I read this for Book Club and might have been its biggest fan in our group.
There was discussion of whether anything happened and whether a book like tI read this for Book Club and might have been its biggest fan in our group.
There was discussion of whether anything happened and whether a book like this could even be “spoiled,” but I got caught up in the events and I found it very suspenseful. The afterword in the edition I had (the yellow cover with the pink ticket on the front) argued that the author wanted to write a novel set in New Orleans that wasn’t gothic. The plot wasn’t but the Southern Gothic was barely out of frame and permeated everything.
I can see a straight line from Hemingway’s A Soldier’s Home to Camis’s The Stranger to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye to this book. The main character, Binx, is having his ten-years-delayed Holden Caulfield moment. (He is ten years older than Holden and the book was published ten years later.)
I would not claim that Binx is a countercultural figure or anything but… I think we could have a rousing, slightly shouty argument about it.
This novel won the National Book Award and Catch-22 did not. Is Catch-22 better? Could be? But this seemingly Basic Bitch Book about a Louisiana stockbroker had a sense of what the 1960s might be, and I could definitely see myself reading this again....more
**spoiler alert** I knew, going in, that Pynchon was Not for Me and this is not for me. That said, I’ve read The Crying if Lot 49 and got through it. **spoiler alert** I knew, going in, that Pynchon was Not for Me and this is not for me. That said, I’ve read The Crying if Lot 49 and got through it. I got a good way through Mason Dixon before tiring of the magical realism stuff. This book is just too much going on in a background of I have no reason at all to care what happens.
If this is Pynchon working out his feelings about Reagan and the hippies, fine, but maybe you had to be there. I was not there. I am here, with plenty of my own feelings to work out about now and government and ideals and I’m just not relating to sexy ninja ladies and opulent house parties and private jets. Maybe it is too specifically absurd and historic to be reading in the absurd and historic year of 2024.
I am through the Sex Slave Auction in Tokyo part and putting it down. I gave it a try because I know someone who is an extra in the upcoming unnamed Paul Thomas Anderson that the internet exclaims is based on this book! So I am participating! In the prehype! If it turns out that the movie is based on this book I’ll go back and try to finish it. At least then I’ll have a sense of plot....more
I am quitting this book at 1/4 of the way through. I didn’t realize before starting this that it was an Echoes of the Trauma of World War II Germany sI am quitting this book at 1/4 of the way through. I didn’t realize before starting this that it was an Echoes of the Trauma of World War II Germany story, which is not a mark against it. But…
1) it’s kind of boring. So far, the research the author did about baking and grief group therapy and funeral directing and Nazi hunting is overshadowing the characters. I want well-rounded characters in stories. I think baking and grief group therapy and funeral directing and Nazi hunting are all fascinating topics, but I’d rather read about them separately, in non-fiction books.
Leo the Nazi Hunter character was someone I wouldn’t have minded following for a whole book. But honestly Sage and that whole bakery eye-rolling emoji.
2) The font choice for these lengthy italicized sections makes them impossible for my poor tired old lady eyes to read on my Kindle. It’s so sad.
3) The first few pages into Josef’s point-of-view chapter and he’s lamenting that they were a nice family but the Weimar Republic etc inflation and I have a sudden fear that this is going to turn into a He’s Really a Good Nazi story. There are suddenly quite a few But the Good Nazis stories out there and I am not having it and I am not going to risk it.
I am sure that the book earned its 4+ stars but it is not for me....more
The plot kept me interested. It reads like YA. The characters are adults but don’t feel like adults; it’s set in an LA and a 1950s that doesn’t feel lThe plot kept me interested. It reads like YA. The characters are adults but don’t feel like adults; it’s set in an LA and a 1950s that doesn’t feel like LA or the 1950s. I found the scenes with the four roommates in their cute apartment quite charming.
The “urban fantasy” part takes a long time to get started....more
**spoiler alert** This “sweeping epic” goes from WWII Paris to Harlem to the Upper East Side to Miami to Havana to Key West to Miami to Harlem and bac**spoiler alert** This “sweeping epic” goes from WWII Paris to Harlem to the Upper East Side to Miami to Havana to Key West to Miami to Harlem and back to Paris across the span of 15 years. You learn nothing about any of it. Characters are cardboard thin. It’s all in first-person present tense. The main character/narrator changes in no way. It’s all tell and no show and it’s preposterous that we are supposed to accept her (the main character) as a talented novelist making a name for herself.
There is nothing here.
It triggers no emotions and you don’t learn anything new....more
I got caught up in part 1, and was very engaged in the family relationships of parents and adult children. Part 2 is a jump of several Did not finish.
I got caught up in part 1, and was very engaged in the family relationships of parents and adult children. Part 2 is a jump of several decades back to focus on the mother and I realized I did not care to learn about her early life. I abruptly lost interest. No idea if the story picks up again where Part 1 ended....more
It’s not a great read, and it becomes very tedious at the 25 to 50% mark. The lack of proper nouns is very very very annoying, and it makes you lose tIt’s not a great read, and it becomes very tedious at the 25 to 50% mark. The lack of proper nouns is very very very annoying, and it makes you lose track of what is happening—which is possibly the point.
I skipped that tedious second quarter and have no regrets. I suspect reading the book a second time would be a very rich experience. I’m not going to reread it because the setting was so bleak, but I would say it is possible to interpret the ending as hopeful.
I think the author has done an incredible job of portraying that world. I do think the characters are very believable as humans suffering terrible strain, with the exception of the one named character: Milkman. He is a looming monster who is a stand-in for All The Troubles. The contrast between this villain and the book’s “actual milkman” is the actual conflict/suspense in this story, which is secondarily a PTSD Coming of Age tale. (Yes, I realize the narrator is technically already an adult.)
What I can’t decide is if it supposed to be some kind of extended response to James Joyce, because I haven’t read much James Joyce and not for thirty years. But it was the first thing I thought of.
It’s a complex book and it contains multitudes, if you can get past all the unpleasantness of content AND form. Again: it is unpleasant. And if this is for a class or a book club be warned that you cannot read this in a hurry....more
It started boring and ended boring. If you are a completist, definitely read it. It isn’t vapid. There is enough in there for a reader to connect to, It started boring and ended boring. If you are a completist, definitely read it. It isn’t vapid. There is enough in there for a reader to connect to, I guess, or discuss. It just seems very precious and trite....more
Fascinating premise about four siblings, presented as four novellas. The first one was so good. Heartbreaking and the reader is drawn into the idea thFascinating premise about four siblings, presented as four novellas. The first one was so good. Heartbreaking and the reader is drawn into the idea that you cannot escape fate, just like the character is.
The second was started strong but ended strangely. It was obviously contrived to fit the theme of the book but it was written from a novel perspective. I liked thinking about this sibling and her family.
Parts 3 and 4 were convoluted and nonsensical. It was a great idea for a book but when it clearly wasn’t working the whole novel should have been reworked.
Part 1: 4 or 5 stars Part 2: 3 or 4 stars, leaning towards a 4-
Skip the rest. It’s ok to start this book without intending to finish it. I give you permission....more
I’ve never read anything like it (which was what the author promised in the Author’s Note). I was engrossed at every stage.
I didn’t fully understand aI’ve never read anything like it (which was what the author promised in the Author’s Note). I was engrossed at every stage.
I didn’t fully understand all the characters’ motivations, but I am not Korean or Japanese. I think it was because I am outside those cultures rather than any failure on the author’s part to portray them.
I spent a lot of the book dreading in advance what might happen in the WWII era but there was nothing explicitly violent or gory or protracted in that section. No up-close atrocities, if that is a concern for other readers....more
It was a page turner! I liked its sense of a time and place. It was a little repetitive. I would have given it four stars but there’s a bit at the verIt was a page turner! I liked its sense of a time and place. It was a little repetitive. I would have given it four stars but there’s a bit at the very end about the interview process itself that I thought undermined the whole atmosphere of the book and a very stupid epilogue “email” that further undermined the story and then the song lyrics at the end were too much.
Simone was an amazing character. Pete’s single paragraph at the end made me laugh out loud.
I haven’t seen the show and the book’s ending killed any interest I might have had in watching it. But all the way up until that eyeroll moment I was totally engaged.
Maybe you won’t mind it at all and will find it a four-star story! ...more
I read this all in one sitting! I found this version of time travel/alternate history a nice spin on the usual. I enjoyed the historical what-if discuI read this all in one sitting! I found this version of time travel/alternate history a nice spin on the usual. I enjoyed the historical what-if discussions and thought Bernadette the Suffragette was well-developed (I don’t particularly care if her character is believable). I liked the Professor until she bullied her way onto the mission; her character shift was a weak part of the book. Katie’s entrance and what we learn from her was a strength.
It inspired me to read more about the period of Isaac Newton’s life that sparked the idea for this novel....more
Cute story! I liked Oliver a lot. A few too many cycles of oh they are pretending but it is real! Great portrayal of the distant rock star father and Cute story! I liked Oliver a lot. A few too many cycles of oh they are pretending but it is real! Great portrayal of the distant rock star father and the son’s reaction to him. Not interested enough to read any sequels....more
It's like listening to your cousin in another state give you high school gossip. It just goes on and on and it jumps through time and it also is hard It's like listening to your cousin in another state give you high school gossip. It just goes on and on and it jumps through time and it also is hard to keep track of. And it is not even revelatory or exciting details.
Also... Tina Brown hates Meghan Markle. The contempt she has for Meghan Markle's perfectly ordinary and unexpected actions as a working actress drips off the page. It is shocking. Especially when you compare how she describes Meghan Markle doing perfect ordinary things to get through life compared to how she describes Kate doing some pretty outrageous things to land a man.
At one point she criticizes Meghan for saying that she had gotten a scholarship to attend Northwestern. BUT BUT BUT her DAD ALSO PAID MONEY for her to go to Northwestern. LOLWUT? That's how college works here, in the United States. Tina Brown even somehow holds against Meghan the fact that Suits the TV show was shot in Toronto instead of NYC. And that also Meghan was 35 and hadn't had a kid yet and is almost 40 now or something. It's ridiculous.
I'm not sure it's even a good book for people who love the British Royal Family and want to hear all the gossip. It's just a mess....more
Like all time travel stories with loops, this one has to wrap up the concluding events in a convoluted-yet-predictable way. Still, I loved these charaLike all time travel stories with loops, this one has to wrap up the concluding events in a convoluted-yet-predictable way. Still, I loved these characters and their relationships to each other. It’s not common to read a book about scientists who are all women. I was impressed by the way the author was able to connect their relationships as they bounced around different decades. There was very good plotting.
I wish there was a little more exploration of why the time travelers couldn’t travel past that one specific point in the future.
The glossary at the end was unnecessary and felt like padding....more
Long Story Short: This is a book that traps you immediately in the environmental setting of a tea plantation and its neighboring estates in tropical Long Story Short: This is a book that traps you immediately in the environmental setting of a tea plantation and its neighboring estates in tropical Malaysia, but also the moods of the primary characters. It's very heavily symbolic, too, in a way that doesn't become oppressive (until the very end). It's also set at a point in time and specific locale that I do not really know that much about (the southern Pacific post-World War II/Japanese Empire), and--although this is a cliche--inspired me to learn more.
Why I Chose This Book: I can never seem to visit The Twitter without entangling myself in some trouble. This time, it was volunteering to participate in a group reading of the short listed novels for the Man Booker prize. I'd chosen Umbrella by Will Self but could only access it in eBook form, and reading it a paragraph at a time on a smartphone was not working for me. It's a book I plan to finish and found strangely fascinating (especially the Audrey parts), but that's (sadly) tangential here.
I ended up finishing The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng instead, and have within the past ten minutes closed the book and am writing this review without fully percolating it. I will also write the kind of review where I avoid spoilers, which is a new thing for me and may not be fully successful. And with these meandering and likely unnecessary disclosures behind us now, to the review!
The Book's Strengths: First of all, characters. I thought there was an interesting variety of characters. Even when characters were not fully fleshed out as people (many of them were there to represent types), the collection of them--all these people from all these backgrounds stuck in the same small space and reacting to the same events--made the story rich. It also made the overwhelming scale of the history the book encompassed comprehensible. For example, there are Japanese suicide pilots in the book. Usually stories of Japanese suicide pilots are told from the perspective of surviving targets, often with this horrified marveling about how so many people could be manipulated into that role. In this book you get instead the perspective of the suicide pilots themselves (or at least two of them) and it becomes understandable how they ended up in that position and why they went along with it in such great numbers. There are stories here about prison camp informers, the conflicts between colonial landowners and native populations, expatriates and war exiles, political insurgents... and if the book doesn't argue in their favor or implore the reader to sympathize with everyone, it at least compels you to accept their motives.
The other thing I really appreciated was the conversation the book has with the concept of memory and forgetfulness. It's set up explicitly with the installation of two ornamental garden statues: Mnemosyne, the Greek personification of Memory, and her unnamed sister who represents forgetfulness. (I've looked around for Wikipedia-levels of information about this sister, and she might be a creation of the author but I'm not claiming that but nothing else is popping up right now.) Preservation versus erasure is what I consider the main conflict of the story. One can forget via loss, or one can forget via the creation of something new, by having a new name thrust upon you, by creating new homes and new homelands, by resurfacing physical elements.
And looming over all of this--literally in the book but also as a writing device--is "Borrowed Scenery." (Read about it on Wikipedia here.) It rides through the book as a way the characters, unknowingly sometimes, cope with the world around them but also the way the reader is engaged with events far beyond the scope of the story. The more you already know about the Boer Wars, for example, the more you will understand Magnus. You can enjoy Magnus without knowing anything, but the more background knowledge the reader has the richer the book will be.
The Book's Weaknesses:... are few. The author's use of the symbolism and the themes ramped up at the very, very end and the heavy-handedness started to annoy me. That is possibly an artifact of me finishing this book with the review on my mind (I am sort of working on a deadline), but at one point a character notices that the face of the statue of Mnemosyne's sister--the Forgetfulness one--has been eroded smooth. Of course it has! And the big reveal at the end was beautiful for the characters' sake--it explains so much about, well, stuff--but I guess the way it was revealed--the form of the story at that point--called too much attention to itself. But these are very small complaints, and quite likely say more about me as a reader than the book as a story.
Short Story Shorter: I could not put this book down. And for all of its subject matter, it wasn't depressing.
Bonus Musing!: The last book I read that addressed in any way World War II from the South Pacific/Japanese Empire angle was Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. That book is full of history, too, but it's got an action-adventure feel. It's a book I enjoyed enough and always meant to read again (kind of like how I read Shogun every ten years or so), but I'm wondering how having a read a book like Garden is going to affect my reading of the comparable scenes in Crypto. It's been long enough that many of the details of Crypto have faded in my mind. I'll give you all a full report when the time is right!...more
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