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A review by gregzimmerman
Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
5.0
Quiet, contemplative, and written with so much empathy, this is a novel perfect for a time when you just need to still your soul and contemplate your own existence, purpose, morality, relationships, family, health, view of a higher power, and more.
What's surprising about this novel -- about a poet who spends 11 days in the hospital with a torn blood vein -- is how readable and immersive it is. It shouldn't be, but it is. You flip through this book and notice the paucity of paragraph breaks -- page after page of seemingly dense prose -- and you think, "Oh boy, this is going to be a tough hang." But it's not. You're actually pinned to the page, and it flows so smoothly, it's more like listening to the writer read to you in a soothing voice rather than actually reading yourself.
This book for me is a perfect of example of taking a chance on a book way outside my reading comfort zone, and it really working out well. A friend recommended this as his favorite novel of the year, and it's certainly among mine too.
What's surprising about this novel -- about a poet who spends 11 days in the hospital with a torn blood vein -- is how readable and immersive it is. It shouldn't be, but it is. You flip through this book and notice the paucity of paragraph breaks -- page after page of seemingly dense prose -- and you think, "Oh boy, this is going to be a tough hang." But it's not. You're actually pinned to the page, and it flows so smoothly, it's more like listening to the writer read to you in a soothing voice rather than actually reading yourself.
This book for me is a perfect of example of taking a chance on a book way outside my reading comfort zone, and it really working out well. A friend recommended this as his favorite novel of the year, and it's certainly among mine too.