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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
There are parts of this novel that are so breathtakingly beautiful that I have a distinct "I wish I'd written that" pang. Then the ending rather surprised me. I'm thinking I should've read this one in a shorter time frame to really appreciate it. All in all, if Nicki Salcedo tells you to read a book, you read the book, knowing you'll be the better for it. Such is the case with Shotgun Lovesongs.
Sometimes, you read a novel at just the right time in your life, and it resonates immensely. That was the case with Butler's debut. But even if this hadn't been the perfect novel for the perfect time, it's still an incredibly good read — my favorite of the year so far. It's about a group of childhood friends who return to their small-town Wisconsin homes. It's told from the varying perspectives of the characters, as we see how their pasts inform their present relationships to each other and others. It's a novel about loyalty and love, and it's effing fantastic. Highly, highly recommended!
From Dot:
I am so glad this book was rescued from the slushpile! I read it in one day and when I finished I wanted to have a good cathartic cry - not because I was sad, but because I was so happy to be part of the characters' lives and to have lived their experiences through the book. The story is set in the American Midwest in a small town where longtime friends (some who have left and returned and some who never left) are living. The story is told in alternating voices and those voices ring true - all the heartbreak, workaday events - marriages, divorce, financial hardships and some betrayal - feel like they are happening to people you know and care about. If you like Michael Chabon I think you will like this too. Get your hands on a copy!
From Judy:
As someone who grew up in a small town I identified immediately with the sense of place and the sense of home that pervaded this book. I found the characters engaging and realistic and I cared about what happened to them and how they related to each other.
I am so glad this book was rescued from the slushpile! I read it in one day and when I finished I wanted to have a good cathartic cry - not because I was sad, but because I was so happy to be part of the characters' lives and to have lived their experiences through the book. The story is set in the American Midwest in a small town where longtime friends (some who have left and returned and some who never left) are living. The story is told in alternating voices and those voices ring true - all the heartbreak, workaday events - marriages, divorce, financial hardships and some betrayal - feel like they are happening to people you know and care about. If you like Michael Chabon I think you will like this too. Get your hands on a copy!
From Judy:
As someone who grew up in a small town I identified immediately with the sense of place and the sense of home that pervaded this book. I found the characters engaging and realistic and I cared about what happened to them and how they related to each other.
Interesting plot enhanced by the multiple viewpoints throughout the story. Each chapter alternates between several main characters in a midwestern small town taking turns as the narrator, one of which is a key member of the circle of friends who has made it big as a rock star. His ascent and decline in the national headlines has an interesting impact on the others who knew him "way back when."
Strange ending though.
Strange ending though.
I really hated this one at first, but then the writing and characters grew on me! Plot twist, I liked it a lot!
I won this by way of First Reads.
I read this in just under 4 hours. Just finished it moments ago. It was a good novel. Midwestern. I grew up and currently live in Minnesota, so imagining this small town was almost too easy for me. I just have to open my door and a drive a few miles to the nearest small town. The characters were believable. It was just a good coming of age in your thirties novel.
I read from various places and from other GoodReads reviews that this sort of follows Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), and that the author went to high school with him. I did listen to Bon Iver and The Civil Wars while reading and it was a perfect background noise to the novel.
I read this in just under 4 hours. Just finished it moments ago. It was a good novel. Midwestern. I grew up and currently live in Minnesota, so imagining this small town was almost too easy for me. I just have to open my door and a drive a few miles to the nearest small town. The characters were believable. It was just a good coming of age in your thirties novel.
I read from various places and from other GoodReads reviews that this sort of follows Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), and that the author went to high school with him. I did listen to Bon Iver and The Civil Wars while reading and it was a perfect background noise to the novel.
It's Midwestern guy lit. Four childhood friends come back to their hometown in Wisconsin to learn who they are, where they’ve been, and what they want. It's told in 5 unique voices. Excellent debut.
The audio is pretty well done! I like how the author really did shift voices in his writing of each character, and having different narrators for each character enhanced that aspect. I thought the plot and setting were fantastic. My only quibble is that sometimes it felt like it was a little overwritten; like the author is really stretching to make the Lee character have these deep insights about "America" that just felt a little unnecessary. I enjoyed that it was literary fiction but had so many masculine aspects. And, like many of the reviews, I appreciated that it wasn't afraid to be sentimental.
Butler is a talented prose stylist, and he writes with a moving sincerity. That said, the novel's treatment of small-town life is simplistic and sentimentalized. The characters all seem to have a binary view of their small town as a wholesome place where everyone is poor but honest and hard-working and loyal, while city dwellers and outsiders are all rich, shallow, and (in one memorable case) prone to random violence. This could be written off as the biases of the first-person narrators, but the book itself never really challenges it.
(Disclaimer: I've spent most of my life in small towns.)
(Disclaimer: I've spent most of my life in small towns.)
I read this book because I could relate to the place that the story was happening but I just couldn't get into the storyline. So Gave it up.