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kieserachel's review
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
mamimitanaka's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really interesting and kinda bewildering read. It obviously shares a bloodline with 20th century postmodernism in its self-referentiality and playing with reality and time, but its overall presentation is a lot less fantastical than much of the more out-there premises found in this type of fiction; instead it's about a man who is so convinced his wife has been replaced by a double that he fails to notice her existence even when she is right in front of him. As one would imagine this would lead to a narrative in which one is lead to question if it's our protagonist's own internal reality fractioning rather than the external. And his narration is unique, quirky without being cloying, and narcotic, employing a sense of long-winded numbness that really added a lot of flavor to his character and an understanding of how this kind of person could become convinced of something so insane. Add real-life intrigue from Galchen's family history and there's a really playful, entertaining, and oftentimes touching little novel here.
I really like what this says in regards to relationships and the internal [and external] armors we build up throughout them, especially long-running ones. How much do you think you know a person? Do you really ever know them? When becomes the point where "not knowing" goes to "knowing" for anyone but yourself [if we can assume one can even know themselves, which, it appears, Leo himself is constantly grappling with]? Sometimes we can miss [or misinterpret] what is so clearly there that our view of a person we've constructed may be of an entirely different breed than the reality itself. By presumably detailing an elaborate construction of conspiracies to explain his wife's "disappearance", Leo attempts to make sense of these questions yet reveals only that he's obfuscating himself away from the truth desperately. All this could be solved with communication but in the case of a person like Leo, who is so deeply within himself that he's unable to see the anything but his own convictions and preconceived notions of reality, that it's not so easy an undertaking.
I really ended up enjoying this; I wasn't sure what to think of it at first, as it kinda presents itself as a Borgesian psychological labyrinth but much less viscerally stimulating than something with Borges or say Pynchon's vast scopes on reality, but that's very much the point of the book, as this is from a point of view that's entirely internalized and singular. This is a very promising debut and this is the kind of book I can imagine myself thinking about down the line and enjoying it even more as I mull it over. Definitely going to peep more Galchen after this.
"Sometimes it terrifies me, when I sense the exponenting mass of human lives - of unlabeled evidence of mysteries undiscerned - about which I know nothing."
I really like what this says in regards to relationships and the internal [and external] armors we build up throughout them, especially long-running ones. How much do you think you know a person? Do you really ever know them? When becomes the point where "not knowing" goes to "knowing" for anyone but yourself [if we can assume one can even know themselves, which, it appears, Leo himself is constantly grappling with]? Sometimes we can miss [or misinterpret] what is so clearly there that our view of a person we've constructed may be of an entirely different breed than the reality itself. By presumably detailing an elaborate construction of conspiracies to explain his wife's "disappearance", Leo attempts to make sense of these questions yet reveals only that he's obfuscating himself away from the truth desperately. All this could be solved with communication but in the case of a person like Leo, who is so deeply within himself that he's unable to see the anything but his own convictions and preconceived notions of reality, that it's not so easy an undertaking.
I really ended up enjoying this; I wasn't sure what to think of it at first, as it kinda presents itself as a Borgesian psychological labyrinth but much less viscerally stimulating than something with Borges or say Pynchon's vast scopes on reality, but that's very much the point of the book, as this is from a point of view that's entirely internalized and singular. This is a very promising debut and this is the kind of book I can imagine myself thinking about down the line and enjoying it even more as I mull it over. Definitely going to peep more Galchen after this.
"Sometimes it terrifies me, when I sense the exponenting mass of human lives - of unlabeled evidence of mysteries undiscerned - about which I know nothing."
coralrose's review
1.0
I was disappointed. I had such high hopes for this novel!
I thought that the premise was unique and had lots of potential, but I thought the author got bogged down in her own pretentiousness, which as a rule, I despise. As an overeducated schmuck myself, I understand that it is hard to carry around a lot of arcane knowledge that no one cares about...however, truth be told, there is a time and a place for spouting large amounts of it on everyone else, and sometimes self-consciously beautiful prose just sounds heavy-handed.
I thought that the premise was unique and had lots of potential, but I thought the author got bogged down in her own pretentiousness, which as a rule, I despise. As an overeducated schmuck myself, I understand that it is hard to carry around a lot of arcane knowledge that no one cares about...however, truth be told, there is a time and a place for spouting large amounts of it on everyone else, and sometimes self-consciously beautiful prose just sounds heavy-handed.
dontpanic42's review
2.0
Atmospheric Disturbances is the story of Leo, a psychiatrist who comes home one day to find that the woman in his home--though she looks almost exactly like his wife--is not in fact his wife. This sets him off on a search for his real wife that takes him to Buenos Aires (her birthplace) and then down to Patagonia. Along the way, he is influenced by a metereologist, Tzvi Gal-Chen (who, odd though it may be, I can only assume to be the author's father, given various things revealed during the book), whose work he reads and associates with his own search; and also by Harvey, a patient of Leo's who frequently disappears after he is instructed (or so he believes) by a secret society to travel to different places so as to control the weather in an ongoing, worldwide weather war. Leo's wife, Rema (or, as Leo views her, Rema's doppelganger), pursues Leo to South America in an effort to convince him of his obvious (to the reader, at least) psychosis.
It's an interesting premise, to be sure (though the doppelganger novel has been done before, and done better--try Saramago's The Double), but Galchen did not impress me with her execution.
First of all, the book is lauded in the reviews on the back as a number of things: humor; romance; psychological thriller; etc. But the story is almost never humorous, in any sense of the word. And the thriller aspect of it, to the extent it exists, is not compelling. What this book is, at its heart, is a romantic tragedy. Rema and Leo both love each other--that much is clear--but each is destined for frustration. Leo believes that his real love (his real wife) has disappeared, and his love for her leaves him unable to love the doppelganger he believes has replaced her. At the same time, Rema loves her husband and follows him, literally, to the ends of the world, but she is destined to be frustrated by standing by a man who no longer believes that she is actually herself. This book is tragic from the very beginning, as we see Leo spiral slowly into psychosis, and I fail to see the other aspects that the book reviews allude to. I believe that you will enjoy this book more if you simply go into it with the understanding that it is fundamentally a tragedy--and a moving and heartbreaking one, at that.
If mischaracterization were the only issue, I would have rated this book higher, but it suffers from another flaw that is crippling for any novel, no matter the genre: it lacks believability. The credibility of the novel peters out at the same time as Leo plunges deeper into his psychosis. My best guess is that this stems from the fact that Leo is the narrator of the book, and Galchen must have struggled greatly to convey a plausible story from a man who is steadily losing his sense of reality. Alas, I think the author failed in her effort. She raises a number of questions that go unaddressed, and she jumps over the answers by leaping into an abrupt ending. Some may excuse this deficiency by saying that anything hard to understand was simply a figment of Leo's psychotic imagination, but that answer is glib and unsatisfying. An unreliable narrator and a complete story are not mutually exclusive.
I can overlook the overly clinical writing style (attributable, no doubt to Leo's occupation, but still an unfortunate choice for narration) and the unnecessary, strange appearance of the author's father in the story. And I think the book has tremendous potential as a romantic tragedy. But in the end, the elements of the story are lost to the author's control and the reader is left grasping for the plausibility needed to make this a good novel.
It's an interesting premise, to be sure (though the doppelganger novel has been done before, and done better--try Saramago's The Double), but Galchen did not impress me with her execution.
First of all, the book is lauded in the reviews on the back as a number of things: humor; romance; psychological thriller; etc. But the story is almost never humorous, in any sense of the word. And the thriller aspect of it, to the extent it exists, is not compelling. What this book is, at its heart, is a romantic tragedy. Rema and Leo both love each other--that much is clear--but each is destined for frustration. Leo believes that his real love (his real wife) has disappeared, and his love for her leaves him unable to love the doppelganger he believes has replaced her. At the same time, Rema loves her husband and follows him, literally, to the ends of the world, but she is destined to be frustrated by standing by a man who no longer believes that she is actually herself. This book is tragic from the very beginning, as we see Leo spiral slowly into psychosis, and I fail to see the other aspects that the book reviews allude to. I believe that you will enjoy this book more if you simply go into it with the understanding that it is fundamentally a tragedy--and a moving and heartbreaking one, at that.
If mischaracterization were the only issue, I would have rated this book higher, but it suffers from another flaw that is crippling for any novel, no matter the genre: it lacks believability. The credibility of the novel peters out at the same time as Leo plunges deeper into his psychosis. My best guess is that this stems from the fact that Leo is the narrator of the book, and Galchen must have struggled greatly to convey a plausible story from a man who is steadily losing his sense of reality. Alas, I think the author failed in her effort. She raises a number of questions that go unaddressed, and she jumps over the answers by leaping into an abrupt ending. Some may excuse this deficiency by saying that anything hard to understand was simply a figment of Leo's psychotic imagination, but that answer is glib and unsatisfying. An unreliable narrator and a complete story are not mutually exclusive.
I can overlook the overly clinical writing style (attributable, no doubt to Leo's occupation, but still an unfortunate choice for narration) and the unnecessary, strange appearance of the author's father in the story. And I think the book has tremendous potential as a romantic tragedy. But in the end, the elements of the story are lost to the author's control and the reader is left grasping for the plausibility needed to make this a good novel.
charsiew21's review
2.0
This book was rather disappointing. It started out seeming terribly promising and Fellini-esque, but the ending was very ho-hum. I was also very slightly bugged by the very short chapters; is today's Internet-induced ADD culture affecting the novel?
rocketiza's review against another edition
1.0
At first, I was enjoying the premise and hard the book was making me work for it. Then I got about halfway through and started feeling like it was not going to make it worth it. For the only time in my life I can remember I skipped to read the last chapter and yep, would have been disappointed at how little it actually did with the premise to reach that ending with the middle just being a washing machine stuck on the same cycle.
motke's review
4.0
I love Rivka Galchen's writing style. I really really love it. The premise of the story was a great one. When I read the sleeve, I thought this could be in the running for the Governor of Awesome Book Village.
Sadly, this book didn't really go where I hoped it would go. So much potential (story-wise), but it didn't have the elements I was hoping it would have.
I still strongly recommend the book; the writing is brilliant.
Sadly, this book didn't really go where I hoped it would go. So much potential (story-wise), but it didn't have the elements I was hoping it would have.
I still strongly recommend the book; the writing is brilliant.
carrieliza's review
3.0
This is, in many ways, a very good book. The writing was fantastic, and I would definitely be interested to read some more from Rivka Galchen. My problem is that I could not really get into the story. I didn't ever believe Leo. I was never on his side. And it's hard to read a very one-sided novel when you're not on the side of the protagonist.
jcwills11's review
1.0
I wanted to like this book, I really did. If you told me you had a book featuring an identity crisis and an ontological/epistemological/metaphysical mystery, and that much of the action takes place in Argentina, I would assume that book was destined for my own personal pantheon of favorites.
But Galchen's characters have no depth; only the narrator (Leo) gets any semblance of a personality, and that is of the annoying, possibly delusional analyst. The settings are white-washed; no matter how many times Leo visits a cafe, you have no idea what it looks like. I have no objection to sparse writing - consider me a fan of Hemingway, McCarthy and so forth - but there is nothing in Galchen's world for the reader to hold on to. As it is the book slides by like so much idle chatter.
But Galchen's characters have no depth; only the narrator (Leo) gets any semblance of a personality, and that is of the annoying, possibly delusional analyst. The settings are white-washed; no matter how many times Leo visits a cafe, you have no idea what it looks like. I have no objection to sparse writing - consider me a fan of Hemingway, McCarthy and so forth - but there is nothing in Galchen's world for the reader to hold on to. As it is the book slides by like so much idle chatter.