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readingdiary's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 Stars
This was a tricky one. I really enjoyed some parts, but then they were immediately followed by overly descriptive chapters that dragged. It was a continuous cycle of hoping my interest would be piqued but not hitting the mark. Plus, some of the characters felt a little too "cookie-cutter."
There's Collin, the talented artist that lacks ambition. He creates extraordinary lifelike chalk drawings, but he's perfectly content with his job at a bar/restaurant. He becomes enamored with frequent customer, Nina. She's the daughter of a mega wealthy owner of the most popular video game/computer company that develops a Dungeons and Dragons-like game. She wants to be set apart from her family and create her own good in the world, so she works as a high school English teacher. The two have a rocky relationship. Nina pushes Collin into her dad's company, but tensions become high between his long hours, demanding projects, and Nina's jealousy.
There's also an interwoven story about two of Nina's disadvantaged students, one of whom is a frequent gamer. I didn't find these characters particularly interesting and was pleased when chapters steered away from them. Overall, there were flashes of intriguing ideas, but some development could have benefited the book.
This was a tricky one. I really enjoyed some parts, but then they were immediately followed by overly descriptive chapters that dragged. It was a continuous cycle of hoping my interest would be piqued but not hitting the mark. Plus, some of the characters felt a little too "cookie-cutter."
There's Collin, the talented artist that lacks ambition. He creates extraordinary lifelike chalk drawings, but he's perfectly content with his job at a bar/restaurant. He becomes enamored with frequent customer, Nina. She's the daughter of a mega wealthy owner of the most popular video game/computer company that develops a Dungeons and Dragons-like game. She wants to be set apart from her family and create her own good in the world, so she works as a high school English teacher. The two have a rocky relationship. Nina pushes Collin into her dad's company, but tensions become high between his long hours, demanding projects, and Nina's jealousy.
There's also an interwoven story about two of Nina's disadvantaged students, one of whom is a frequent gamer. I didn't find these characters particularly interesting and was pleased when chapters steered away from them. Overall, there were flashes of intriguing ideas, but some development could have benefited the book.
tdeshler's review
4.0
After a bit of a slow start, typical of books that include multiple protagonists, I quite enjoyed this one. The fantastical gaming sequences were entertaining, as were each character's struggles to navigate within their relationships.
jennyisreading's review against another edition
4.0
This was a surprising, enjoyable read about a creative, free-spirited chalk artist/bartender and an earnest do-gooder public school teacher/daughter of a billionaire gaming mogul. She brings him into her world by getting him a job at her father’s company and it changes him. The dark world of gaming and virtual reality are explored.
susanscribs's review against another edition
3.0
Somehow never quite adds up to much despite promising plot and characters. If the lesson is that the real world is good and the virtual world (i.e. video games) are bad, tell me something new.
caw34's review against another edition
2.0
This is a book that wanted to be “The Night Circus” but just isn’t.
librarylucy's review against another edition
3.0
3.5*. I love her writing and her characters are always believable but the subject wasn’t really for me.
jessicaesquire's review against another edition
3.0
I have enjoyed several of Goodman's previous novels deeply but this is the second miss in a row for me. Goodman is insightful and wise, she portrays characters in a way that feels absolutely real and intimate. But the story here lacked momentum, the stakes never solidified.
There are several narratives here, and Goodman is talented as ever at allowing each character's personality and emotions to come through, to let you see them as very different people. Many of them are stereotypes: Collin the artist who lacks drive; Nina the rich girl who wants to do good; Aidan the teen obsessed by virtual worlds to the extent that he loses the real one. The characters were quite real but they didn't ever transcend their stereotypes or move the story in unexpected directions.
At the center of everything are the two stories of Collin and Nina falling in love and trying to build a relationship together, and that of Underworld, a miraculous new video game from a disruptive gaming company run by Nina's father. I struggled with the technology around the game, it was beautifully written but in a very realistic story I just couldn't believe in it as a real thing and I couldn't picture in my head how it would actually be to play it even though Goodman would pontificate for paragraphs and paragraphs on the beauty of the scene it didn't become visible. It's also tricky to really engage with Collin's art, also described in passionate paragraphs, but that you never really get to see. It is hard to accept a character as a true artist or a genius just because other characters think so, which isn't a fault just with this novel but with many novels that consider art in different forms.
Ultimately there was no answer to my question of why Goodman wrote this and what she wanted to do. What is the question she's answering? What is the purpose of the world she's exploring? I ended it feeling very unsatisfied.
And one short note: I read The Cookbook Collector shortly after moving to Boston and remember noticing just how much it referenced the city and its landmarks to the extent that I commented on it to my partner, who told me I only noticed it because now I lived there and it wasn't really anything different. The Chalk Artist is also set there, mostly in Cambridge, and reading it gave me some very belated vindication. Goodman's references to places, streets, businesses, etc. is constant to the point that it's distracting to a reader who's familiar with the area because you stop paying attention to the narrative and start asking yourself, "Wait which intersection on Huron Ave is that?" If you are not a local, you probably won't notice it as you read, but people familiar with the Cambridge area may find it grating as I did.
There are several narratives here, and Goodman is talented as ever at allowing each character's personality and emotions to come through, to let you see them as very different people. Many of them are stereotypes: Collin the artist who lacks drive; Nina the rich girl who wants to do good; Aidan the teen obsessed by virtual worlds to the extent that he loses the real one. The characters were quite real but they didn't ever transcend their stereotypes or move the story in unexpected directions.
At the center of everything are the two stories of Collin and Nina falling in love and trying to build a relationship together, and that of Underworld, a miraculous new video game from a disruptive gaming company run by Nina's father. I struggled with the technology around the game, it was beautifully written but in a very realistic story I just couldn't believe in it as a real thing and I couldn't picture in my head how it would actually be to play it even though Goodman would pontificate for paragraphs and paragraphs on the beauty of the scene it didn't become visible. It's also tricky to really engage with Collin's art, also described in passionate paragraphs, but that you never really get to see. It is hard to accept a character as a true artist or a genius just because other characters think so, which isn't a fault just with this novel but with many novels that consider art in different forms.
Ultimately there was no answer to my question of why Goodman wrote this and what she wanted to do. What is the question she's answering? What is the purpose of the world she's exploring? I ended it feeling very unsatisfied.
And one short note: I read The Cookbook Collector shortly after moving to Boston and remember noticing just how much it referenced the city and its landmarks to the extent that I commented on it to my partner, who told me I only noticed it because now I lived there and it wasn't really anything different. The Chalk Artist is also set there, mostly in Cambridge, and reading it gave me some very belated vindication. Goodman's references to places, streets, businesses, etc. is constant to the point that it's distracting to a reader who's familiar with the area because you stop paying attention to the narrative and start asking yourself, "Wait which intersection on Huron Ave is that?" If you are not a local, you probably won't notice it as you read, but people familiar with the Cambridge area may find it grating as I did.
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