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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
beautiful writing, but the story (or should i say stories) and the storytelling leaves lots to be desired. i felt i wasted my time here.
To explain why I liked this book so much would be to give too much of its pleasures away. I will say, though, that the writing is beautiful and seems effortless. And that its themes are my favorites: memory, loss, connections that are made (but are too soon gone) and connections that are missed (in more than one sense of that word), never to be forgotten and seen everywhere.
took me a bit to read but all in all it was a quite good book about interwoven lifes and stories
I have a thing for Michael Ondaatje...and I say it every time I read a book of his....but don't know why. It seems I fell in love with him after the English Patient....and I keep returning for his way of creating sentences with English words. I haven't always loved the stories...but his prose are lovely.
This is the story of two girls--- who were brought up in CA on a farm...one an orphan, the other motherless....and they had an orphan boy in their house--- all cared for by a father. The man couldn't handle his girls growing up and chased one off when he found she had started an affair with the boy...two runaways, one ran south and buried herself in her studies and became a French lit researcher, the other ran east to become a gambler. Snapshots of a mansion in France where the girl, now an adult hides and writes, befriends a man--- becomes his lover, he the son of a gypsy woman and her lover--- both who escaped gypsy life and one ended in jail. The gambler ends up in trouble and scammed by a woman he thinks he cares for-- is beaten and is nursed back to health by the sister....a lot of happenings all connecting by a small thread....like a dream where the person is tossing and turning...there is a theme and characters are related, but you can't always figure out the story.
Read if you enjoy Ondaatje. I would not say this is my favorite, but I enjoyed it.
2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a black-and-white cover
This is the story of two girls--- who were brought up in CA on a farm...one an orphan, the other motherless....and they had an orphan boy in their house--- all cared for by a father. The man couldn't handle his girls growing up and chased one off when he found she had started an affair with the boy...two runaways, one ran south and buried herself in her studies and became a French lit researcher, the other ran east to become a gambler. Snapshots of a mansion in France where the girl, now an adult hides and writes, befriends a man--- becomes his lover, he the son of a gypsy woman and her lover--- both who escaped gypsy life and one ended in jail. The gambler ends up in trouble and scammed by a woman he thinks he cares for-- is beaten and is nursed back to health by the sister....a lot of happenings all connecting by a small thread....like a dream where the person is tossing and turning...there is a theme and characters are related, but you can't always figure out the story.
Read if you enjoy Ondaatje. I would not say this is my favorite, but I enjoyed it.
2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a black-and-white cover
reflective
sad
medium-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:
Yes
Beautifully written, of course, and exactly the sort of novel I would expect from Ondaatje, but I wasn’t in the right mindset for it. Also I used the audiobook and the narration made it overly sentimental and pretentious. Will have to read again someday.
This was the second time I read Divisadero. First time was just after it came out. You see, I have this idea that I'm crazy about Ondaatje's books. What I like is the moods he evokes, but like other of his books, I really disliked this. It's so disjointed -- "just" a moody pile of ideas. And that's its brilliance, that's Ondaatje's brilliance. He's so post-modern as to be incomprehensible (to me) though not like some, not like David Foster Wallace whose books I actually really like. Two stars because I don't like this book. I think it's smart and wildly evocative but I don't "get it". If you do, please tell me.
The writing is beautiful and free of sharp edges, but the book is about feeling and not events (which by no means implies that nothing happens in this book because a lot does happen). It's a fairly introspective read and it leaves you with incomplete stories (aren't all stories incomplete any ways?). If you're looking to give yourself a bit of a bluesy moodiness on a beautiful afternoon this book will do the trick nicely.
I realize that my review makes it sound as if I didn't like the book and perhaps I didn't in a certain way but I still found it an enjoyable read, if that sentence made sense to you, you'll probably enjoy this book.
I realize that my review makes it sound as if I didn't like the book and perhaps I didn't in a certain way but I still found it an enjoyable read, if that sentence made sense to you, you'll probably enjoy this book.