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keithmac's Reviews (147)
This book shook me to my very bones. I was a young man of about 25 working at a coffee kiosk in Victoria, BC, and reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, when one of my customers suggested Life is Elsewhere as a Kundera book I'd probably like. It got me right in the jugular, and probably was a perfect storm for me. If I had read it a few years earlier or a few years later it may not have had the resonance it did have, and I don't even plan to read it again, because I know a re-read would ruin the first experience I had with this book.
Everyone has a "when I was young and impressionable" experience with culture - for me, Kundera and Vonnegut were those, and Life is Elsewhere and Cat's Cradle are the two books that opened two new worlds for me.
Everyone has a "when I was young and impressionable" experience with culture - for me, Kundera and Vonnegut were those, and Life is Elsewhere and Cat's Cradle are the two books that opened two new worlds for me.
Really enjoyed this book, if for nothing more than the crackling prose. I found Eggers' writing to be bordering on hipsterish style - if that makes any sense - in that it seemed to try and be too clever, but at the very least I appreciated the effort and enjoyed the story thoroughly.
Also, the staggering gall of Eggers (or his publishers at least) in naming this book gave it many points in my, uh, book. Definitely worth reading.
Also, the staggering gall of Eggers (or his publishers at least) in naming this book gave it many points in my, uh, book. Definitely worth reading.
After Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, I was really looking forward to reading more of Eggers. So, when this one came out, I jumped at the chance. Bitterly disappointed. I'm taking a risk by saying this is a sophomore jinx - as I'm not sure this is his second book - but one way or another it was a huge step down from the book that put his name on the contemporary American literary map.
Damned if this wasn't one of the most disturbing, lyrical and beautifully written books I've ever had the pleasure to read. It was assigned - yes, assigned - to us in university as part of a history class about the American West. The class was split into two semesters - first, the actual history of the west, and second, the mythology that sprouted out of all that. We were asked by the prof to read Blood Meridian during the Christmas holidays and he made it clear that this was no Xmas book. He also said that anyone who wanted to know what life was like in the Wild West should read this book because it's closer to the truth than most, if not all, accounts.
Boy, he wasn't kidding. McCarthy paints a grim, violent world, one that you can't imagine ever living through. But what worked was his amazing ability to make you feel like you were in that world, with the perfect flow and mood of his words. Intensely lyrical and appropriate. His words curl up and rise up from the page like squirming earthworms. That's really the best way to describe it.
I've been meaning to read this again, and hope I will one day.
Boy, he wasn't kidding. McCarthy paints a grim, violent world, one that you can't imagine ever living through. But what worked was his amazing ability to make you feel like you were in that world, with the perfect flow and mood of his words. Intensely lyrical and appropriate. His words curl up and rise up from the page like squirming earthworms. That's really the best way to describe it.
I've been meaning to read this again, and hope I will one day.
Very little memory of this book. I read it just after reading Blood Meridian, hoping to have as similar a reading experience as I did for BM. Since it's been many years, I can't really say much about this one.
My little guy loves this book. And I love reading it to him. That's all that matters.
