Reviews

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

juli_mod's review against another edition

2.0

Das ist kein Roman - das ist eine Übung im kreativen Schreiben. Und das ist unangenehm. Halliday schreibt, als würde sie Tipps aus einem Literatur-Handbuch befolgen, allerdings ohne Eleganz oder Authentizität.
Der erste Teil des Buches ist die Liebesgeschichte zwischen einer sehr jungen Frau und einem sehr alten, sehr berühmten Schriftsteller. Die Erzählung finde ich aus zwei Gründen besonders problematisch:
1) Halliday ist bekannt als Geliebte von Philip Roth - und auch wenn es sich hier um Fiktion handelt, bleibt der schmale Geschmack des Biographischen, des Realen. Wenn diese Affäre, diese Konversationen so statt gefunden haben, kommen beide dabei schlecht weg.
2) Apropos Konversationen: hat ein Pulitz-Preisträger wirklich nicht mehr zu verkünden, als dass er vergessen habe, dass er Spargel gegessen habe, was ihm nun, nach dem Toilettenbesuch aber wieder eingefallen sei? die Gespräche zwischen den beiden sind so langweilig und bedeutungslos, dass es mir absolut unklar ist, wie sich eine Verliebtheit entwickeln kann.
Den zweiten Teil finde ich gelungener. Allerdings erscheint auch dieser wieder nur wie eine Schreibübung: versuche dich als weiße, privilegierte Frau in einen Iraker hineinzuversetzen, der in London am Zoll festgehalten wird. Ich würde vorschlagen: Bücher von Schriftsteller*innen of Color zu lesen, wenn man diese Perspektive erfahren will.
Über den dritten Teil will ich gar nicht mehr reden...
Insgesamt eine Zeitverschwendung, nervige und unangenehme Lektüre. Schade, dass das Buch so unkritisch gelobt wird.

cwooley0324's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

sctittle's review against another edition

4.0

Funny/sad; absurd/chilling; terrific writing throughout. I would have given this five stars, except for my suspicion, which I would love to have proved wrong, that this is really 1 longish short story, 1 novella, and 1 regular short story, and the publisher/editor decided the only way to sell them would be as a "novel," and then came up with a title that would send readers trying to mine the stories for a common thread. But I have this suspicion a lot--one of my biggest pet peeves is "a novel of interconnected stories," when really it's just short stories with the same cast of characters.

Spoiler

But all that griping aside, I love Halliday's writing. Ezra is a terrific character and the final section, in which he's being interviewed for the BBC Desert Island Discs show, is hysterical, profound, mordant, joyful. Part two of the novel was terribly moving and sad and, I think, brilliantly constructed, as we move closer to understanding why our narrator is at Heathrow. Part one was my least favorite, but I found the relationship between the two lovers to be touching and totally believable, even if I was a bit annoyed that Halliday didn't even try to hide the fact that the old man is based on Philip Roth.

I listened to the audiobook which I most certainly DO NOT RECOMMEND. The narrator for Part 2 is a terrible reader--mispronounces words, gets the rhythm of a sentence all wrong, and was likely chosen because he seems to have a lovely Arabic accent. I am going to buy a copy of the actual book for my library and I look forward to reading this again.

ashleysweitz's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.5

ambsmith10's review against another edition

1.0

This a book that gets excellent reviews from some "high-brow" critics, so everyone has to say they love it. To admit it is a book with no real plot or coherent thread runs you the risk of being seen as someone too simple to "get it". Life is too short, and there are too may good books out there to waste my time suffering through this nonsense.

amjammi's review against another edition

5.0

Still deciding whether the discovery of the author's real life romance with Philip Roth changes how I feel about that first section...

kristianawithak's review against another edition

4.0

I love balance in a novel, especially when there is more than one voice telling the story. Asymmetry accomplishes a perfect balance between its storytellers. I wanted to hear more of each story, but was also content to move on. It was a great book.

gili22's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

queenbethie's review against another edition

2.0

I didn't get it. I read this because it came highly rated and I generally enjoyed it until then end when I said, "HUH?" The first two stories were interesting in and of themselves, but neither was complete, so I was looking forward to the third part that would pull it all together. Except it didn't. I went online and read articles and reviews about the book to learn more and try to understand it better, but my advanced college degrees were apparently meaningless here. Maybe you'll get it.

nikikerimova's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

1.0