You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Had mixed feelings about this book. Much of the description is brilliant, but overall I found it quite claustrophobic. I felt I should be more moved by it after reading the reviews on the cover, but I wasn't really. It is very sad though.
Oh the author has a way with words, it’s like music! Poetry! Lyrical and lovely! However, the story is so sad and depressing I could barely read it without getting upset! Which I guess makes it a great book if it evokes that kind of feelings. I literally felt awful for the narrator of the story. It is a heart wrenching but moving story about a socially awkward man and his equally misfit dog, however, if you are looking for the typical “man and his dog story” move along! I think I will give this heart breaking story four stars JUST because it hurt all the feels! Now I need to go cry and gather myself….
This book will tear your heart.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is described in a lot of reviews as being about a relationship between a man and his dog.
That is not what this book is about at all.
Ray's relationship with OneEye is only a part of the story. For a while I thought the dog may be entirely imaginary.
This book is about loneliness. It's about abandonment. It's about craving parental approval and coming back for more disappointment. And it does not offer redemption.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is a mondegreen for spring, summer, fall, winter, and the book covers one year in Ray's life, after the death of his father and his new relationship with OneEye. They live together in Ray's house until an incident compels Ray to pack up his small car and take to life on the road with his only companion.
Baume's writing is poetry. It's subtle, terse, often sparse, but each detail is full of meaning. There is a heavy sense of place, and Ray's place in the universe, or lack thereof, comes through in his interactions with the people he encounters and his vicarious freedom through OneEye. At first everything seems happy-go-lucky, but slowly and indirectly Ray's sadness and rage begin to show. If you take up this book, give it the time it deserves. Don't read this on the beach, or at the playground, or in five-minute snippets. Every word is there for a reason, and if you're hurried, you will miss something of devastating importance.
This book is eerie and beautiful. There is a disquieting sense of foreboding that carries through the story, with a culmination that will leave you breathless.
My review is also posted on my blog: flyleafunfurled.com
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is described in a lot of reviews as being about a relationship between a man and his dog.
That is not what this book is about at all.
Ray's relationship with OneEye is only a part of the story. For a while I thought the dog may be entirely imaginary.
This book is about loneliness. It's about abandonment. It's about craving parental approval and coming back for more disappointment. And it does not offer redemption.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither is a mondegreen for spring, summer, fall, winter, and the book covers one year in Ray's life, after the death of his father and his new relationship with OneEye. They live together in Ray's house until an incident compels Ray to pack up his small car and take to life on the road with his only companion.
Baume's writing is poetry. It's subtle, terse, often sparse, but each detail is full of meaning. There is a heavy sense of place, and Ray's place in the universe, or lack thereof, comes through in his interactions with the people he encounters and his vicarious freedom through OneEye. At first everything seems happy-go-lucky, but slowly and indirectly Ray's sadness and rage begin to show. If you take up this book, give it the time it deserves. Don't read this on the beach, or at the playground, or in five-minute snippets. Every word is there for a reason, and if you're hurried, you will miss something of devastating importance.
This book is eerie and beautiful. There is a disquieting sense of foreboding that carries through the story, with a culmination that will leave you breathless.
My review is also posted on my blog: flyleafunfurled.com
It is an interesting reading exercise to have read an author's work of creative nonfiction before reading either of her two novels, so I come to Sara Baume's novel, knowing her as a sculptor of birds, an acute observer and thinker about migrations, someone who spends her mornings at her writing desk and her afternoons evenings working with her hands, accumulating and gathering things around her, writing about objects and things, a ponderer.
So when I meet the 57 year old man in Spill Simmer Falter Wither, it takes me a while to think of him as that, because seeing through his eyes and listening to his inner conversation with OneEye, the undisciplined dog he has just adopted, I can tell this character has been sculpted with as much care and detail as one of her many and varied birds in [b:Handiwork|51136709|Handiwork|Sara Baume|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581334816l/51136709._SY75_.jpg|75926488].
Her incantory style of storytelling, the repetition of words, the focus on certain words are all giveaways. I loved it, Handiwork was such a sliver of a book, it was over so quickly, like small morsels, often only a paragraph to a page, so it was delightful to go on a journey, once we were able to get him out of the house.
What great characters, what eccentricity gently portrayed, what clever use of the first and second person narrative, what a revelation, what tension, what joy that finally here is a relationship of unconditional love, even if it causes him such anxiety for much of the time.
I think the title and structure are brilliant, only a lover of words and perhaps a scrabble player or reader of the dictionary or thesaurus could have come up with four words that represent the four seasons and almost begin with same two letters and just mildly suggest what the four sections of the book are going to experience. In total awe.
So when I meet the 57 year old man in Spill Simmer Falter Wither, it takes me a while to think of him as that, because seeing through his eyes and listening to his inner conversation with OneEye, the undisciplined dog he has just adopted, I can tell this character has been sculpted with as much care and detail as one of her many and varied birds in [b:Handiwork|51136709|Handiwork|Sara Baume|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1581334816l/51136709._SY75_.jpg|75926488].
Her incantory style of storytelling, the repetition of words, the focus on certain words are all giveaways. I loved it, Handiwork was such a sliver of a book, it was over so quickly, like small morsels, often only a paragraph to a page, so it was delightful to go on a journey, once we were able to get him out of the house.
What great characters, what eccentricity gently portrayed, what clever use of the first and second person narrative, what a revelation, what tension, what joy that finally here is a relationship of unconditional love, even if it causes him such anxiety for much of the time.
I think the title and structure are brilliant, only a lover of words and perhaps a scrabble player or reader of the dictionary or thesaurus could have come up with four words that represent the four seasons and almost begin with same two letters and just mildly suggest what the four sections of the book are going to experience. In total awe.
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn't hate Spill Simmer Falter Wither, but after the first 1/3 of the book I really wasn't inclined to pick it up anymore and had to force myself to finish. For the greater good, of course.
This would be a fabulous short story - the setting and writing are great but they go on for days which gets rather dull. The "big reveal" at the end is predictable and definitely anti-climactic, but in a shorter story, it would have been an "oh, of COURSE!" kind of thing.
I started out really curious about the narrator, intrigued by the use of the second person narrative as he tells this tale to his dog, sympathizing with his background, and cheering for his achievements. However, again, about the 1/3 mark, he really started to get tiresome. There is no growth to this character as he just drives and drives over the same types of landscapes following the same routines, and his social ineptness actually made me really begin to dislike him.
I can't say I recommend this but I also think it is a great discussion book since it is rather puzzling in nature. (Or at least it was to me!)
This would be a fabulous short story - the setting and writing are great but they go on for days which gets rather dull. The "big reveal" at the end is predictable and definitely anti-climactic, but in a shorter story, it would have been an "oh, of COURSE!" kind of thing.
I started out really curious about the narrator, intrigued by the use of the second person narrative as he tells this tale to his dog, sympathizing with his background, and cheering for his achievements. However, again, about the 1/3 mark, he really started to get tiresome. There is no growth to this character as he just drives and drives over the same types of landscapes following the same routines, and his social ineptness actually made me really begin to dislike him.
I can't say I recommend this but I also think it is a great discussion book since it is rather puzzling in nature. (Or at least it was to me!)
I didn't finish this book. I read about 20% of it and found it dull and repetitive.
In a way, this book reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. You might be thinking that I'm a little bit crazy, and perhaps I am, but hear me out:
This book is the disintegration of a man's life. We start in a place where the primary character, whose name the reader does not know, is feeling well-enough self-assured. He is completing the mundane tasks of living routinely, without much complaint. His biggest fear is rats making their way from the attic into his home, so what does he do? He adopts a dog--a maggot-nosed, aggressive little bugger that he just loves. to. death.
The strange man, shunned by his community after his father's death (which is a mystery for the bulk of the book), walks with his dog morning and night. They explore the local beach, and the man and dog both delight--one, in sniffing and wriggling and digging and chewing; the other, in watching the one sniff and wriggle and dig and chew. At times, they are so close that they seem almost as one.
Where does it go wrong? The dog bites another dog walked by a small boy, and the mother makes an accusation that the dog bit not only the stranger-dog, but also the boy. The main character of spill simmer falter wither begins an immediate internal struggle: how could he believe that his dog had bitten the boy? But also, how could he not believe it? And how would they escape when everyone knew who he was, having watched the strange man living outside the burden of society, and animal control wanted to seize and euthanize his dog?
The main character goes to great lengths, uprooting his life and opting to live many months out of his car, driving the entire country's edge and back with his faithful but mildly concerning companion. The reader is involved in his disintegration; in fact, we can feel his life disintegrate. The entire book delineates and de-rationalizes until we are left confused alongside our main character and his dog.
The only other book I have read that draws the reader into the steady destruction of a soul, that so powerfully relates the disintegration of mental health, is The Catcher in the Rye.
Of course, the prose in this book is much more poetic, lyrical even. For such a beautifully crafted book, it comes across real and with the feeling that it is written stream-of-consciousness. We are in the head of the main character, everywhere he goes and everything he experiences, and it is truly remarkable.
Would recommend to everyone.
This book is the disintegration of a man's life. We start in a place where the primary character, whose name the reader does not know, is feeling well-enough self-assured. He is completing the mundane tasks of living routinely, without much complaint. His biggest fear is rats making their way from the attic into his home, so what does he do? He adopts a dog--a maggot-nosed, aggressive little bugger that he just loves. to. death.
The strange man, shunned by his community after his father's death (which is a mystery for the bulk of the book), walks with his dog morning and night. They explore the local beach, and the man and dog both delight--one, in sniffing and wriggling and digging and chewing; the other, in watching the one sniff and wriggle and dig and chew. At times, they are so close that they seem almost as one.
Where does it go wrong? The dog bites another dog walked by a small boy, and the mother makes an accusation that the dog bit not only the stranger-dog, but also the boy. The main character of spill simmer falter wither begins an immediate internal struggle: how could he believe that his dog had bitten the boy? But also, how could he not believe it? And how would they escape when everyone knew who he was, having watched the strange man living outside the burden of society, and animal control wanted to seize and euthanize his dog?
The main character goes to great lengths, uprooting his life and opting to live many months out of his car, driving the entire country's edge and back with his faithful but mildly concerning companion. The reader is involved in his disintegration; in fact, we can feel his life disintegrate. The entire book delineates and de-rationalizes until we are left confused alongside our main character and his dog.
The only other book I have read that draws the reader into the steady destruction of a soul, that so powerfully relates the disintegration of mental health, is The Catcher in the Rye.
Of course, the prose in this book is much more poetic, lyrical even. For such a beautifully crafted book, it comes across real and with the feeling that it is written stream-of-consciousness. We are in the head of the main character, everywhere he goes and everything he experiences, and it is truly remarkable.
Would recommend to everyone.