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thelittlefriend's review against another edition
5.0
Even if this took me over two years to read (I both read the physical version and listened to the brilliant audiobook narrated by Stephanie Ellyne) I loved every time I picked it up. I loved staying in the narrator’s head, following her train of thought and daily musings, contemplating on gun laws and chickens and baking and Trump and old movies and her husband and her mother and death and cancer and her children and the neighbors and the lion and the dog and food and everything in between.
She is funny, reflective, worried and exhausted. She goes through her daily tasks while the anguish of the rest of the world keeps reminding her - and us - that nothing really is certain.
It was lovely to follow the other main character, the animal, as well. One of the ways in which this book was marketed was by stating that this is, supposedly, a 1000 page sentence. And yes, the main character’s chapters have only commas, no full stops. But the chapters about the female mountain lion are written like in a normal book. It gives a great contrast to the “main” chapters, and the way the stories intertwined was exhilarating.
The book that has taken me the longest to get through, but also one of my favorites of all time.
She is funny, reflective, worried and exhausted. She goes through her daily tasks while the anguish of the rest of the world keeps reminding her - and us - that nothing really is certain.
It was lovely to follow the other main character, the animal, as well. One of the ways in which this book was marketed was by stating that this is, supposedly, a 1000 page sentence. And yes, the main character’s chapters have only commas, no full stops. But the chapters about the female mountain lion are written like in a normal book. It gives a great contrast to the “main” chapters, and the way the stories intertwined was exhilarating.
The book that has taken me the longest to get through, but also one of my favorites of all time.
bhagestedt's review against another edition
3.0
I both loved this book, and at the same time found it incredibly difficult to read. I am one of those people who has to read every word on the page, which was incredibly slow with the stream-of-consciousness style of the writing. I loved the dramatic ending after a fairly slow moving majority of the novel.
boogsbooks's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sweetpotatobook's review against another edition
I read this book over the course of four months and I’m still processing the experience. It’s not everyday I read a book that includes 2 of my research interests of the Gnadenhutten Massacre and Little House on the Prairie. I absolutely loved it.
kelroka's review against another edition
5.0
By all rights this book should be unreadable but it’s actually fantastic. Worth the time investment, in my opinion, but obviously not for everybody.
thepoptimist's review against another edition
4.0
So this unbroken, stream of consciousness, chonker of a book that suffers from an extreme case of literary Tourettes (Kleenex, tardigrades, fatbergs, Abominable Snowman) can seem a massive bit of writerly trolling. Lucy Ellmann going Emperor's New Clothes as she continues to collect accolades and prizes. But I loved it nonetheless.
Clickbait tiles, brandnames, song snippets and the contents of the freezer are the manifestation of the monkey chatter, interior monologue that all of us are barely conscious of. Like skimming through the radio dial and picking up pieces of information, it firmly establishes the set and setting of a specific moment. It's no less than what T.S. Eliot is throwing out there in The Wasteland.
And we are completely in the world of an Ohio housewife in the year immediately after the 2016 US election. And yes, reading it in the current dumpster fire, murder hornets, pandemic, race riot moment seems almost quaint. But amidst the word salad there are thoughts on being a woman in this environment, a mother, wife and daughter. Feeling both completely invisible and an object of desire. To have beaten cancer but still contending with the medical bills. To harken to an idealized American ideal as seen in Little House on the Prairie, musicals, movies and the dog whistling of the president. How problematic that era was and how white racial structures have always been a part of the water white Americans have been swimming in. I mean you can fit a lot of ideas in 1000 pages.
And kudos to whoever was saddled with performing the audiobook version of this monster. I hope you got hazard pay.
Clickbait tiles, brandnames, song snippets and the contents of the freezer are the manifestation of the monkey chatter, interior monologue that all of us are barely conscious of. Like skimming through the radio dial and picking up pieces of information, it firmly establishes the set and setting of a specific moment. It's no less than what T.S. Eliot is throwing out there in The Wasteland.
And we are completely in the world of an Ohio housewife in the year immediately after the 2016 US election. And yes, reading it in the current dumpster fire, murder hornets, pandemic, race riot moment seems almost quaint. But amidst the word salad there are thoughts on being a woman in this environment, a mother, wife and daughter. Feeling both completely invisible and an object of desire. To have beaten cancer but still contending with the medical bills. To harken to an idealized American ideal as seen in Little House on the Prairie, musicals, movies and the dog whistling of the president. How problematic that era was and how white racial structures have always been a part of the water white Americans have been swimming in. I mean you can fit a lot of ideas in 1000 pages.
And kudos to whoever was saddled with performing the audiobook version of this monster. I hope you got hazard pay.
bookofmirth's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't expect to like this. I got a copy from the library quite unexpectedly (I suggested they buy the ebook, they did, they emailed me), so I thought I'd just give it the ol' 50-page try.
This 1000-page book is almost all one sentence, featuring the thoughts of a housewife as she goes about her day making pies, caring for her children, thinking about her parents, the weird guy who delivers her chicken feed, Laura Ingells Wilder, gun violence, politics, and pretty much any other topic that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.
While it does seem disorienting at first (as I'm sure every stream-of-consciousness style book does), I quickly fell into a rhythm and found myself laughing, relating to, feeling alien from, and just... really engaged with this book. After a while, you start to notice inside jokes and quick, one-word references to events that the narrator had been thinking about earlier, and the word associations begin to make sense. There was a minute around 80% where I was really getting frustrated with the anxiety and fear present in nearly every thought - and I know that it's supposed to be indicative of how a lot of us feel about current events, but given that it was a nonstop barrage of thoughts, it was a bit much!
The final clause was brilliant.
This is definitely not a book for everyone, but I have to give it 5 stars because it was actually enjoyable, intelligent, and took a damn huge amount of talent to pull off.
This 1000-page book is almost all one sentence, featuring the thoughts of a housewife as she goes about her day making pies, caring for her children, thinking about her parents, the weird guy who delivers her chicken feed, Laura Ingells Wilder, gun violence, politics, and pretty much any other topic that we are bombarded with on a daily basis.
While it does seem disorienting at first (as I'm sure every stream-of-consciousness style book does), I quickly fell into a rhythm and found myself laughing, relating to, feeling alien from, and just... really engaged with this book. After a while, you start to notice inside jokes and quick, one-word references to events that the narrator had been thinking about earlier, and the word associations begin to make sense. There was a minute around 80% where I was really getting frustrated with the anxiety and fear present in nearly every thought - and I know that it's supposed to be indicative of how a lot of us feel about current events, but given that it was a nonstop barrage of thoughts, it was a bit much!
The final clause was brilliant.
This is definitely not a book for everyone, but I have to give it 5 stars because it was actually enjoyable, intelligent, and took a damn huge amount of talent to pull off.
kurt_anderson's review against another edition
3.0
This could easily have 200 pages and accomplished the exact same thing.
cestgelaine's review against another edition
I decided not to rate this book because I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. It's a hefty novel (1030 pages) centered around an Ohio housewife. Her stream of consciousness is about her family, the environment, gun violence, baking, Old Hollywood pop culture, literature, Ohio history, Trump, politics, news headlines etc. I usually like contemporary fiction so I enjoyed reading some parts of this novel. The parallels made between the lioness and her cubs and the narrator and her children were a good way to keep the themes consistent but with slight contrasts in writing.
This book requires a lot of patience because it's not written like most novels. There's no main plot to follow. Instead, short happenings are added like vignettes throughout. It took me 7 months to finish this book. I had to take long breaks in between because again, it's not written like any novels I've read before, so it took me awhile to get used to the writing. I do wish it was shorter. While reading some parts, I found myself getting lost in the book but not in a good way. Reading "the fact that" many times with little to no pauses almost felt hypnotizing. I think more people will feel less hesitant or intimated by this book if it was shorter. However, I do think the author made a unique and experimental novel with timely and relatable thoughts—it's just not for everyone.
For what it's worth, the ending seemed to tie everything together. I felt relieved and satisfied after finally conquering this novel. I think some parts will stick to me while others will be forgotten. I recommend this to those who want to feel challenged by a book and have the patience and time to do so. I sure did given the pandemic.
This book requires a lot of patience because it's not written like most novels. There's no main plot to follow. Instead, short happenings are added like vignettes throughout. It took me 7 months to finish this book. I had to take long breaks in between because again, it's not written like any novels I've read before, so it took me awhile to get used to the writing. I do wish it was shorter. While reading some parts, I found myself getting lost in the book but not in a good way. Reading "the fact that" many times with little to no pauses almost felt hypnotizing. I think more people will feel less hesitant or intimated by this book if it was shorter. However, I do think the author made a unique and experimental novel with timely and relatable thoughts—it's just not for everyone.
For what it's worth, the ending seemed to tie everything together. I felt relieved and satisfied after finally conquering this novel. I think some parts will stick to me while others will be forgotten. I recommend this to those who want to feel challenged by a book and have the patience and time to do so. I sure did given the pandemic.
m_bot's review against another edition
3.0
Did not finish. I tried twice to read this, waiting each time for it to become available from the library. My mind can’t do it. Maybe it’s written too much like how I think, but it becomes overwhelming every time I try.