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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
When Salo and Johanna Oppenheimer struggle with infertility, they decide to try IVF which was in its infancy at the time. After several failed attempts, they decided to try one last time and had the doctor implant three embryos and freeze one that they could use later with a surrogate if they needed to. Johanna became pregnant and delivered triplets. When they were in their late teens, Johanna decided they should use that last embryo with a surrogate and they had one more child. The dysfunctional family’s story is told through the eyes of that last child - “the latecomer.”
I picked this book up because several people I know loved it. I enjoyed it a great deal but can’t say that I loved it. It’s not fast paced but I found the characters interesting, even if they weren’t always likable. It took me a while to figure out who was telling the story and I felt it wasn’t always done well - for example, Johanna was referred to “her” mother and “our” mother just a few paragraphs apart.
I picked this book up because several people I know loved it. I enjoyed it a great deal but can’t say that I loved it. It’s not fast paced but I found the characters interesting, even if they weren’t always likable. It took me a while to figure out who was telling the story and I felt it wasn’t always done well - for example, Johanna was referred to “her” mother and “our” mother just a few paragraphs apart.
I liked this book, and learned a lot. Many of the characters frustrated me in their interpersonal/family relationships. It felt very long to me and I’m glad to be finished. That said, glad I read it!
Loved this book! The ending lost me a little bit, just seemed a bit far fetched as Phoebe is only 18, I believe. But as a whole this book was so engaging and felt very well-researched. The characters are terrible in the most human ways and I found myself caring for all of them (except Harrison, he kind of just sucked but I guess that's human too). And the DRAMA. It was like half soap opera, half tragedy. I couldn't put it down.
Well, that was delightful. I really enjoyed this. Got a little schmalzy at the end, but I devoured it all. There’s so much to admire here. First, the story…the trials and tribulations of a very privileged yet totally dysfunctional family over three generations. The authors wicked sense of humor. And there’s also her very clever storytelling. I’m sold. Thanks for the wonderful read, madam author.
This book is spectacular. It's complex and complicated and well written, and I loved it. Highly recommend!!
Korelitz can write - and it's pretty. But fuck, man, this book could've been 12 pages long.
Approximately three things happened in this book that actually made you want to keep reading, and those lasted for a total of 15/437 pages.
Besides that, these human beings were god damned reprehensible. Not gross teenagers, not troubled, not upsetting - FUCKING HORRIFIC. Irredeemable. Painful to read. I genuinely hated this book. The fact that she wrote The Plot, which I adored, and also wrote this, is irreconcilable in my head.
Why 2 stars then, you ask? Simply because the woman can weave prose, and make me feel this much. But good lord, you could literally skip HUNDREDS of pages and not miss a single fucking thing, and that is not an exaggeration. I mean literally, this book could've been chopped to actual 12 pages, a synopsis, perhaps, and gotten the same reaction out of me except better, because then I would've have to be consistently punched in the fucking throat by the horrendous behavior of these characters.
Save yourself the time with a quick overview:
Johanna continuously shows love and adoration for a bunch of people who continuously treat her like she's a piece of shit. And she not only takes it, she does the most stereotypical woman thing ever: ANOTHER BABY WILL FIX IT! (fuck this fucking trope)
Salo is a fuck. He's maybe a sociopath? I don't know. But it was a happy day when he fucking died.
Sally is a self-loather who blames everyone around her for everything, even when she does it to herself, and when she does realize she's made a mistake, she's 36 and barely make an effort to correct until someone else approaches her and it's convenient to apologize.. but that's it. She still doesn't do much of anything else.
Lewyn is a pathetic loner who quietly blames his sadsack-ness on others, though he is the most likable because at least he's not a constant garbage pig.
Harrison is INDESCRIBABLY HORRIFIC. The fact that his parents allow him to speak without breaking his fucking jaw blows my mind. I do not approve of violence but if a child ever presumed to come out of my body and then treat another human the way that he did, I would tell him to fuck off and never come back, and I certainly wouldn't pay for his fancy ass education while he ignored me except for when he told me I was pathetic and stupid. And then as an adult he's just a bigger complete fuck. I fucking hate him.
The Latecomer/Phoebe, who somehow knows the extreme detail of their lives enough to be the narrator of this clusterfuck of a novel, someone is so boring as a human that she ends up being a mini Harrison at the end?
And the other Latecomer, who is not a person at all except for one random excerpt at the end which was entertaining but ended quickly and we didn't care again?
No plot. Just a bunch of assholes being fucking assholes to each other. Literally. That's literally it. THAT'S THE BOOK.
The more I think about it, the more ragey I get about this book. The biggest of face palms for this travesty.
Approximately three things happened in this book that actually made you want to keep reading, and those lasted for a total of 15/437 pages.
Besides that, these human beings were god damned reprehensible. Not gross teenagers, not troubled, not upsetting - FUCKING HORRIFIC. Irredeemable. Painful to read. I genuinely hated this book. The fact that she wrote The Plot, which I adored, and also wrote this, is irreconcilable in my head.
Why 2 stars then, you ask? Simply because the woman can weave prose, and make me feel this much. But good lord, you could literally skip HUNDREDS of pages and not miss a single fucking thing, and that is not an exaggeration. I mean literally, this book could've been chopped to actual 12 pages, a synopsis, perhaps, and gotten the same reaction out of me except better, because then I would've have to be consistently punched in the fucking throat by the horrendous behavior of these characters.
Save yourself the time with a quick overview:
Johanna continuously shows love and adoration for a bunch of people who continuously treat her like she's a piece of shit. And she not only takes it, she does the most stereotypical woman thing ever: ANOTHER BABY WILL FIX IT! (fuck this fucking trope)
Salo is a fuck. He's maybe a sociopath? I don't know. But it was a happy day when he fucking died.
Sally is a self-loather who blames everyone around her for everything, even when she does it to herself, and when she does realize she's made a mistake, she's 36 and barely make an effort to correct until someone else approaches her and it's convenient to apologize.. but that's it. She still doesn't do much of anything else.
Lewyn is a pathetic loner who quietly blames his sadsack-ness on others, though he is the most likable because at least he's not a constant garbage pig.
Harrison is INDESCRIBABLY HORRIFIC. The fact that his parents allow him to speak without breaking his fucking jaw blows my mind. I do not approve of violence but if a child ever presumed to come out of my body and then treat another human the way that he did, I would tell him to fuck off and never come back, and I certainly wouldn't pay for his fancy ass education while he ignored me except for when he told me I was pathetic and stupid. And then as an adult he's just a bigger complete fuck. I fucking hate him.
The Latecomer/Phoebe, who somehow knows the extreme detail of their lives enough to be the narrator of this clusterfuck of a novel, someone is so boring as a human that she ends up being a mini Harrison at the end?
And the other Latecomer, who is not a person at all except for one random excerpt at the end which was entertaining but ended quickly and we didn't care again?
No plot. Just a bunch of assholes being fucking assholes to each other. Literally. That's literally it. THAT'S THE BOOK.
The more I think about it, the more ragey I get about this book. The biggest of face palms for this travesty.
All of these characters are deeply unlikeable and this family is incredibly horrible until the very last chapter
So, so good. I loved all the characters (well except Harrison) and how the story unfolded. It really made me think about free will.