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A review by ebree123
Loon Lake by E.L. Doctorow
1.0
Gets one star for its experimental writing style, which, while challenging at times, was ultimately interestingly executed. Loses four stars for a complete inability to write a female character without morbidly over sexualizing her or distilling her to her appearance, and despising her for it.
I don't believe books need to (always) provide some sort of great moral framework, but I also don't think any novel should be allowed to scrape by with characters that are as frustratingly two dimensional as the women of this book.
The scattered style and plot of this book are meant to be grounded by the story of our main character, Joe who, while clearly not meant to be seen as "moral hero on a journey," barely even fits the standard of "passably likeable protagonist" - - and describes himself in great detail assaulting both of his romantic partners in language that suggests arousal rather than shame or regret. It's not just that the character has no discernible journey or growth from the beginning of the book to its end; it's that the whole novel appears to be an exercise in futility and a third of its cast of characters are never developed beyond ineffective, poorly written foils.
Also, not necessarily one to get up in arms about nudity, but if this novel described female genitilia one more time I was going to throw it off my fire escape.
All of this is really unfortunate because the descriptive passages are often beautifully and fluidly written and some of the (male) supporting characters are truly interesting and I'm sad the author didn't delve into them more deeply.
Truly only finished this one because I wanted to complete the good reads book challenge on time, and also because I didn't feel I had the right to an opinion without finishing the book in its entirety. Would not recommend to any other readers.
I don't believe books need to (always) provide some sort of great moral framework, but I also don't think any novel should be allowed to scrape by with characters that are as frustratingly two dimensional as the women of this book.
The scattered style and plot of this book are meant to be grounded by the story of our main character, Joe who, while clearly not meant to be seen as "moral hero on a journey," barely even fits the standard of "passably likeable protagonist" - - and describes himself in great detail assaulting both of his romantic partners in language that suggests arousal rather than shame or regret. It's not just that the character has no discernible journey or growth from the beginning of the book to its end; it's that the whole novel appears to be an exercise in futility and a third of its cast of characters are never developed beyond ineffective, poorly written foils.
Also, not necessarily one to get up in arms about nudity, but if this novel described female genitilia one more time I was going to throw it off my fire escape.
All of this is really unfortunate because the descriptive passages are often beautifully and fluidly written and some of the (male) supporting characters are truly interesting and I'm sad the author didn't delve into them more deeply.
Truly only finished this one because I wanted to complete the good reads book challenge on time, and also because I didn't feel I had the right to an opinion without finishing the book in its entirety. Would not recommend to any other readers.