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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
On one hand, it was a depressing, somewhat cliched look at life in small-town Nebraska. On the other hand, I liked it. There was a sweetness at the end that made the muck OK.
I was in sudden need of a book on a recent trip to Lawrence, Kansas, so I went into "The Dusty Bookshelf" used book store. I looked around a bit, then found "Goodnight, Nebraska." It ended up being amazing.
I won't deny that maybe part of why I loved it was that it was one of the few times that I just picked up a book without knowing anything about it or reading a bunch of reviews first. I'm kind of a review junky. I enjoyed the serendipity of this choice, and maybe that played into my feelings.
That said, I thought it was a great book, full of truths about love and life. I kept preparing to be disappointed at the next plot twist, and I never was. It had me enthralled from beginning to end. Hell, I even felt like some of the truths in there made me think about things that then made me a better person and husband. Good stuff.
I won't deny that maybe part of why I loved it was that it was one of the few times that I just picked up a book without knowing anything about it or reading a bunch of reviews first. I'm kind of a review junky. I enjoyed the serendipity of this choice, and maybe that played into my feelings.
That said, I thought it was a great book, full of truths about love and life. I kept preparing to be disappointed at the next plot twist, and I never was. It had me enthralled from beginning to end. Hell, I even felt like some of the truths in there made me think about things that then made me a better person and husband. Good stuff.
I hated this book. Book group pick that disappointed me from the start but I kept reading hoping it'd get better. It didn't. Nobody to care about.
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is somewhat episodic and not as good as McNeal’s later novel [b: To Be Sung Underwater|9418326|To Be Sung Underwater|Tom McNeal|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436390595s/9418326.jpg|14302658] (which I recommend wholeheartedly to everyone), but I still enjoyed my time with it very much. The story starts in the early 90’s when Randall Hunsacker is a high school student, and his life after he arrives in a small town in rural Nebraska reminds me of my own high school days. I think part of the reason I read books like this is to bring back all the things, both good and bad, that I left behind me in North Dakota.
About halfway through this book, McNeal describes a pivotal moment in a high school football game. His description takes a dozen pages and includes several points of view. If it were a scene in a movie, it would be in super slow motion. In many books, this would be obnoxious or trite. McNeal pulls it off. This isn't the kind of story that I would normally read, and I certainly didn't enjoy this as much as To Be Sung Underwater, but McNeal is phenomenally gifted at constructing powerful sentences and forcing his readers to feel for even some very unlikable characters.
I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I had this book on my to-read list. The cover looked familiar, but I couldn't place it. I read to about page 100, and then one line caught my attention. I had read this before! After that one line, the plot came tumbling back and I decided not to keep reading. It's a good book and well written, but sadder than I wanted to experience. It turned out that I had requested this book from the library because the author wrote the short story that the movie Tully was based on.
Looking to read the backlist of Mr. McNeal as I loved "To be Sung underwater". This was a good book, full of flawed characters and irony. But I didn't love it.
not nearly as good as To Be Sung Underwater, but I really liked it.