Scan barcode
davidsteinsaltz's review against another edition
5.0
Before I started reading I worried that I wouldn't be sufficiently engaged with the material or the superficially challenging style to carry me through 1000 pages. I planned to pave myself, reading it over several months. Instead, I rushed headlong through it in a few days, and my main concern is whether I can find other novels satisfying after this experience.
felicity's review against another edition
5.0
The fact that this book shouldn't work but somehow it does, the fact that I couldn't put it down, for one whole week I read page after page after page, the fact that in this time of global pandemics and fear and uncertainty this is a novel that speaks to so many people in so many ways, the fact that we seem to learn so many things about our narrator's life and family and situation and feel like she's our best friend, our neighbour, us even but we never learn her name, the fact that I don't know if life can ever or will ever be the same again, the fact that as soon as I'd finished this book I wanted to pick it up and start it all over again.
daneekasghost's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
How often do you get to page 980 and realize you're sad that there's not more book left to read?
luluallison's review against another edition
I will write a better review, but for now, this is a brilliant and moving book. It reads as though one is engaging with a practice of some kind; lulling, enlivening, a necessary participation. Probably in my top three of all time.
generic101's review against another edition
5.0
This is a quietly searing look at modern America, and to some extent, modern Western life. It is honestly refreshing to have a detailed and thought provoking portrayal of a female protagonist.
Over the course of the novel we’re walked through what amounts to months in her and her family’s life. Her rumination spans everything from Trump and Open Carry laws to corporations polluting rivers and historical war crimes against Native Americans.
Throughout the novel I began tracking any references to cats as a motif which obviously fits with the sub-plot and that helped me reflect on how she was viewing the world. That’s particularly helpful in a book this size with few structural breaks.
It has stayed in my mind long after finishing and a question has stuck with me on the “banality of evil” which is referenced a few times.
Definitely worth the read, there’s few other works of fiction where you wind up so ensconced inside a narrators mind.
Over the course of the novel we’re walked through what amounts to months in her and her family’s life. Her rumination spans everything from Trump and Open Carry laws to corporations polluting rivers and historical war crimes against Native Americans.
Throughout the novel I began tracking any references to cats as a motif which obviously fits with the sub-plot and that helped me reflect on how she was viewing the world. That’s particularly helpful in a book this size with few structural breaks.
It has stayed in my mind long after finishing and a question has stuck with me on the “banality of evil” which is referenced a few times.
Definitely worth the read, there’s few other works of fiction where you wind up so ensconced inside a narrators mind.
lil's review against another edition
Experimental writing is not my cup of tea. I started to feel anxious because the sentence just wouldn't end.
killerlouise's review against another edition
Not very far. I didn't really care about the protagonist or her story, so I wasn't interested enough to slog through the stream-of-consciousness style.
joshuasklar's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
katymaryreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There were times I thought I'd never get through this book, and for the first six months or so, I took it very slowly, a few pages a week. Then I decided to knuckle down and try and get through it, and I'm glad I did. The flight if ideas, stream of consciousness is hard work at times, and the lioness interludes are a bit of a relief, a palate cleanser. I found myself skimming at times, and then something would bring me up short - whoa! It made me laugh, it made me sympathise with the narrator (I keep trying to give her a name, but I haven't found one that fits). I both loved and hated the ending. I almost want to go back to the beginning and read it again to see what I missed the first time through- but maybe not straightaway. Recommended if you want something challenging and different.