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ryanjb86's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! This book just amazed me. Over 1000 pages of stream of consciousness and mostly just one long sentence. It all just worked! Ironically I don't have enough / the right words to give this book justice. For anyone who likes a challenge in book length but a light story regarding plot and language. Please make the effort! .
"the fact that we all go on pretending things are fine, hoping everything’s a-okay, even though everything is nowhere near okay and we all know it, no matter how many candlelit vigils you hold"
"the fact that we all go on pretending things are fine, hoping everything’s a-okay, even though everything is nowhere near okay and we all know it, no matter how many candlelit vigils you hold"
readbyrodkelly's review against another edition
Ducks, Newburyport,
an interior monologue unfurled as a single sentence over the course of nearly 1,000 pages, a Great American Novel of maximalist excess & stylistic exuberance, is, plot-wise, quite a straightforward story that is deeply concerned with motherhood: its glories & failures; its inroads & peripheralities; its tenderness & exigency; there is, also, the moving & beautifully rendered exploration of filial grief for a lost mother (
an interior monologue unfurled as a single sentence over the course of nearly 1,000 pages, a Great American Novel of maximalist excess & stylistic exuberance, is, plot-wise, quite a straightforward story that is deeply concerned with motherhood: its glories & failures; its inroads & peripheralities; its tenderness & exigency; there is, also, the moving & beautifully rendered exploration of filial grief for a lost mother (
lonesomereader's review against another edition
5.0
I will sometimes enthusiastically purchase long novels with the best intentions of reading them soon but nonetheless they’ll typically remain on my shelf for many years before I get to them. But I was strongly tempted by the description of Lucy Ellmann’s monumental “Ducks, Newburyport” and its Booker Prize longlisting buzz got to me so I put it on my immediate reading list. While it's intimidating to read a 1000 page novel that’s mostly narrated in one unbroken sentence, “Ducks, Newburyport” is also hypnotic for the rhythm it develops, the frequent Laugh-Out-Loud humour and the moving way it builds a portrait of the life of an Ohio housewife and her many anxieties living in America today. Her story radiates a warm familiarity as we come to intimately know her sweeping stream of thoughts while baking a mountain of pies to sell and food for her family. It also inspired me to bake cinnamon rolls for the first time - and you can watch me demonstrate a simple recipe for cinnamon rolls alongside my video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r60BV_UNoUM!
The narrator ruminates on a whole range of subjects from her personal past to her immediate family life caring for four children to local news to political divisions in America to global environmental concerns. Usually these thoughts become mixed together and happen concurrently so she needs to periodically pause and clarify what she’s referring to. She’s also affected by what’s happening around her, the films she watches while baking and odd song lyrics which surface randomly in her mind. The trivial rubs up alongside what feels dearly important. This profusion of things running through her mind has a consistent rhythm so it becomes easy to follow and accumulates more meaning as certain subjects, memories or ideas resurface frequently. Thus they steadily acquire more resonance and also take on a humorous edge as the barrage of thoughts will sometimes become jumbled and absurd. There’s something mesmerising and hypnotic about this constant flow of words. It’s addictive and so tempting to emulate!
Read my full review of Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann on LonesomeReader
The narrator ruminates on a whole range of subjects from her personal past to her immediate family life caring for four children to local news to political divisions in America to global environmental concerns. Usually these thoughts become mixed together and happen concurrently so she needs to periodically pause and clarify what she’s referring to. She’s also affected by what’s happening around her, the films she watches while baking and odd song lyrics which surface randomly in her mind. The trivial rubs up alongside what feels dearly important. This profusion of things running through her mind has a consistent rhythm so it becomes easy to follow and accumulates more meaning as certain subjects, memories or ideas resurface frequently. Thus they steadily acquire more resonance and also take on a humorous edge as the barrage of thoughts will sometimes become jumbled and absurd. There’s something mesmerising and hypnotic about this constant flow of words. It’s addictive and so tempting to emulate!
Read my full review of Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann on LonesomeReader
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I was going to pass on Ducks, Newburyport. It just sounded too long (over 1000 pages), too challenging to read (no paragraphing, hardly any sentences
pythagorean's review against another edition
5.0
Historians will turn to this book to study the pre-COVID Trump years.
mklong's review against another edition
5.0
Obviously, it would be impossible to sum up all 1000+ pages in a short review, so I won’t try. I will say that it was more than a book to me, it was an experience, an immersive one that took over my thoughts during the months that I spent savoring it. I kind of can’t believe it’s over.
katemccaughan's review against another edition
2.0
While there were things to like about this, I got to around half way and couldn’t bring myself to continue.
bibliocyclist's review against another edition
3.0
For all of life is really recoil and leap, leap and recoil.
expendablemudge's review against another edition
5.0
This CBC Radio interview recorded before she didn't win the Booker, and is tremendously interesting.
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
Can't do this justice. I don't know that I fully *got* the book; the story isn't much, but then again neither is [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428891345l/338798._SY75_.jpg|2368224]. The unfolding awareness, the blossoming consciousness, the sheer bravura attack on lesser lights of literary mediocrity that this long sentence represents is enough in and of itself to command your eyeblinks.
I'll pass on an important tip for those whose literary tastes quail before sentences sesquipedalian: Whenever "the fact that" appears, mentally insert a period. You will be amazed at how big a difference this makes to your sense of control over the material.
If you're not averse to experiments with form, though, I recommend submerging into the current of words. It is the reading equivalent of leaving the sauna and leaping naked into the icy water of a Swedish wintertime lake. It is the experience of spending a long, wearing hike of the gorgeous Appalachian trail unshowered, then coming to a long, hot shower with soft, warm towels to soothe your weary muscles.
Yes. It is that good.
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
Can't do this justice. I don't know that I fully *got* the book; the story isn't much, but then again neither is [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428891345l/338798._SY75_.jpg|2368224]. The unfolding awareness, the blossoming consciousness, the sheer bravura attack on lesser lights of literary mediocrity that this long sentence represents is enough in and of itself to command your eyeblinks.
I'll pass on an important tip for those whose literary tastes quail before sentences sesquipedalian: Whenever "the fact that" appears, mentally insert a period. You will be amazed at how big a difference this makes to your sense of control over the material.
If you're not averse to experiments with form, though, I recommend submerging into the current of words. It is the reading equivalent of leaving the sauna and leaping naked into the icy water of a Swedish wintertime lake. It is the experience of spending a long, wearing hike of the gorgeous Appalachian trail unshowered, then coming to a long, hot shower with soft, warm towels to soothe your weary muscles.
Yes. It is that good.
beckym6c0a3's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this, but not as much as I expected. The narrator seemed like some weird anachronism, supposedly less than 10 years older than me, yet somehow more prudish than my grandmother. I'm sure this book, with its seemingly discursive style ultimately revealing a carefully made path, would reward a second reading, but I don't see that happening for me.