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hongjoongie's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The fact that this is an amazing book.
toddbert's review against another edition
4.0
It’s like watching a brilliant musician play, but they don’t quite know that they’ve played enough.
fluffdragon's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the style and construction of the internal narrative, and I really would have preferred . There were also a few turns of phrase that distractingly highlighted that this was written by an American expat, and not someone who currently lives in America.
Used for the Popsugar prompt: "a book with a bird on the cover."
Spoiler
if that were the whole thing, instead of including the mountain lion narrativeUsed for the Popsugar prompt: "a book with a bird on the cover."
vladco's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic artistic breakthrough. Unlike any other novel I’ve ever read. It’s work for the reader, but worth it.
kaelynreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sam8834's review against another edition
5.0
I finished reading this a while ago and have been putting off talking about it, not because I don't know how to talk about it, but because it's hard to find the time to discuss a book about which you have so much to say. Lucy Ellmann has created something really special and brilliant here. I've spent much of my adult life reading and loving books like Ulysses, My Struggle, and okay, I tried Infinite Jest and couldn't finish it due to probably bad timing and being too busy in college. ANYway, one thought that would always follow me after reading those books is: I'd love to read something like this by a woman. An epic, autofictional novel that takes up space and is smart and weird and unapologetic in its unusual style. Ducks, Newburyport is a hundred percent that book.
Ellmann's narrator is a stay-at-home mom to four kids, who makes a little money selling her homemade pies. In Ducks, we are treated to her inner monologue. Actually, that's the whole book. No joke, it is a thousand pages of the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of a stay-at-home mom. And it's brilliant. Something I've always felt strongly about is that SAHMs get a bad rap in our culture. They aren't seen as very smart or interesting, largely because of the tireless, mundane, all-consuming, invisible work they do every day, and this stereotype makes it easy, I suppose, for some to write them off. They sort of come to be defined by their work in the home, and because that work isn't valued, they aren't either. What better way to resist that narrative than a thousand-page novel about a SAHMs inner thoughts? The narrator's thoughts and intellect are centered here in a way I haven't seen before, and I'm here for all of it.
The book is definitely anchored in a specific time and doesn't hide it, as many of the narrator's thoughts involve politics and other current events. She is horrified by the actions and general existence of the Trump administration, as well as by excessive American gun violence and the environmental effects humans and corporations continue to have on the planet. It is easy to see she has anxiety about much of this, depression too, imo, and throughout these social/political musings there are literary references, most notably to Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. I imagine the narrator goes off on these tangents about the latter because they are a comfort to assuage her worries about the former. It is hard to pull off this sort of timely writing in a novel, and though I don't know how it'll hold up 10 or 20 years from now, it works as a beautiful socio-cultural commentary of the wretched era we're currently going through. As if all that isn't enough, there's a mini-story embedded in the text, about a lioness who loses her cubs. It isn't immediately clear why this is included, but as the book goes on, the weaving in of it gels with the story so well and enhances it (as well as serving as a nice break in between Ellmann's massive text blocks).
The style of the text contributes to this, too. The long, meandering sentences that go on for tens, maybe hundreds, of pages give an urgency to the narrator's monologue: the anxiety one feels trying to parent kids in a world that isn't kind to itself. Basically, the general anxiety that develops in most of us just from watching the news for ten minutes. Everything is on fire and it's costing lives, so who has time for punctuation and sentences?! Ellmann uses repetition of the phrase, "the fact that..." which is kind of a clever resistance against the Trump administration's neglect and discarding of the truth. There is so much to love here, not just about the writing, but the structure and the way the text itself contributes to what's happening in the narrator's head.
Anyway, I'm trying to write this with a toddler talking nonstop in my ear, which I guess is fitting for this book, but the long and short of it is that I'm so appreciative of Ducks, Newburyport. It's the type of polarizing book readers will either love or hate, but imo, it's the epic auto-fictional novel we all need (I mean, we really don't need any more of these from men), and a book that'll stay with me for a long time.
Ellmann's narrator is a stay-at-home mom to four kids, who makes a little money selling her homemade pies. In Ducks, we are treated to her inner monologue. Actually, that's the whole book. No joke, it is a thousand pages of the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of a stay-at-home mom. And it's brilliant. Something I've always felt strongly about is that SAHMs get a bad rap in our culture. They aren't seen as very smart or interesting, largely because of the tireless, mundane, all-consuming, invisible work they do every day, and this stereotype makes it easy, I suppose, for some to write them off. They sort of come to be defined by their work in the home, and because that work isn't valued, they aren't either. What better way to resist that narrative than a thousand-page novel about a SAHMs inner thoughts? The narrator's thoughts and intellect are centered here in a way I haven't seen before, and I'm here for all of it.
The book is definitely anchored in a specific time and doesn't hide it, as many of the narrator's thoughts involve politics and other current events. She is horrified by the actions and general existence of the Trump administration, as well as by excessive American gun violence and the environmental effects humans and corporations continue to have on the planet. It is easy to see she has anxiety about much of this, depression too, imo, and throughout these social/political musings there are literary references, most notably to Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. I imagine the narrator goes off on these tangents about the latter because they are a comfort to assuage her worries about the former. It is hard to pull off this sort of timely writing in a novel, and though I don't know how it'll hold up 10 or 20 years from now, it works as a beautiful socio-cultural commentary of the wretched era we're currently going through. As if all that isn't enough, there's a mini-story embedded in the text, about a lioness who loses her cubs. It isn't immediately clear why this is included, but as the book goes on, the weaving in of it gels with the story so well and enhances it (as well as serving as a nice break in between Ellmann's massive text blocks).
The style of the text contributes to this, too. The long, meandering sentences that go on for tens, maybe hundreds, of pages give an urgency to the narrator's monologue: the anxiety one feels trying to parent kids in a world that isn't kind to itself. Basically, the general anxiety that develops in most of us just from watching the news for ten minutes. Everything is on fire and it's costing lives, so who has time for punctuation and sentences?! Ellmann uses repetition of the phrase, "the fact that..." which is kind of a clever resistance against the Trump administration's neglect and discarding of the truth. There is so much to love here, not just about the writing, but the structure and the way the text itself contributes to what's happening in the narrator's head.
Anyway, I'm trying to write this with a toddler talking nonstop in my ear, which I guess is fitting for this book, but the long and short of it is that I'm so appreciative of Ducks, Newburyport. It's the type of polarizing book readers will either love or hate, but imo, it's the epic auto-fictional novel we all need (I mean, we really don't need any more of these from men), and a book that'll stay with me for a long time.
spiderhands's review against another edition
3.0
I can't do it anymore.
Is this book at times incredibly poignant and thought-provoking? Yes.
Is this book's experimental stream-of-consciousness method interesting for reflecting the barrage of modern anxieties? Yes.
Did this book have incredibly moving moments that almost brought me to tears? Once or twice.
Can I keep reading it? Absolutely not.
I am refusing as a point of pride to put this on my DNF shelf because I read over 300 PAGES OF THIS, and I think I deserve a MEDAL. My brain feels like cooked spaghetti.
This is a remarkable novel and Lucy Ellmann has all my respect. I do feel like maybe this could have been executed equally well in like, 1/3 of the word-count, though.
Is this book at times incredibly poignant and thought-provoking? Yes.
Is this book's experimental stream-of-consciousness method interesting for reflecting the barrage of modern anxieties? Yes.
Did this book have incredibly moving moments that almost brought me to tears? Once or twice.
Can I keep reading it? Absolutely not.
I am refusing as a point of pride to put this on my DNF shelf because I read over 300 PAGES OF THIS, and I think I deserve a MEDAL. My brain feels like cooked spaghetti.
This is a remarkable novel and Lucy Ellmann has all my respect. I do feel like maybe this could have been executed equally well in like, 1/3 of the word-count, though.
marieandthebooks's review against another edition
4.0
This book is so different from anything I have ever read that it’s hard to place in a category or compare to others.
A list of a fairly attention deficit housewife’s inner thoughts, jumping from one thing to another, groceries, memories, observations, songs, movies and whatnots.
(And it’s a rambling of a thousand pages completely devoid of periods!)
I can sum this book up into this - what matters in life is the nature of things that we see throught the eyes of the lioness - and all the rest is just noise.
It’s how life is, it’s how it should be, and if we calm the fuck down, we can go back to the nature of things
The fact that humans have this ability for self reflection and thought is our downfall. If we learned how to mute our thoughts we might enjoy life and the simplicity of it a bit more. Took me 1000 pages of rambling, not only to figure that out, but to crave it.
(This book is impossible to give a star rating to, I admire the effort of this, so I give it a 4, but as far as reading enjoyment I’d put it to a 2)
ateliertovar's review against another edition
challenging
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
kniphofia7's review against another edition
1.0
The fact that this sleep inducing, bore of a novel has garnered so much praise is absolutely dumfounding. I'm not averse to one sentence novels, experimental fiction or long books but the content of this just didn't interest me at all. Pages of associated words, uninteresting characters who I didn't care three straws about and bags of pretentiousness make me so glad I borrowed this from the library.