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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
I can't help but imagine this book as a Wes Anderson film. I mean come on, there's already a character with an eye patch! This was a fun, fast read that was surprisingly thought-provoking. I tabbed several pages because I identified so strongly with Zevin's prose.
"To go to sleep and wake up next to the same person for the rest of your life, to stay even when you long to go- these are the real rituals of love."
"To go to sleep and wake up next to the same person for the rest of your life, to stay even when you long to go- these are the real rituals of love."
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DNF at 50% the fetus dialogue lost me ugh
A very avant-garde little novel. Beautiful, poetic, deep, emotional, a meditation.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Minor: Fatphobia
reflective
medium-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
"She loved (in italics) or she hated (in italics). She was emotionally reckless. While it was thrilling for me to watch, I suspect it was rather hard to live that way."
lighthearted
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
Maggie Towne is a woman with many layers. Zevin's narrator, N., learns quickly that to love her means to love many women at once, and he does—almost all of them, anyway. There's Marge, the middle-aged, droopy-breasted cynic, of whom he's not so fond, and Greta, in her thirties and suffering emotionally, about whom he's only heard murmurs. But there is appeal in seven-year-old May and teenager Mia, and even in wise Old Margaret, a friendly septuagenarian. Strange as it may seem, N.'s beloved Maggie embodies all these women at once, and he must find a way to live with them all.
As the book progresses, we learn N.'s reason for writing it: he is dying, and he wants his daughter Jane to know the story of his life with her mother, the multi-faceted Maggie. Suddenly the odd devices and magical details make sense—this isn't so much a factual history as it is a way for Jane to make sense of her parents' lives. N. is telling Jane a version of their story in which love and joy can still exist. Facts aren't particularly important here. Sometimes story takes precedence over truth, or maybe it reveals a better one.
I adored this book. I loved the sections that strained credulity, I loved the tempestuous but passionate relationship, and I loved the charming little recurring motifs. I'd read along and there would be another extra-long twin mattress, and I'd smile, because who would ever have picked an extra-long twin mattress as a symbol of love? Zevin must be a very creative and very wacky person.
This is the best book you've never heard of. It's a story that couldn't be told any other way. Try it out—I promise you won't regret your trip to Margarettown.
As the book progresses, we learn N.'s reason for writing it: he is dying, and he wants his daughter Jane to know the story of his life with her mother, the multi-faceted Maggie. Suddenly the odd devices and magical details make sense—this isn't so much a factual history as it is a way for Jane to make sense of her parents' lives. N. is telling Jane a version of their story in which love and joy can still exist. Facts aren't particularly important here. Sometimes story takes precedence over truth, or maybe it reveals a better one.
I adored this book. I loved the sections that strained credulity, I loved the tempestuous but passionate relationship, and I loved the charming little recurring motifs. I'd read along and there would be another extra-long twin mattress, and I'd smile, because who would ever have picked an extra-long twin mattress as a symbol of love? Zevin must be a very creative and very wacky person.
This is the best book you've never heard of. It's a story that couldn't be told any other way. Try it out—I promise you won't regret your trip to Margarettown.
emotional
reflective
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
As a long-time Gabrielle Zevin fan, who has loved all of her books, I'm baffled by her first, Margarettown. It has an unlikeable/unreliable male narrator in love with a manic pixie dream girl who contains multitudes. I don't want to describe it further, other than to ask why it's classed as a YA novel, when it isn't. I did dog ear some pages, so let's see what's going on there...
"An echo makes for very good company," Old Margaret said. "Whenever I'm lonely, I always try to find one to talk to. They're much better than mirrors. Mirrors say nasty things about you. Echoes are far more supportive. They think whatever you say is completely brilliant."
I mean, I didn't say Zevin is a bad writer or has bad ideas.
But underneath it all, underneath the wide hips, Bess is a great gal.
The narrator, being misogynistic and unlikeable.
page 250 has a heartbreaking passage about the inner life of a six-year-old that's too long to type with my cat starting at my fingers typing on my keyboard.
page 250 has a heartbreaking passage about the inner life of a six-year-old that's too long to type with my cat starting at my fingers typing on my keyboard.
Content Warnings
Minor: Fatphobia
ageism doesn't warrant a content warning apparently