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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Old friends attend their 30 year reunion at small college in MN. Book rotates between the reunion event and the characters lives outside the reunion. I enjoyed how characters were developed around the event. Fun to read something set in the Twin Cities, too!
Perhaps because I read this while attending the same college as Mr. O'Brien did (although he uses a fictional college he's clearly writing about the one he went to), I felt like I knew the settings and I knew the type of people he was trying to illustrate into compelling characters. I think he missed. He was trying to write about a memory, a feeling, nostalgia, and when you're living it and there you can tell he's grasping. It just could have been SO much better and wasn't.
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not my favorite Tim O'Brien book, but I still liked it a lot. I'm on my way to reading his whole catalogue.
I’ve yet to read a Tim O’Brien novel that wasn’t excellent. July, July freshens up a fairly cliche story of a group of aging baby boomers from the summer of ‘69 reuniting at their 30th college reunion. This is well-worn territory by this point but via a deft interweaving of character POV and character timelines, O’Brien delivers a well-written, very readable tale of the foibles and follies of his generation. A Gen X’er myself, I struggle to sympathize, still do, especially now that another 20+ years have passed, years in which Boomers basically passed the buck on so many issues left to fester in our current politics and culture. Oh well, they’ll always have the summer of ‘69 and we’ll always have the bill for their party.
While not as good as his classic Vietnam novels, July, July solidifies O’Brien as more than just a war writer. Indeed what makes his war novels so good translates well into this one too, in that he cares about his characters and in a few short descriptive sentences or lines of dialogue, he makes them feel real. Even when they do things slightly too febrile to be believable.
While not as good as his classic Vietnam novels, July, July solidifies O’Brien as more than just a war writer. Indeed what makes his war novels so good translates well into this one too, in that he cares about his characters and in a few short descriptive sentences or lines of dialogue, he makes them feel real. Even when they do things slightly too febrile to be believable.
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You’re 50, you think your life is near over and all the dreams of your youth have faded with time’s changing tides. „We thought we were going to change the world, but the world changed us,” one character muses. Ultimately, July, July reminds us we are not dead till we are cold in the grave, and the expiration date to actualizing your dreams can only be set by you