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sanghadharin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
estherackerman's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
exlibrishanna's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jwolflink3's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
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? Yes
2.0
The book completely falls apart in the closing chapters, in a way which sabotages its quasi-sequel. The Candy House handles this book’s themes better and lacks its significant flaws.
taelerk's review against another edition
5.0
This book made me jealous for the first time of another writer's skills. This book outwitted me and was far outside of my reading comfort zone. I took my time with it and I'm really glad I did. The structure of this book is wildly sophisticated. Each chapter reads like a short story and they intertwine together to create a whole, it jumps through time and characters, yet I felt the weight of each person. That is so hard to do with ensemble novels. Most of the time I feel like some characters get lost in the cracks, but Egan did a great job intertwining the stories. Beautifully written, incredibly funny, this book was too smart for me.
(-) The only negative thing I have to say is the experimental chapter struck me the least. I think I got really lost in reading everything in order that it took away from the story. That being said, I've never seen that before in a book. I do feel like it was the weakest chapter in the book.
(-) The only negative thing I have to say is the experimental chapter struck me the least. I think I got really lost in reading everything in order that it took away from the story. That being said, I've never seen that before in a book. I do feel like it was the weakest chapter in the book.
theogb451's review against another edition
3.0
Good writing but not really for me.
I swung between 2 and 3 stars, sometimes within one story! But overall I'll give it 3.
I enjoyed the prose here, it's nice and direct and used in many different styles over the course of the book. Sadly the stories mostly failed to really charm me.
Many are about characters who are simply fairly unpleasant or else the piece is steeped in sadness.
There are a lot of literary conventions I'm not a huge fan of also. These include characters minutely overthinking the world around them and an older, jaded writer diving into speculative fiction.
E.g. In the final chapter you can feel the author's belief that technology has ruined the world. Between the lines it's clear that life was better before mobile phones, before journalists' stranglehold on the media (and I'm absolutely not one of those 'do my own research' dweebs but let's not kid ourselves that the Internet hasn't given huge voices to people outside the white, middle-class sphere)... This infects the whole 'future' with ultra doom Black Mirror stuff that just feels a bit misinformed and unsubtle for me.
The best bit was the penultimate chapter's dive into pauses in songs.
I swung between 2 and 3 stars, sometimes within one story! But overall I'll give it 3.
I enjoyed the prose here, it's nice and direct and used in many different styles over the course of the book. Sadly the stories mostly failed to really charm me.
Many are about characters who are simply fairly unpleasant or else the piece is steeped in sadness.
There are a lot of literary conventions I'm not a huge fan of also. These include characters minutely overthinking the world around them and an older, jaded writer diving into speculative fiction.
E.g. In the final chapter you can feel the author's belief that technology has ruined the world. Between the lines it's clear that life was better before mobile phones, before journalists' stranglehold on the media (and I'm absolutely not one of those 'do my own research' dweebs but let's not kid ourselves that the Internet hasn't given huge voices to people outside the white, middle-class sphere)... This infects the whole 'future' with ultra doom Black Mirror stuff that just feels a bit misinformed and unsubtle for me.
The best bit was the penultimate chapter's dive into pauses in songs.
billy_ray's review against another edition
5.0
The last story was a bit of a let-down, but the rest of it was so good that I kind of don't care.
captlychee's review against another edition
3.0
This is what we could call a 'fix up', a collection of short stories put together to resemble a novel. It is a school textbook that I would never have picked up in normal circumstances. But I will say that I have't seen this quality of writing in modern fiction since I read [b:The Moons of Jupiter|25322|The Moons of Jupiter|Alice Munro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348831086l/25322._SY75_.jpg|1349667] far back in the mist of ancient 1992.
That being said, the stories do at least move on and some of them are pretty memorable. That is to ay, I can remember snippets of them. The whole thing uses the trick of telling the same people's lives at various times and in various cirumstances, so you could trae one story of one character through the stories if you felt like doing that much work. I didn't. Still, the timeline ranges from 1973 to around 2022, so there's a lot of room in there for many things to happen to people. They do, which was a pleasant surprise.
The final story, set in the near future which is nearly the present now, is a little creepy, as one of the characters is doing a postgraduate course in Marketing (proper name of the course) and has a snazzy new term for every nuance of speech. This must've taken a bit of effort and craft on the author's part, but maybe terms like 'disingenuous metaphor' are actually used nowadays.
The first story is so forgettable I simply cannot remember what it was about, what it was called, which of the characters was in it, or anything else about it. Maybe it didn't even exist. but, since I will have to dip into the thing again for various examples of postmodernism, I'll probably find out.
That being said, the stories do at least move on and some of them are pretty memorable. That is to ay, I can remember snippets of them. The whole thing uses the trick of telling the same people's lives at various times and in various cirumstances, so you could trae one story of one character through the stories if you felt like doing that much work. I didn't. Still, the timeline ranges from 1973 to around 2022, so there's a lot of room in there for many things to happen to people. They do, which was a pleasant surprise.
The final story, set in the near future which is nearly the present now, is a little creepy, as one of the characters is doing a postgraduate course in Marketing (proper name of the course) and has a snazzy new term for every nuance of speech. This must've taken a bit of effort and craft on the author's part, but maybe terms like 'disingenuous metaphor' are actually used nowadays.
The first story is so forgettable I simply cannot remember what it was about, what it was called, which of the characters was in it, or anything else about it. Maybe it didn't even exist. but, since I will have to dip into the thing again for various examples of postmodernism, I'll probably find out.
fabydemar's review against another edition
4.0
Romanzo moderno che sfuma nel distopico. E' bello l'intreccio delle vite raccontate come in una catena, la musica il filo conduttore. Molto carino il capitolo con le slide. Scritto veramente bene, brava J. Egan!
abbyprinceatwood's review against another edition
3.0
3.75 stars. A true collection of short stories with loose connections throughout to other characters. If you’re a reader that doesn’t like linear story, get over it and read this. Even the chapter of a child’s PowerPoint has lovely breadcrumbs to other story lines.