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cbendixe's review against another edition
4.0
Ares, the 12-13-year-old boy that is the narrator, is kind of easy to like. He is an adolescent boy, so he isn't easy to love, of course. Made more difficult than being a preteen in the late '70s is the fact that Ares's brother is mentally handicapped--perhaps what we today might call autistic but the word is never used. The story of Ares and his brother Malcolm and their mother as one special family is heartwarming and also heart-wrenching...this is one of those books that reminds me that I had a pretty good childhood. And it's always nice to be reminded of how lucky you are!
karenleagermain's review against another edition
5.0
I picked up Marisa Silver's "The God of War" at a Goodreads book exchange several years ago. I just grabbed it on a hunch and it has been sitting on my bookshelf. I am very happy to have picked it up and to have finally read it, because it is a fantastic book.
Set by the desolate Salton Sea in California and told through the eyes of twelve year old Ares Ramirez, "The God Of War" is a coming of age story about a kid trying to navigate adolescence in the shadow of a highly dysfunctional family.
The Salton Sea and surrounding shanty towns are as big of a character as any in the story. Having visited the Salton Sea for the first time (and hopefully only time) last Spring, I can completely appreciate the truth of the world that Silver has created. I've never visited somewhere so depressing. The smell of rotten fish permeates and walking on crunching fish bones along the shore was memorable. Even though the book is set in the 70's, the town that she describes is exactly what you will see if you were to visit it today. Having lush Palm Springs just a short drive away, really makes the area extra depressing.
This is a community that lives on the fringe, holding tight to their privacy. Ares and his mentally handicapped brother, Malcolm, live with their neglectful mother in a trailer. The thing that is heartbreaking is the mother isn't purposefully negligent, she sincerely loves her family and feels that she is raising her boys in the best manner possible. Ares sees an alternate life with stability, when a librarian from the school intervenes to tutor Malcolm.
The entire story has Ares crying out for love and attention in a variety of ways, sometimes negatively. The sad truth of the entire situation is even when adults intervene, they have to do so at a distance to respect the mother and blood family unit. This is such a pervasive problem in our society and this novel only highlights it through Ares and Malcolm's struggle. Many people see a problem, but nobody steps up in a long-term, meaningful way.
Ares is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders, both real and imagined responsibilities. His struggle is a heartbreak to read. Silver gives an authentic and emotive voice to her narrator and tells a compelling story.
i highly recommend "The God of War" and look forward to reading more novels by Silver.
Please visit my blog for more reviews and bookish things. Including pictures our trip to the Salton Sea.
Set by the desolate Salton Sea in California and told through the eyes of twelve year old Ares Ramirez, "The God Of War" is a coming of age story about a kid trying to navigate adolescence in the shadow of a highly dysfunctional family.
The Salton Sea and surrounding shanty towns are as big of a character as any in the story. Having visited the Salton Sea for the first time (and hopefully only time) last Spring, I can completely appreciate the truth of the world that Silver has created. I've never visited somewhere so depressing. The smell of rotten fish permeates and walking on crunching fish bones along the shore was memorable. Even though the book is set in the 70's, the town that she describes is exactly what you will see if you were to visit it today. Having lush Palm Springs just a short drive away, really makes the area extra depressing.
This is a community that lives on the fringe, holding tight to their privacy. Ares and his mentally handicapped brother, Malcolm, live with their neglectful mother in a trailer. The thing that is heartbreaking is the mother isn't purposefully negligent, she sincerely loves her family and feels that she is raising her boys in the best manner possible. Ares sees an alternate life with stability, when a librarian from the school intervenes to tutor Malcolm.
The entire story has Ares crying out for love and attention in a variety of ways, sometimes negatively. The sad truth of the entire situation is even when adults intervene, they have to do so at a distance to respect the mother and blood family unit. This is such a pervasive problem in our society and this novel only highlights it through Ares and Malcolm's struggle. Many people see a problem, but nobody steps up in a long-term, meaningful way.
Ares is a kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders, both real and imagined responsibilities. His struggle is a heartbreak to read. Silver gives an authentic and emotive voice to her narrator and tells a compelling story.
i highly recommend "The God of War" and look forward to reading more novels by Silver.
Please visit my blog for more reviews and bookish things. Including pictures our trip to the Salton Sea.
mrivera23's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Pretty solid. Enjoyed the writing style, and the story.
It ends a bit abruptly, but I also liked that.
It ends a bit abruptly, but I also liked that.
nematome's review against another edition
3.0
This book is a very descriptive, unhurried meditation on the weight of history and guilt. Which is something that I think about quite a lot. I think about my Mom, who was raised in a rigid, military home and resented it so much that as a parent she was afraid to say no to anything, ever. I think about my Dad, who was raised with an absentee father, and eventually became one himself. I think about all the illogical things that I do in direct reaction to the way I was raised. My mom has and always will be a non-punctual, chronically late person, and now I am a chronically early, time-conscious person. I wonder what my kids will become, because of me.
Ares is twelve, right at that edge between childhood and adolescence. He lives in a small trailer with his non-conformist Mom and his brother Malcolm. Ares’ Mom refuses to acknowledge that Malcolm is anything but special, loved, and normal. But he’s not, and Ares knows that it’s his fault. As Malcolm becomes more difficult to care for in school, their Mom is arm-wrestled into allowing him to attend special out of school sessions with the librarian, Mrs. Poole. There, Ares finds a structured, disciplined home, which feels like everything that he’s missing. But he also finds Mrs. Poole’s son Kevin, who is weighed down with a history and guilt of his own. The story begins when Ares is in his forties, and is his recollections of that year in the 1970’s.
I really love the whole idea of this book, and I love that the author really explores Ares’ complicated emotions – his resentment, his all-consuming guilt, his growing desire to be everything that his mother isn’t. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past the writing style. It feels slow at the best of times, tedious and overdone at the worst of times. Here’s a passage from the beginning about Mrs. Poole. I might add that this is written as we’re first meeting Mrs. Poole, and is an introduction to an extremely brief scene. She’s not in the story for a long while after this part (which caused me to wonder why we needed to know so much about a person who wasn’t even in the story):
”She looked up at me expectantly. She wore an alert, somewhat wary expression, caused I thought by children speaking too loudly and wrongly-shelved books. Most of the children at school were careful around her. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but one short strand had broken loose and she repeatedly tucked it behind her ear as though something more private than a lock of hair had escaped confinement. Her cheeks were puffy at the bottom as if she were storing two caramels or some other secrets there. She dressed in shirtwaists and boxy skirts and plain blouses – clothes that made no statement about the body underneath. She seemed like someone who was trying very hard to keep her colors from bleeding over the lines. The order of her desk top made me feel like I had just shouted in a church. I thought she was too organized, to have a murderer for a son. She eyed me with vague disapproval as if she expected that bad things always preceded good, but then allowed a smile that so altered her expression that it seemed as though another person were hiding inside her, one who only came out occasionally and then ran back inside as if unprepared for the weather.”
Not my cup of tea, but this should give you an idea if this would be something that you’ll enjoy or not. There are just about five too many descriptions in that passage for me. Yes, she’s a rigid, contained person - the expression, the hair, the clothes, the colors, the desk, the smile…I GET IT. Although, caramels in her cheeks? Not really sure what that one is going for. That she has hidden depths? Secrets? That she’s a sugar junkie?! Most of the writing here is similarly overdone and much of the time I didn’t feel that it added anything important to the story. It became frustrating to wade through it all.
The climax is a good release and it hits all the right notes, but it’s very brief. And I’m not sure about how everything ends with Kevin. I really would expect a bit more trauma there. Ares reflections on Kevin as a boy “of no value” also seem callous and closed minded. That part didn’t feel totally realistic.
The ending is so utterly slow and drawn out that I felt like saying, “OH MY GOD JUST END IT.” And I probably did once or twice. Out loud. Like a crazy person.
Perfect Musical Pairing
The Kinks – Some Mother’s Son
This is exactly the sort of song that I would have hated as a teenager, solely and specifically because my Mom loved it. And this is also my song for Kevin, who is a damaged, violent character but nonetheless, matters to Mrs. Poole. We all have history and it's meaningless to judge someone without taking that into account.
Ares is twelve, right at that edge between childhood and adolescence. He lives in a small trailer with his non-conformist Mom and his brother Malcolm. Ares’ Mom refuses to acknowledge that Malcolm is anything but special, loved, and normal. But he’s not, and Ares knows that it’s his fault. As Malcolm becomes more difficult to care for in school, their Mom is arm-wrestled into allowing him to attend special out of school sessions with the librarian, Mrs. Poole. There, Ares finds a structured, disciplined home, which feels like everything that he’s missing. But he also finds Mrs. Poole’s son Kevin, who is weighed down with a history and guilt of his own. The story begins when Ares is in his forties, and is his recollections of that year in the 1970’s.
I really love the whole idea of this book, and I love that the author really explores Ares’ complicated emotions – his resentment, his all-consuming guilt, his growing desire to be everything that his mother isn’t. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past the writing style. It feels slow at the best of times, tedious and overdone at the worst of times. Here’s a passage from the beginning about Mrs. Poole. I might add that this is written as we’re first meeting Mrs. Poole, and is an introduction to an extremely brief scene. She’s not in the story for a long while after this part (which caused me to wonder why we needed to know so much about a person who wasn’t even in the story):
”She looked up at me expectantly. She wore an alert, somewhat wary expression, caused I thought by children speaking too loudly and wrongly-shelved books. Most of the children at school were careful around her. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but one short strand had broken loose and she repeatedly tucked it behind her ear as though something more private than a lock of hair had escaped confinement. Her cheeks were puffy at the bottom as if she were storing two caramels or some other secrets there. She dressed in shirtwaists and boxy skirts and plain blouses – clothes that made no statement about the body underneath. She seemed like someone who was trying very hard to keep her colors from bleeding over the lines. The order of her desk top made me feel like I had just shouted in a church. I thought she was too organized, to have a murderer for a son. She eyed me with vague disapproval as if she expected that bad things always preceded good, but then allowed a smile that so altered her expression that it seemed as though another person were hiding inside her, one who only came out occasionally and then ran back inside as if unprepared for the weather.”
Not my cup of tea, but this should give you an idea if this would be something that you’ll enjoy or not. There are just about five too many descriptions in that passage for me. Yes, she’s a rigid, contained person - the expression, the hair, the clothes, the colors, the desk, the smile…I GET IT. Although, caramels in her cheeks? Not really sure what that one is going for. That she has hidden depths? Secrets? That she’s a sugar junkie?! Most of the writing here is similarly overdone and much of the time I didn’t feel that it added anything important to the story. It became frustrating to wade through it all.
The climax is a good release and it hits all the right notes, but it’s very brief. And I’m not sure about how everything ends with Kevin. I really would expect a bit more trauma there. Ares reflections on Kevin as a boy “of no value” also seem callous and closed minded. That part didn’t feel totally realistic.
The ending is so utterly slow and drawn out that I felt like saying, “OH MY GOD JUST END IT.” And I probably did once or twice. Out loud. Like a crazy person.
Perfect Musical Pairing
The Kinks – Some Mother’s Son
This is exactly the sort of song that I would have hated as a teenager, solely and specifically because my Mom loved it. And this is also my song for Kevin, who is a damaged, violent character but nonetheless, matters to Mrs. Poole. We all have history and it's meaningless to judge someone without taking that into account.
jenniferrylds's review against another edition
4.0
The God of War is a good book to read to better understand the challenges raising a child with autism within a low income, single parent household. The narrator, 12 year old Ares, I feel gives an interesting perspective on the challenges of having to take over the general care of his younger brother while trying to function with a seemingly depressed, over-worked, single mother. The story also brought to light the pro and cons of stability and instability, stuctured and unstructured environment can effect a childs ability to be responsible for themselves and others. It really was a great book and it made me think about I'm running my own home and how I'm maintaining support for my autistic child and other children in relation to each other.
bagreening's review against another edition
5.0
What a wonderful story! The development of Ares as he journeys through puberty is enthralling. I completely felt his confusion, anger and longing for the unknown of his being.
julieknut's review against another edition
5.0
My enjoyment of this tender coming-of-age novel was enhanced by Scott Brick’s wonderful narration.
sarahjsnider's review against another edition
4.0
I loved how efficiently and believably the author created the characters. I must have said six or seven times while reading, "Oh, no. Oh, crap. That can't lead to anything good." I was usually right; the plot is frustrating and downbeat, but in the best possible way. I didn't care for the epilogue, but then, don't I always complain about the ending?
chasing_dallas's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. Another quick read but the story, characters and landscape kept me interested. The end kind of fizzled honestly but still an enjoyable read.
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