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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
One of those books that is difficult to describe because so much of the experience is in the reading of the story. A sprawling tale that is, at it's heart, about the housing crisis in the US. But it is also about living in a giant boot, an international association of immortal shoemakers, found family, and a woman who lives in a giant boot.
If you are looking for absurd strange modern tales, give this one a try.
If you are looking for absurd strange modern tales, give this one a try.
i loved this book so much! it is a wildly imaginative story set in a world that’s literally falling apart. Evie, left alone after losing her family and everything else, escapes a crumbling New York City to a strange Texas town called Gulluck. there amidst albino cicadas, quirky townsfolk, and even a giant fish, she begins a surreal search for belonging and meaning. the story feels like a mashup of fairy tale weirdness and sharp social commentary. it tackles big themes like the housing crisis and personal loss but does it with humor and a magical, offbeat vibe. the setting was so bizarre yet oddly relatable, and Evie’s journey is packed with existential questions and unexpected moments of hope.
If you’re into stories that blend real-world struggles with a dose of the absurd, Dwelling is worth checking out. it's fresh, funny, and hits hard in all the right ways. ❤️✨
thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux for my copy!
If you’re into stories that blend real-world struggles with a dose of the absurd, Dwelling is worth checking out. it's fresh, funny, and hits hard in all the right ways. ❤️✨
thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux for my copy!
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This story feels like one recounted by a relative at the kitchen table, overflowing with the eccentricities of side characters, off-handed descriptions of impossible magic, and a familiarity that leaves you both longing for more details and fulfilled by what you've learned. Timely, whimsical, and unexpected, Dwelling ultimately reads as a love letter to family—biological and found—and the lengths near-strangers will go to in order to show up for those who need it most. As a renter, Texan, and occasionally aimless feeling sibling, this book had me hooked from page one and didn't disappoint. Part of my heart is still in a shoe-shaped building in Gulluck, Texas.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a beautiful piece of prose! Loved the plot, atmosphere, characters, the unexpected, surrealist turns.
Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy!
Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy!
I didn’t dislike this book, but I found it wasn’t cohesive enough for me. It felt like two different books meshed together.
The first half felt quite grounded in realism, even dystopian at times - but then it suddenly veered off into magical realism where there are magic keys, magic shoes, talking animals and a rushed mission impossible style breakout scene.
There were some really cool ideas in here (I liked the lake with the fish) but I’m the characters were not well developed, and the plot tried to achieve too much imo.
The first half felt quite grounded in realism, even dystopian at times - but then it suddenly veered off into magical realism where there are magic keys, magic shoes, talking animals and a rushed mission impossible style breakout scene.
There were some really cool ideas in here (I liked the lake with the fish) but I’m the characters were not well developed, and the plot tried to achieve too much imo.
Evie lives in New York, doing her “not a job” job and plodding through an uneventful life. Her general disengagement means that she is one of the many thousands, if not millions, affected when the mayor decrees mandatory evictions for all who rent their homes and premises. Some few saw the signs and made plans for this day, but the majority find themselves out on the street with their belongings.
With potential sanctuary from a rumoured distant relative in far away Texas, Evie - cultivating new bold habits for a new bold life - has to take her life seriously for a change, making plans to recover all her property from storage, rescue her sister from a draconian ‘care’ facility, and assure their futures.
This was a pleasure to read. I’ve seen it described as surreal but, while there’s undeniably a rich fairytale quality to it, I found it to be more hyperreal - taking the minutiae of socio-political conventions and exaggerating them beyond satire until they buckle like reflections in a fun house mirror but retain their definition. After a flying start the book seemed on the brink of that most hateful of things, wackiness (helicopters, dogs) but it tottered back, didn’t fall, and soon resumed and maintained until the end its warm, clever, and deadpan grasp of the situation.
I know comparisons can be odious, but what we’re getting here is that precise atomisation that filmmakers like Wes Anderson/Coen Brothers/Miranda July bring to cinema - amplifying specifics and minutiae, creating a believable distortion of reality which stops short of grotesquery and which delivers, in its wit and perspicacity, impactful emotional jabs.
Kivel has a lot of fun with her prose, it’s airy, warm and funny, and the characters each have their own distinct voice, which is more rare than you might think in a busy book like this. Evie is a thoroughly engaging protagonist - more resilient, capable, and daring than she ever let herself believe - and her growth is as rewarding for us as it becomes for her.
A real treat of a book.
My thanks to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for this book which I requested.
With potential sanctuary from a rumoured distant relative in far away Texas, Evie - cultivating new bold habits for a new bold life - has to take her life seriously for a change, making plans to recover all her property from storage, rescue her sister from a draconian ‘care’ facility, and assure their futures.
This was a pleasure to read. I’ve seen it described as surreal but, while there’s undeniably a rich fairytale quality to it, I found it to be more hyperreal - taking the minutiae of socio-political conventions and exaggerating them beyond satire until they buckle like reflections in a fun house mirror but retain their definition. After a flying start the book seemed on the brink of that most hateful of things, wackiness (helicopters, dogs) but it tottered back, didn’t fall, and soon resumed and maintained until the end its warm, clever, and deadpan grasp of the situation.
I know comparisons can be odious, but what we’re getting here is that precise atomisation that filmmakers like Wes Anderson/Coen Brothers/Miranda July bring to cinema - amplifying specifics and minutiae, creating a believable distortion of reality which stops short of grotesquery and which delivers, in its wit and perspicacity, impactful emotional jabs.
Kivel has a lot of fun with her prose, it’s airy, warm and funny, and the characters each have their own distinct voice, which is more rare than you might think in a busy book like this. Evie is a thoroughly engaging protagonist - more resilient, capable, and daring than she ever let herself believe - and her growth is as rewarding for us as it becomes for her.
A real treat of a book.
My thanks to @netgalley and @fsgbooks for this book which I requested.