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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
40-yr-old Ben suddenly regains consciousness to discover he is back in the body of his 7-yr-old self. Disoriented he further realizes that it is just days before his sister was raped and his family shattered, and with this adult forethought he is filled with dread and thinks that he can't survive his sister's attack and suicide a second time.
This, of course, leads to quite a bit of confusion with both Ben and his 7-yr-old self who goes by the name of Binky.
The author does a good job at moving the story along and relaying the confusion (and yet acceptance) of a young boy who starts to hear another voice in his head. He also does a great job at creating a clear delineation between Ben and Binky, and the disorientation of residing in a body that is no longer your own, and which you can't control. Ben almost seems to view Binky as a separate individual, a young boy he wants to protect and guide. And, of course, Binky has no idea that Ben is a grown version of himself. He's like an imaginary friend living in Binky's head.
Will Ben be able to alter the future by changing the past, with the help of Binky?
My final word: It's a great concept, and the author does a fine job at cultivating the story. I liked the second half of the book better than the first half. It was sweet and tender at times, and Sara was very likable. You feel for brother Charles, who walks through life unseen. Fascinating concept well executed with a satisfying ending!
This, of course, leads to quite a bit of confusion with both Ben and his 7-yr-old self who goes by the name of Binky.
The author does a good job at moving the story along and relaying the confusion (and yet acceptance) of a young boy who starts to hear another voice in his head. He also does a great job at creating a clear delineation between Ben and Binky, and the disorientation of residing in a body that is no longer your own, and which you can't control. Ben almost seems to view Binky as a separate individual, a young boy he wants to protect and guide. And, of course, Binky has no idea that Ben is a grown version of himself. He's like an imaginary friend living in Binky's head.
Will Ben be able to alter the future by changing the past, with the help of Binky?
My final word: It's a great concept, and the author does a fine job at cultivating the story. I liked the second half of the book better than the first half. It was sweet and tender at times, and Sara was very likable. You feel for brother Charles, who walks through life unseen. Fascinating concept well executed with a satisfying ending!
If you like being so engrossed in a book that time stands still, then I highly recommend this debut from Michael Landweber. Read my review here.
Full review at http://everydayiwritethebookblog.com/2013/08/we-by-michael-landweber/
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go back in time and talk to an earlier version of yourself? What would you say, and what future events might you try to change or prevent? We, a debut novel by Michael Landweber answers those questions. In We, forty-two year-old Ben finds himself in the brain of his seven year-old self (“Binky”), trying to prevent a tragedy that happened at that time and irrevocably changed his family and his childhood. This is not my typical read; it’s billed as “science fiction” and I tend to stick to very literal, realistic books. But the premise of We was very interesting, and raised a lot of questions that were fun to explore.
When Ben first finds himself within Binky, he observes, “I still clung to my memories, my experience, my thoughts. My essence of who I was at age forty-two. It was all still was. I had not lost myself; I had been transplanted. But it didn’t make sense. How could we both be here?” Eventually, he comes to grips with “where” he is and focuses his efforts on convincing a skeptical, suspicious seven year-old that he has the power to prevent something bad from happening to his beloved older sister.
There were a number of poignant elements in We: Ben seeing his family through the eyes of a seven year-old again, knowing that they were headed for sadness and estrangement; Binky trying to cling to his innocence while his older self (often inadvertently) prematurely pushes him into adulthood; Ben’s more mature understanding of the inward battles his family members were privately facing, of which he was clueless during his childhood. I thought Landweber did a good job of juxtaposing adulthood and childhood and pinpointing the ways in which our perspectives change over time.
Less successful for me were the forays into psychology (id battling superego) and the physical descriptions of the process by which Ben entered Binky’s consciousness – caves and tunnels and darkness – which were distracting and hard to follow (again, I like my books very literal). But those were thankfully pretty limited.
Overall, We is thought-provoking, touching, imaginative, and a promising debut from Landweber.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go back in time and talk to an earlier version of yourself? What would you say, and what future events might you try to change or prevent? We, a debut novel by Michael Landweber answers those questions. In We, forty-two year-old Ben finds himself in the brain of his seven year-old self (“Binky”), trying to prevent a tragedy that happened at that time and irrevocably changed his family and his childhood. This is not my typical read; it’s billed as “science fiction” and I tend to stick to very literal, realistic books. But the premise of We was very interesting, and raised a lot of questions that were fun to explore.
When Ben first finds himself within Binky, he observes, “I still clung to my memories, my experience, my thoughts. My essence of who I was at age forty-two. It was all still was. I had not lost myself; I had been transplanted. But it didn’t make sense. How could we both be here?” Eventually, he comes to grips with “where” he is and focuses his efforts on convincing a skeptical, suspicious seven year-old that he has the power to prevent something bad from happening to his beloved older sister.
There were a number of poignant elements in We: Ben seeing his family through the eyes of a seven year-old again, knowing that they were headed for sadness and estrangement; Binky trying to cling to his innocence while his older self (often inadvertently) prematurely pushes him into adulthood; Ben’s more mature understanding of the inward battles his family members were privately facing, of which he was clueless during his childhood. I thought Landweber did a good job of juxtaposing adulthood and childhood and pinpointing the ways in which our perspectives change over time.
Less successful for me were the forays into psychology (id battling superego) and the physical descriptions of the process by which Ben entered Binky’s consciousness – caves and tunnels and darkness – which were distracting and hard to follow (again, I like my books very literal). But those were thankfully pretty limited.
Overall, We is thought-provoking, touching, imaginative, and a promising debut from Landweber.
Quick light read with some thought-provoking ideas under the surface. What I thought the author did extremely well was capture the voice of both a 40year old world weary and shattered man and his still forming 7yo self. Many narratives set up the trope of if you could go back in time could you change the future, but the author here twists the idea so that you only go back into the mind of your own self - and instead of being a teenager or someone with at least an inkling that something is out of place - you go into the mind of yourself as a seven year old. Theauthor keeps a breakneck pace as he places his narrator in a perilous situation and the audience is kept guessing regarding whether anyone, including the child is going to make it to the end of the book alive. Under the surface of this thriller, however, the author does an admirable job playing with ideas of how we construct our past when not only are our memories imperfect, but we view the past through the eyes of an innocent child who will only see and remember certain things and not others. I highly recommend this book.