Scan barcode
meme_too2's review
2.0
This book was...oh what's a good word....different.
In short, a guy (he's a famous rock and roller, but that doesn't really have much to do with it) goes back in time and meets his dad (whom he never knew), his grandfather (whom he is hiding from because the guy is a disagreeable brute), his grandmother (who ends up knowing all and he happens to fall in love with) and various other people he knows from his present life. As well, he meets Hitler, as a little boy, seeing clearly how he became who he was, and Freud, who wasn't much help at all.
Not that I am recommending this book, but it's interesting that it took the author twenty-five years to write. Kind of a waste of time, yet intriguing.
In short, a guy (he's a famous rock and roller, but that doesn't really have much to do with it) goes back in time and meets his dad (whom he never knew), his grandfather (whom he is hiding from because the guy is a disagreeable brute), his grandmother (who ends up knowing all and he happens to fall in love with) and various other people he knows from his present life. As well, he meets Hitler, as a little boy, seeing clearly how he became who he was, and Freud, who wasn't much help at all.
Not that I am recommending this book, but it's interesting that it took the author twenty-five years to write. Kind of a waste of time, yet intriguing.
elainebilyeu's review
4.0
Love this book! It encompasses so much history, philosophy, and politics while also weaving a complicated love story.
nightchough's review
1.0
Very disappointing.
From the description I thought it would be right up my alley: Time travel, 19th century Vienna, Freud, Wittgenstein, baseball, intergenerational family drama ... what's not to like, right?
However, no need for spoiler alerts; the foreshadowing is so heavy-handed that by page 80 or so you can predict all the major plot twists and can put the book down. No joke.
From the description I thought it would be right up my alley: Time travel, 19th century Vienna, Freud, Wittgenstein, baseball, intergenerational family drama ... what's not to like, right?
However, no need for spoiler alerts; the foreshadowing is so heavy-handed that by page 80 or so you can predict all the major plot twists and can put the book down. No joke.
littletaiko's review
3.0
I ended up being a bit disappointed in The Little Book: A Novel. It started off interestingly enough, with Wheeler Burden waking up in Vienna in 1897 with his last memory being from 91 years later. However, the characters were a little too incredible for words - nobody is that perfect. It was interesting to get a sense of Vienna at that time though, where music and art were so important, Freud had yet to become well known, and Hitler was a young boy of 8. However, as Wheeler tries to come to terms with his new present as well as his past, the story just went in a direction I wasn't entirely comfortable with. Overall though it was an entertaining enough read.
amysbrittain's review
3.0
I almost gave up on this one. The author (and modern-day characters') intense fascination with all things Vienna at the turn of the 20th century felt inexplicable and extremely tedious to me. In fact there was lots of fed-up, dramatic sighing on my part while reading anywhere in the vicinity of my husband. I stuck with it and at 150ish pages I became mostly hooked once the story gained major momentum. Some odd, interesting turns and an oddly sweet relationship I didn't expect.
jennie_cole's review
3.0
I liked the fictional story even with the weird time-travelling potential incest part. But once again you have an author that wants to inform you of everything they learned. It can also be hard to follow with all of the bouncing back and forth between times and characters.
kymme's review
4.0
This book was quite, quite cool and thoroughly engrossing. I came away narratively pleased, and also with more knowledge of Freud, Hitler, and all things Vienna in the late 19th century...who knew that last would be fascinating?! There is also time travel, I should note, which makes me quite happy but can be a deterrent, I realize, for those who like their fiction to have no trace of sci to it...
gaderianne's review
4.0
This was one of those books that I just couldn't read. Every time I read it, I liked it, but nothing compelled me to keep reading it once I put it down. And so it sat...and a read a few pages...and it sat around...and I read a few pages...until I was stuck on an airplane runway for 2 hours and couldn't turn on my Kindle because the airplane doors were closed and the only book I had with me was this one. Well...then I read, and read, and read...and when we finally took off...and when I finally COULD turn on my Kindle I didn't want to because I suddenly became immersed in the world of this book. (This was probably when I was already about half way through the book.) And this book...well it just blew my mind. My head literally exploded on the plane in a million different pieces!
Okay, let me back up...it's a time travel book. And at the best of times, time travel books confuse me when I start thinking about how they work and their implications and how everyone got back in time. In this book the main character goes back to turn of the century (19th century) Vienna and meets up with his (much younger) father who he never met who was also traveling to the same time period. There are long rambling parts of this book that go back and forth between the present and the past. But as events in the past unravel you suddenly understand why so much time was spent on one issue (the plagiarism of a paper in college, for instance). And as these things are revealed...my brain exploded a little...and then a little bit more...and then there was brain matter all over the plane. Wow - in the end I really liked the book.
But...it took me a while to get there. The writing style is definitely different and takes a bit to get used to. I say - give it time, give it time and you'll be rewarded in the end.
Okay, let me back up...it's a time travel book. And at the best of times, time travel books confuse me when I start thinking about how they work and their implications and how everyone got back in time. In this book the main character goes back to turn of the century (19th century) Vienna and meets up with his (much younger) father who he never met who was also traveling to the same time period. There are long rambling parts of this book that go back and forth between the present and the past. But as events in the past unravel you suddenly understand why so much time was spent on one issue (the plagiarism of a paper in college, for instance). And as these things are revealed...my brain exploded a little...and then a little bit more...and then there was brain matter all over the plane. Wow - in the end I really liked the book.
But...it took me a while to get there. The writing style is definitely different and takes a bit to get used to. I say - give it time, give it time and you'll be rewarded in the end.
dannb's review
3.0
I believe our impressions of books are caught by the time and/or order in which we read them. I happen to be a big fan of The Time Traveler's Wife, which in my opinion, nailed the time travel thing with characters I cared about.
It feels like The Little Book flits over way to many subjects. I would have found it more compelling if the story had been more focused on either the Burden family OR the historical aspects. It seems as though the story just 'skims'...the characters, the historical component, the relationships.
Maybe if Mr. Selden had completed this work in 20 instead of 30 years, it would have spoken to me more.
It feels like The Little Book flits over way to many subjects. I would have found it more compelling if the story had been more focused on either the Burden family OR the historical aspects. It seems as though the story just 'skims'...the characters, the historical component, the relationships.
Maybe if Mr. Selden had completed this work in 20 instead of 30 years, it would have spoken to me more.