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A review by pomochi
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
4.0
3.75 stars
One morning, Otto discovers that Etta, his 83 year old wife, has left their house to walk east to see the water. Etta has left a note addressed to Otto explaining her intention along with recipes for him while she is away. Russell is Otto's best childhood friend and is also friends with Etta, and James is a talking coyote that Etta befriends on her walk to the water.
Etta and Otto and Russell and James alternates between the past and the present to narrate the story and also build background. Although I did enjoy reading the alternating time periods, I found it difficult to adjust to the different times. I was able to recognize the time periods fairly easily, but for some reason I had difficulty adjusting to the transitions and I spent a lot of time trying to remember what had previously happened in that time period. Also, during the present tense, the character that it followed changed almost every time, which threw me off even more.
Although I did have trouble with the time periods, I LOVED the writing. It is a very quirky way of writing, in which chapter lengths can vary from a couple sentences to a couple pages and there is no punctuation for dialogue. I thought that the lack of punctuation for dialogue would confuse me, but I actually enjoyed it, and I had no trouble distinguishing the dialogue from the rest of the story. Emma Hooper was wonderful at showing the relationships within the characters, rather than just telling the reader. I really loved how the relationships between Etta, Otto, and Russell seemed quite straightforward in the beginning of the novel, but slowly, more information was given to the reader and their relationships became more complicated and 3 dimensional.
Overall, I did like the premise of this novel and the writing was wonderful. However, this book wasn't really for me as I had trouble staying on track with time periods. Despite that difficulty, I definitely will be picking up more of Emma Hooper's novels in the future!
One morning, Otto discovers that Etta, his 83 year old wife, has left their house to walk east to see the water. Etta has left a note addressed to Otto explaining her intention along with recipes for him while she is away. Russell is Otto's best childhood friend and is also friends with Etta, and James is a talking coyote that Etta befriends on her walk to the water.
Etta and Otto and Russell and James alternates between the past and the present to narrate the story and also build background. Although I did enjoy reading the alternating time periods, I found it difficult to adjust to the different times. I was able to recognize the time periods fairly easily, but for some reason I had difficulty adjusting to the transitions and I spent a lot of time trying to remember what had previously happened in that time period. Also, during the present tense, the character that it followed changed almost every time, which threw me off even more.
Although I did have trouble with the time periods, I LOVED the writing. It is a very quirky way of writing, in which chapter lengths can vary from a couple sentences to a couple pages and there is no punctuation for dialogue. I thought that the lack of punctuation for dialogue would confuse me, but I actually enjoyed it, and I had no trouble distinguishing the dialogue from the rest of the story. Emma Hooper was wonderful at showing the relationships within the characters, rather than just telling the reader. I really loved how the relationships between Etta, Otto, and Russell seemed quite straightforward in the beginning of the novel, but slowly, more information was given to the reader and their relationships became more complicated and 3 dimensional.
Overall, I did like the premise of this novel and the writing was wonderful. However, this book wasn't really for me as I had trouble staying on track with time periods. Despite that difficulty, I definitely will be picking up more of Emma Hooper's novels in the future!