl, person to life, and more. And there's some mystery added, too, with a character who is not really present but died long before this story starts but who has left her impression on these characters and their lives...and thus is very much part of this story.
I don't want to spoil a thing for those who plan to read it themselves, so I'm going to say little else except that my favorite aspect of this book is its very end and the creative collage of epilogue it presents.
Ultimately, Straub is a very trustworthy author in my book, which is why I will strive to read all she's written...and hope to one day visit her bookstore in NY to tell her myself and in person how much I liked it all.
Straub is a talented and thoughtful author who does smart things fluidly, majoring in storytelling and character development but not clunkily checking off boxes of the inclusion of all figurative devices and such. Her writing is not without such things, but one doesn't read her to say, "Ooooooh! That metaphor" so much but rather thinks ah, these characters: I can see them and feel I'm right there with them throughout. I know them.
Modern Lovers tells the story of two generations of loving relationships, and ultimately questioning how they become that, and what it really means to love: husband to wife, wife to wife, person to work, girl to boy, boy to girl, person to life, and more. And there's some mystery added, too, with a character who is not really present but died long before this story starts but who has left her impression on these characters and their lives...and thus is very much part of this story.
I don't want to spoil a thing for those who plan to read it themselves, so I'm going to say little else except that my favorite aspect of this book is its very end and the creative collage of epilogue it presents.
Ultimately, Straub is a very trustworthy author in my book, which is why I will strive to read all she's written...and hope to one day visit her bookstore in NY to tell her myself and in person how much I liked it all.
Loved the way the stories of two generations of two families were told in this contemporary look at love and life. All of the characters in this novel are flawed in but I wanted to stick through their journey and find out how it pans out. I enjoyed Struab's writing style, which gave us just enough to understand the characters motivation and feelings, but not overwhelming us with being inside their heads too much.