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rebeccatulloch's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dannymason_1's review against another edition
4.0
I had quite the soulacoaster with this book. I started on my physical copy and found it to be grating and gimmicky within 100 pages, so I gave up. Then I tried the audiobook and started to really enjoy it - wandering around listening to this stream-of-consciousness had a hypnotic effect and I felt the book starting to replace my internal monologue. After a while, I started to get a bit bored and frustrated with it again, it's just So Much and So Little at the same time and I wasn't sure it fully earned the amount of time you have to dedicate to it. By the end though, I felt it really paid off without ever entirely deviating from what it had already been doing. I found the last 100 or so pages extremely powerful in a way that I could see in retrospect was being set up by the rest of the book. Not sure I could recommend this to anybody because you need to come to it on your own terms, but it was a completely unique experience and deserves all its plaudits for that alone.
jola_g's review against another edition
5.0
The fact that I loved Ducks, Newburyport to bits, although I am aware that some things did not go so well, the fact that since I finished reading this novel I have been feeling like a part of me is gone, the fact that now I have to literally force myself not to start all over again, the fact that I am grateful to my Goodreads friends for following my crazy - crazee! - journey and making this reading experience even more special.
Review to come.
Review to come.
mistercrow's review against another edition
4.0
Disclaimer: Did Not Finish.
So this book is super fascinating but it’s long and gets a bit tedious. I think if I had more patience then I’d read it through but I have piles of books to go through.
Anyways I did enjoy what I read and it looks very interesting.
So this book is super fascinating but it’s long and gets a bit tedious. I think if I had more patience then I’d read it through but I have piles of books to go through.
Anyways I did enjoy what I read and it looks very interesting.
nate_meyers's review against another edition
5.0
Of interest for a while, I snagged Ducks, Newburyport for TWO dollars at Goodwill
As everyone notes, this book is ONE run-on, stream-of-consciousness sentence for 1000 pages
After reading it, I have ZERO doubt this book will go down as one of the definitive American novels of modern times
From the jump, I was immersed in the narrator's character, as she fretted over finances, baking pies, and her family. Her anxieties widened in scope to the biggest issues plaguing America including global warming, guns, and politics. It's hard not to resonate with these anxieties and get lost in the narrator's constantly running mind. Yet, as the narrator's daily activities and thoughts chronicle almost every aspect of global warming, Donald Trump, and mass shootings, the novel gets really bleak in the middle. Lucy Ellman (and by proxy the narrator) has an antipathy towards religion. But there is little hope for the future or reason to have children that can withstand the myriad challenges of life if one doesn't adhere to a religion and/or an idyllic vision of mankind's evolution. Further, the narrator becomes increasingly crushed by her passivity, parenting & daughtering regrets and brokenness (in a way that has us longing to reach through the book with a big hug). Never stopping too long to dwell on this bleak outlook, the novel barrels towards a finish that weaves the parallel story of a mother cougar searching for her lost cubs perfectly into the plight of the narrator's family. The payoff is extremely well-executed and imbues the narrator and reader with some sense of victory (along with a sense of shared trauma). But even as I closed the last page, the challenges posed by the novel linger with me. Are the innocence of children or the love of a great spouse enough to give us hope amidst an increasingly violent and polarized society that is raping the environment? Or do we need something more solid and lasting?
I think this book is excellent and absolutely every American should read it. The themes contained in its pages challenge us in a way that most books don't, while also encouraging us to think deeply and wrestle with every question of daily life - from the smallest to the biggest.
As everyone notes, this book is ONE run-on, stream-of-consciousness sentence for 1000 pages
After reading it, I have ZERO doubt this book will go down as one of the definitive American novels of modern times
From the jump, I was immersed in the narrator's character, as she fretted over finances, baking pies, and her family. Her anxieties widened in scope to the biggest issues plaguing America including global warming, guns, and politics. It's hard not to resonate with these anxieties and get lost in the narrator's constantly running mind. Yet, as the narrator's daily activities and thoughts chronicle almost every aspect of global warming, Donald Trump, and mass shootings, the novel gets really bleak in the middle. Lucy Ellman (and by proxy the narrator) has an antipathy towards religion. But there is little hope for the future or reason to have children that can withstand the myriad challenges of life if one doesn't adhere to a religion and/or an idyllic vision of mankind's evolution. Further, the narrator becomes increasingly crushed by her passivity, parenting & daughtering regrets and brokenness (in a way that has us longing to reach through the book with a big hug). Never stopping too long to dwell on this bleak outlook, the novel barrels towards a finish that weaves the parallel story of a mother cougar searching for her lost cubs perfectly into the plight of the narrator's family. The payoff is extremely well-executed and imbues the narrator and reader with some sense of victory (along with a sense of shared trauma). But even as I closed the last page, the challenges posed by the novel linger with me. Are the innocence of children or the love of a great spouse enough to give us hope amidst an increasingly violent and polarized society that is raping the environment? Or do we need something more solid and lasting?
I think this book is excellent and absolutely every American should read it. The themes contained in its pages challenge us in a way that most books don't, while also encouraging us to think deeply and wrestle with every question of daily life - from the smallest to the biggest.
sebswann's review against another edition
5.0
If you like stream-of-consciousness stories commenting on present-day America; ambitious, intelligent, and real, Ellman has crafted a truly unique and impressive novel perfect for this moment in American history.
binstonbirchill's review against another edition
3.0
I appreciate the insight into the mind of another that stream-of-consciousness allows, in that sense this book is a success. The narrator encapsulates 2019 in America very well in the book for a certain portion of our population. Our narrator skims the surface of fears, anxieties, and unresolved issues in her life, her family, her state of Ohio, and in America itself.
Yet I’m at the end of this long novel I’m left expecting something more. Solutions, options, thoughts about where we can go from here other than wishing it were better. In the end that’s just not something our narrator is offering, and much like our country, there’s not a lot of talk about how we bridge the divide, how we overcomes our differences and create a better environment to raise our kids, a better life for ourselves and each other.
Those books are out there and those are the books that will move the conversation, move our country, and the make the world a better place. I know I’m expecting something from this book that it isn’t trying to be. For what it’s trying to do it does the job very well, I just wanted something more.
Yet I’m at the end of this long novel I’m left expecting something more. Solutions, options, thoughts about where we can go from here other than wishing it were better. In the end that’s just not something our narrator is offering, and much like our country, there’s not a lot of talk about how we bridge the divide, how we overcomes our differences and create a better environment to raise our kids, a better life for ourselves and each other.
Those books are out there and those are the books that will move the conversation, move our country, and the make the world a better place. I know I’m expecting something from this book that it isn’t trying to be. For what it’s trying to do it does the job very well, I just wanted something more.
jakeryave's review against another edition
3.0
this is by far the most difficult novel i’ve ever read. the end is absolutely wild, it is very inventive but holy cow can it be difficult to read. it’s good, but it’s an endeavor to even begin.