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lauraborkpower's review against another edition
I'm giving up on this book. I didn't realize that it's an absurdist novel (at least I think it is), and I really shouldn't have tried to listen to it. I'm not into absurdist literature and it's probably not the best to listen to, even for fans. I tried and did enjoy bits of it, but once I put it on hiatus in favor of something plot-driven, I never really picked it back up. And now, three years later, I think it's too late.
tmpate255's review
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
I don’t really know what I just read but I think it was hilarious?
“His conclusion was that ‘hammering is anything but what it appears to be’; such a statement, if not open to explicit refutation, seems unnecessary and unenlightening.”
“His conclusion was that ‘hammering is anything but what it appears to be’; such a statement, if not open to explicit refutation, seems unnecessary and unenlightening.”
zeinabali's review against another edition
4.0
umm....????????????
That was my honest reaction truly.
However, I'll just quote one thing, “Your talk,” I said, “is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.”’
That was my honest reaction truly.
However, I'll just quote one thing, “Your talk,” I said, “is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.”’
daja57's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderful novel, a sort of cross between Ulysses by James Joyce and Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. The unnamed narrator, a disciple of a crackpot philosopher whose works are critiqued in a series of footnotes, murders a man in the first paragraph and seeks the box containing his money. He then meets the dead man, then the king of one-legged men, and finally a number of policemen who are obsessed with bicycles.
The reader is swept along through this apparently ridiculous story (there is a rationale which is revealed in the final pages) by the most wonderfully lyrical prose.
I've been looking out for something different in the way of fiction and this is surrealism at its best.
The reader is swept along through this apparently ridiculous story (there is a rationale which is revealed in the final pages) by the most wonderfully lyrical prose.
I've been looking out for something different in the way of fiction and this is surrealism at its best.
paola_mobileread's review against another edition
4.0
Very crafty dystopian short novel where space, time and consciousness seem governed by an almost credible mechanical clock-like mechanism. At the same time disheartening and hopeful, confusing and clear, is the protagonist dreaming or is he conscious? Is he dead or is he alive?
A virtuoso tour de force, and entertaining to book - I will never look at bicycles in the same way :-)
A virtuoso tour de force, and entertaining to book - I will never look at bicycles in the same way :-)
meadowlurk's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
outcolder's review against another edition
5.0
I was laughing out loud on the subway reading this. Genius!
milooo's review against another edition
challenging
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
this was… a confusing read. i probably should’ve done more research before starting it, because if there’s anything i’ve learned from this book, it’s that you should never approach a surrealist novel with no context and no understanding of how it came about. i would also not recommend audiobooking this book because it plays a lot with using footnotes, which gets really confusing when being narrated. i might give this another go later but meh probably not