Reviews

Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace

erintoth's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

nodogsonthemoon's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

bahareads's review

adventurous funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Have you ever had someone stop you and you internally sighed because you knew they about to talk ya ear off and they story not going anywhere? That is exactly what Lovelace did here. If you enjoy books with no plot, just vibes this might be for you. Any character mentioned gets their backstory told, and in the background readers see Black Power movements in this fictional Trinidadian town. The narrative can be hard to follow because the stream of consciousness just keeps moving forward onto the next character. Each character builds a piece of Lovelace's puzzle of the town of Cascadu. This is not my favorite Lovelace novel.

aurora69006's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.25

axmed's review against another edition

not in the right head space

2nd try:

i got half way but i find it really difficult to pay attentuon for some reason

meagan01's review against another edition

5.0

There is something so indescribably beautiful about this book but I'll try to form the words anyway.

Lovelace spends this entire novel introducing us to the people of Cascadu. Almost every chapter is a new person with a story to tell and a piece of their soul linked to either another character or to the town itself. It pulls you in and reminds you that everyone has a story to tell and if you listen carefully you'll learn something about yourself as well.

It's hard to believe the amount of topics this book tackles, it almost reads like a series of essays about race, class, identity and assimilation. But just like the description it's humorous but never mocking and I will always love Lovelace for never shying away from a controversial topic.

mattmatros's review

4.0

While I usually go for character-focused narratives that favor depth over breadth, it was obvious early on in this novel that Lovelace wanted to give a panoramic view of Trinidad and introduce us to many, many characters along the way. I tried as best I could to give this book the benefit of the doubt, and to try to absorb as much as I could even knowing I'd miss many of the political and historical references, and knowing I'd misremember a few characters as I got further and further in. I'm glad I stayed with it.

There are so many great scenes in this book. I found the female characters, and the meticulously described scenes of a new marriage (husband messing up the zipper on his wife's dress; wife staying immobile in bed instead of leaning a few inches over to let husband make contact with her) particularly well rendered. And although I still consider myself woefully ill-informed about Trinidad and Tobago's history, I think I have a better sense of how that country perceives itself, and about some of its more famous traditions (especially calypso) than I had before.

A thought-provoking novel--one of those rare books that is both enjoyable to read, and enjoyable in an entirely different way after having read it.