Nicole
This book is not for me. Bleak, and sad-making stories, one after another. Perhaps another time in my life I'll be ready for it .....
Poetic, vivid, atmospheric, slow-moving at times, and at times confusing .... A very moving story of the violence humans seem unable to stop committing upon each other, and how it harms those who follow. In this case, a massacre in Korea, after WWII, about which I've never known a thing.
The prose is a little too purple at times for me . . . but the exposition of NY at that time was very vivd and interesting.
Riveting. Beautifully explores what violence, separation, loss, loyalty, compassion, and freedom can mean to us. True and fine. The description fails to mention that the book is really two stories, one of the soldier, Robin, and second is of Agate, an enslaved woman. Both stories are compelling and crucial.
Good historical thriller that makes you feel like you are in Paris at the time of the building of the canal, and which weaves in how society, art and politics were changing in response to technological developments. If you like this, I recommend frank Tallis's thrillers set in fin de siècle Venice. I like them a bit more.
Beautifully written. Sensitive, honest and rich characters, and thoughtful about the foibles we all carry with us. Reads a bit like a paean to old New England. Wonderful read.
The perfect book for a long flight. Suspenseful and quick. Fun to read on your way home from Norway. :)
The novel has short descriptions of what is happening on the planet – to the animals, plants, land and waterways – interespersed throughout that are fascinating. However, rarely have a I read a novel in which the world view of the author as reflected in the thoughts, words and deeds of the protagonist (a rather unlikeable man) is so remarkably dated. Nevertheless, a quick and thought-provoking read.
Mesmerizing and totally absorbing, unlike anything I've read before, and kind of horrible all at the same time. The reader is in the head of an alcoholic, self absorbed, hustling, horny, insecure, restless, and ultimately pathetic businessman in upstate NY for a long and tumultuous weekend. Feels like a dream when you are reading it, it just keeps going and going and dragging you along even when you feel like “i want this to stop”. One of those books that I'm glad I read, and I won't read again... I don't know how Oates wrote this ... powerful.
A raw, graphic, and unvarnished book of memories from the war. I read it in a sitting, couldn't stop. The most powerful thing about it, for me, is revealing what one man ... Just one of so many of our country's young people people who served ... suffered, during the war and after. I hope W read this.
Lovely essays, so full of mirth and pleasure and insight and reflection. Beautifully written. A book I will reread sometime in the future, with pleasure.
Good WWII mystery novel, great for vacation, quick and easy to read, and engaging. I particularly enjoyed the parts set futzing the war and just prior.
Forced myself to finish out of respect for the author and wanting to see it somehow come together. Despite some truly amazing images, and demonstrations of language genius (how else to describe what he does?) it just never worked for me. Felt kind of self indulgent by the author.....
Her essays on feminism in particular are striking and moving, reading this as I do in the age of DJT, when women's choices and voices are at risk, and indeed we have a president who views us as his sexual toys no brags about it.
I read this around the mid 80s and found it and the whole Canopus in Argos series an extraordinary piece work ... provocative, meditative, poetic, practical, how all this in the same book? I jam rereading the books now, 2017, following the US election, brexit, & etc. this book in particular is chick full of observations and hypotheses and statements that could be take from contemporary thinkers ... about greed, power struggles, inclusion vs control of others, the danger of unfettered capitalism ... read it!
Virtuoso piece. The story of how a company making soap and candles in boston became a multinational in everything from pesticides to big pharmacy .... And the impact of the Chemical Revolution on our way of life .... And the result of the creation of “the corporation” as a person in our keg so system .... All of it is fascinating. Poor thus alone the book is a must read and should be taught. Balancing it with the story go a woman dying of cancer from the very chemicals that company saturates her tenon with keeps our hearts engaged as well as our heads. Wonderful book.