Reviews

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

megabooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

5.0

tildafin16's review against another edition

4.0

Well: I thought I might really struggle with this, but if the measure of a book for me is the extent to which it will stay with me over time, I suspect this is a winner. I read it slowly - a few per cent each day on kindle, which really helped me slow down and savour the words and not fall into just skipping over too much content to get through. I found myself feeling really fond of the narrator /thinker, and her family and looking forward to my visit to her each day! I don’t like the constant use of ‘the fact that’, I came to tune it out and it didn’t bother me but it didn’t seem right to me as part of a thought process and i thought the flow could still have been achieved without it - but then what do I know, maybe not. I also didn’t enjoy an event that happens near the end because I felt it just was - slightly fantastical and not quite right with the ‘everyday ness’ of the rest of the book, which to me was enough in and of itself. Having read interviews with the author she comes over a little pretentious, and I know some feel the experiment here is too - but I have to say the book for me is warm, human and funny.

beckyramone's review against another edition

4.0

Wow it's been a long time since I've reviewed a book. I have a lot of catching up to do.

I made myself a schedule to read this book because I borrowed it from the library and obviously was concerned I wouldn't be able to finish it in time. But I did! Once I got into the rhythm of the narrative it was.. not exactly a quick read, but easier than I imagined it would be. There is definitely a plot here, it just takes a while to get it going. By the end of it, I was so 100% with what Ellmann was doing, that even though it was slightly cheesy, I loved it. I can't say I would reread this entire book, but I would like to own it to be able to reread the sections where I related to the character most.

bartvanovermeire's review against another edition

5.0

the fact that I'll miss the fact that, Djibouti, the fact that there are 25 pages of abbreviations at the end of the book and there are still some missing, the fact that I only found out about the list of abbreviations after 150 pages, the fact that what's her name, I don't know but they know, pies, the fact that 'Ducky! Ducky!', the fact that I could go on forever, the fact that I'll miss the fact that, the fact that bees really do mind their own beeswax, the fact that 'Yay' for Galley Beggar Press, the fact that the word "iota" will either be a success or a failure, but probably a failure, but the book certainly not, the fact that I personally like the word "iota", the fact that nine hundred billion chickens a year, the fact that I'll become a Galley Buddy now and reread all the lioness fragments straight away (pages 11, 91, 113, 241, 307, 370, 406, 439, 471, 495, 516, 570, 591, 630, 672, 730, 742, 786, 828, 872, 885, 912, 925, 937, 949, 957), the fact that no review can do this book justice, certainly not mine, the fact that the fact that has a nice rythm to it, the fact that 'Booker Prize, you know what to do',

20somethingspinster's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful slow-paced

• 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 it took me a while to collect my thoughts after finishing this one, the fact that it’s like walking out of a dark movie theater and the world feels so much brighter than it did before and it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust, the fact that the entire book is written as one long sentence with clauses separated by "the fact that," so if you’ve already gone out of your mind reading this review, then maybe dont read it, the fact that it’s really a book about the world according to an Ohio house wife recovering from cancer and the death of her mother, the fact that  its all about the little minutiae or domestic life, the specifics, pacific, pathetic, the fact that sometimes this book makes you feel pathetic, the fact that echoes the cacophony of anxiety that we all just walk around with and accept as normal, the fact that nothing we humans do is normal though,  just ask a mountain lion, the fact that this book switches between the perspective of the housewife and a mountain lion, both mothers just trying to survive, the fact that this is also a book about mothers, mother goose, Mother Earth, and how we don’t appreciate them enough, the fact that life is this big to-do and maybe that’s why we grow up resenting our mothers, the fact that maybe we feel like we never gave our consent to being a person and now it feels like a rip off, the fact despite it all though, it’s pretty life affirming story, the fact that it reminds you of things like the way water loves itself so much that it’s always pooling together, or that there’s just no way a newly opened poppy isn’t thrilled to be alive, the fact that it’s all very Capital-R-Romantic, the fact that it’s like a feminist counterpoint to Joyce’s Ulysses, but where Ulysses was all about a man coming home, this book is a story about a woman staying home, the fact that reading this was like squinting at those magic eye posters, the fact that it can make your head hurt, but eventually a picture takes shape, the fact that sometimes that picture is horrific, but sometimes it’s really beautiful. 

alexkerner's review against another edition

5.0

Enough has been written about the form this novel takes (the single sentence, thousand page stream of consciousness) but aside from this (and technically this book is genius), what this book gives in its frenetic style is a a profound and deep look at the absurdities and tragedies of the current American experience, filled with political and cultural crises, poverty, inequality, health care that many cannot afford, gun violence that no one is keen on stopping, a world filled with absurdities that have become normalized. Through the voice of this Midwestern housewife we get the most intimate account of what this world is doing to our inner psyches. This book is clever, satirical and outrageously funny, but it is also maddening to see this world we live in and how helpless many feel trying to survive in it. Brilliant and very deserving of 5 stars.

ghislaine's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

cmoo053's review against another edition

5.0

How do you write a review for such a spectacularly clever, original, magnificent novel? While accepting that nothing I can write here will do it justice, I will say, I came to Ducks, Newburyport with some trepidation. I am left at the end of this absorbing reading experience, convinced that this is a work of genius. Yes, this is a stylistically demanding read; part info-dump, part stream of consciousness narrative. This is overwhelming most of the time, but in my reading that really is the point. Ellmann’s novel asks big questions of its readers, most significantly how we go on in the face of personal traumas, and national and global crises. All I can really say, is wow.

amberw27's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

4.5

Stream of consciousness that sticks with you

momentsofmine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0