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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
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
what's up with americans going after bernhard this way. the guardian agrees with me
I'm fond of Atocha already it's very neat. initially you get this megacliche of yr waspy American MAN who males around & is sexist arse but little things get under the skin of that & I don't believe it any more. it's not just the ashbery and the sebald. we've seen that archetype thrown out wholeheartedly, earnestly from everybody thru DFW to Franzen even zadie smith... it's done, but I think Lerner lifts it, just lightly, air under the blanket. good lor if the penultimate page spread isn't one of the best prose moments I've encountered in a sec. when HISTORY arrives with a sledgehammer & knocks,clocks yr novel for six... we're dealing with a different beast. anyway I like it
I'm fond of Atocha already it's very neat. initially you get this megacliche of yr waspy American MAN who males around & is sexist arse but little things get under the skin of that & I don't believe it any more. it's not just the ashbery and the sebald. we've seen that archetype thrown out wholeheartedly, earnestly from everybody thru DFW to Franzen even zadie smith... it's done, but I think Lerner lifts it, just lightly, air under the blanket. good lor if the penultimate page spread isn't one of the best prose moments I've encountered in a sec. when HISTORY arrives with a sledgehammer & knocks,clocks yr novel for six... we're dealing with a different beast. anyway I like it
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
Kind of reminded me of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but I liked it more. In section we talked about phoniness on multiple levels (including meta) which I thought was interesting.
Leaving the Atocha Station is a very different book, which is both gratifying and... also not. The story centers on a student named Adam who is on a poetry fellowship to Spain. His grasp on Spanish is shaky, and his fellowship proposal is essentially a lie. He spends a good portion of his time in Spain smoking, drinking, and overthinking.
Finally, and most importantly to the narrative, Adam's kind of a jerk. He doesn't really care a ton about other people's feelings, and he games his social interactions to try to project this lie of an image of himself. Often, this image is very mistaken, and, often, his attempts to create that image makes him seem terrible. He intentionally hurts his girlfriend to try to make her care more about him. He blows people off. He's condescending and disdainful of people who try to befriend him. He's just a jerk. Part of that's kind of cool - it's nice to have a main character who isn't bland and isn't perfect. Too many stories have those kinds of protagonists. So Adam is interesting, it's just torture to exist inside of his head for the entirety of a book. It's extremely uncomfortable. A lot of Adam's feelings are feelings that I have, especially those about inadequacy and social bonds. His thoughts very much resonate with me, and that itself is scary because of how uncomfortable those are, but his actions and the situations he puts himself in are even worse. To me, they're like nightmares, which is why this book was evocative but very difficult.
Outside of Adam himself as a character, there are some very thought-provoking and interesting ideas in the book. Many of those, particularly about poetry, are over my head. Some where kind of funny, to me, at least - Adam, despite ostensibly being a poet, doesn't believe that poems mean anything. Not in some deep way, he just seems to think that poems are a collection of words and that's it. Nothing more. An idea that I found compelling surrounded the events of the March 2003 bombing of Atocha station. Adam experiences and witnesses the aftermath of this bombing, but his recollection of what he sees is confused. He'll describe something that he saw, then he'll say that he actually wasn't sure if that was something he saw or something that he read about later. Or whether he imagined what he thought he witnessed. That seems pretty consistent with how many of us experience traumatic situations, and it was very fulfilling to see it written about and described in a natural and competent way.
I would probably not recommend Leaving the Atocha Station to most people. I think, paradoxically, that to enjoy this book, you have to be prepared to read a book that you will not enjoy. If you like to read purely for pleasure, don't read this book. If you like to challenge yourself, and you also like to feel emotions that maybe you don't really want to feel, then give this book a shot. I would love to hear what you think.
Finally, and most importantly to the narrative, Adam's kind of a jerk. He doesn't really care a ton about other people's feelings, and he games his social interactions to try to project this lie of an image of himself. Often, this image is very mistaken, and, often, his attempts to create that image makes him seem terrible. He intentionally hurts his girlfriend to try to make her care more about him. He blows people off. He's condescending and disdainful of people who try to befriend him. He's just a jerk. Part of that's kind of cool - it's nice to have a main character who isn't bland and isn't perfect. Too many stories have those kinds of protagonists. So Adam is interesting, it's just torture to exist inside of his head for the entirety of a book. It's extremely uncomfortable. A lot of Adam's feelings are feelings that I have, especially those about inadequacy and social bonds. His thoughts very much resonate with me, and that itself is scary because of how uncomfortable those are, but his actions and the situations he puts himself in are even worse. To me, they're like nightmares, which is why this book was evocative but very difficult.
Outside of Adam himself as a character, there are some very thought-provoking and interesting ideas in the book. Many of those, particularly about poetry, are over my head. Some where kind of funny, to me, at least - Adam, despite ostensibly being a poet, doesn't believe that poems mean anything. Not in some deep way, he just seems to think that poems are a collection of words and that's it. Nothing more. An idea that I found compelling surrounded the events of the March 2003 bombing of Atocha station. Adam experiences and witnesses the aftermath of this bombing, but his recollection of what he sees is confused. He'll describe something that he saw, then he'll say that he actually wasn't sure if that was something he saw or something that he read about later. Or whether he imagined what he thought he witnessed. That seems pretty consistent with how many of us experience traumatic situations, and it was very fulfilling to see it written about and described in a natural and competent way.
I would probably not recommend Leaving the Atocha Station to most people. I think, paradoxically, that to enjoy this book, you have to be prepared to read a book that you will not enjoy. If you like to read purely for pleasure, don't read this book. If you like to challenge yourself, and you also like to feel emotions that maybe you don't really want to feel, then give this book a shot. I would love to hear what you think.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character