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A review by mkwojcie
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
5.0
"the fact that maybe my pies are even antidotes to gun violence, the fact that, on the other hand, they might be fueling gun crime, the fact that for all I know there may be perps getting energized by my pies, and comfort-eating them after they carry out their crimes, the fact that what if my cinnamon rolls have given some gunslinger the energy to, shoot his wife or something, for no reason, the fact that that could be my new pie slogan, 'The Family Annihilator's Reward'"
For the first fifteen pages of this novel, the syntax drove me absolutely nuts, and I was sure that I wouldn't finish. But WOW. I am so glad I gave it enough time to suck me in, because once it did it was completely mesmerizing--SO funny, devastating, memorable, lingering and full of incident, anxiety, and humanity. It vividly paints in words what it's like to live in an age of incessant news cycles, when making a pie and thinking about gun violence become inseparable, but it also, by the end, just makes you really glad to be alive.
For the first fifteen pages of this novel, the syntax drove me absolutely nuts, and I was sure that I wouldn't finish. But WOW. I am so glad I gave it enough time to suck me in, because once it did it was completely mesmerizing--SO funny, devastating, memorable, lingering and full of incident, anxiety, and humanity. It vividly paints in words what it's like to live in an age of incessant news cycles, when making a pie and thinking about gun violence become inseparable, but it also, by the end, just makes you really glad to be alive.