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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
The first time I've been let down by Lethem. I like what the book is trying to do - but it just flat out doesn't do it. It wants to sprawl, span generations, but it feels like an exercise. Tedious characters, at-times hokey dialogue. The Archie Bunker stuff is, for lack of a better word, dumb. If I'd borrowed this from the library, it would've gone back incomplete; but I'd paid for it so I finished it.
Stuff happens and people are communist: the novel. On a sentence-to-sentence basis, I loved it, but I'm still trying to figure out how much I liked the book as a whole.
First time reading a Lethem novel. I really enjoyed it! A fascinating twist on the great American novel, family saga style story. A recent interest in reading about the history of the American left led to a friend suggesting this, and eventually gifting me a copy a few months ago.
There's a run of chapters Tommy Gogan to Cicero to the epistolary chapter between Albert and Miriam that was some of the most engaging fiction I've read in a good long while. Not at all the parts of the books I expected to be so taken in by.
The end bummed me out, but I think that is the point. Read this book. It shimmers.
There's a run of chapters Tommy Gogan to Cicero to the epistolary chapter between Albert and Miriam that was some of the most engaging fiction I've read in a good long while. Not at all the parts of the books I expected to be so taken in by.
The end bummed me out, but I think that is the point. Read this book. It shimmers.
Cannot explain why I abandoned this so soon after starting. I usually give books more time. I love his writing. These characters were just not doing it for me, even though they should have
4 1/2 stars.
I've always had an interesting relationship with Jonathan Lethem's writing. I've read most of his books and even though I've only liked about half of them, I would still rank him as one of my favorite writers because his work is always so interesting and frequently entertaining.
Dissident Gardens is one of his best. He takes us on a half century journey through New York City and follows the exploits of one (mostly Communist/revolutionary) family. Lethem not only shows us events from the various perspectives in said family, but does it in a way that the overall picture sometimes remains tantalizingly incomplete. Like real life, you don't always get the whole story, which can sometimes be frustrating, but mainly remains fun because you're left to fill in the blanks on your own.
DG is what you might call my bread and butter when it comes to novels. It's got sharp, erudite humor, plenty of historical and pop culture references and clueless characters who strive, quixotic-like, for better things (or at least a better understanding of things) in their lives, but frequently fall short. Lethem stumbles a bit in the last fourth of the novel and the conclusion felt pretty weak to me, but otherwise, this is a near perfect work.
I've always had an interesting relationship with Jonathan Lethem's writing. I've read most of his books and even though I've only liked about half of them, I would still rank him as one of my favorite writers because his work is always so interesting and frequently entertaining.
Dissident Gardens is one of his best. He takes us on a half century journey through New York City and follows the exploits of one (mostly Communist/revolutionary) family. Lethem not only shows us events from the various perspectives in said family, but does it in a way that the overall picture sometimes remains tantalizingly incomplete. Like real life, you don't always get the whole story, which can sometimes be frustrating, but mainly remains fun because you're left to fill in the blanks on your own.
DG is what you might call my bread and butter when it comes to novels. It's got sharp, erudite humor, plenty of historical and pop culture references and clueless characters who strive, quixotic-like, for better things (or at least a better understanding of things) in their lives, but frequently fall short. Lethem stumbles a bit in the last fourth of the novel and the conclusion felt pretty weak to me, but otherwise, this is a near perfect work.
This is another case of where I really wish Goodreads did partial stars, on untapped I can rate the beer I'm drinking with quarter stars but as something as complex and layers as Dissident Gardens I have to just pick whole stars. I more than just liked this novel, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I really liked it. I really liked the concept and characters but parts of the novel flattered for me and left me wanting. Overall I did really enjoy this work from Lethem. Gone is the magical realism that is common place in Lethem novels, instead it is a fairly straight forward novel that looks at the magic of family, ideas, and ideology. The story spanning three generations and how they intertwine reminded me a lot of Allende's "The House of the Spirits" in a lot of good ways, while the sense of characters was very much Lethem through and through.
Took me a good 100 pages to get into, and the narrative's expanse and shifting perspective left me feeling a bit more disconnected from the characters than I wanted to be -- since I tend to read for character development.
My feelings towards this book are somewhat... meh. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I found myself feeling unattached the characters and often wondering if they were problematic, and if that was the point. It's sometimes hard to suss out if authors are creating problematic characters as a means of introspection or because they are problematic themselves. In any case, the story felt slow and sometimes confusing. But there were moments or storylines that grabbed my attention and kept me reading. It's not getting any big ringing endorsements from me, but it was fine.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very difficult to rate. Lethem weaves a lot of interesting ideas into this novel, but I'm not sure he exerts consistent control over the structural/formal attributes. Dissident Gardens is also a very slooooow read. I understand eschewing linear progression (A Goon Squad pulls this off very well), but it feels like the novel completely stalls out and flounders, especially during the second half. So, I guess it comes down to quality ideas hampered by a disappointing lack of structural restraint.