Tinkers

A mixed bag of really wonderful, affecting stories and meandering, run on sentances.

I have to say [a:Paul Harding's 4371731 Paul Harding https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1328557292p2/4371731.jpg] “[b:Tinkers 4957350 Tinkers Paul Harding https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1364258693l/4957350.SX50.jpg 5023150]” left me feeling unmoved and dissatisfied - like so many other books this year... The novel revolves around an old man named George who is dying from cancer, and the narrative follows his thoughts and memories as he grapples with his mortality. The language used by the author is often ornate and overwrought, which, coupled with the slow pacing of the story, made for a tedious reading experience.The characters lack depth and development, with George being the only character with any discernible personality traits, and even those are underwhelming. The supporting cast feels two-dimensional, failing to contribute anything meaningful to the narrative.The themes of loss, mortality, and the passing of time are not uncommon in literature, but Harding's handling of them is clichéd and trite. Rather than telling a compelling story, the author seems more concerned with showcasing his literary prowess.In conclusion, “Tinkers” is not a book that I would recommend to others. While the themes it explores are important, the execution leaves much to be desired. Two out of five stars.Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam

I picked this book up after seeing on a list of short books with the intention to boost my 2019 count of books read.

There were glimmers of interesting characters here and there, but they were lost in a morass of run-on sentences, likely the product of creative writing class. I fact, that's what most of the book felt like; a product of a creative writing class. By no means am I suggesting that creative classes are not valuable. But there are times that the output is too forced or too precious and that's what I felt when reading “Tinkers.”

Whew, buddy. A lovely book about a father and son and all of the difficulty that comes with familial relationships. It was incredibly wordy and often times became confusing and tedious to read. I had to put it down for a while and pick it back up later to get more energy to finish. Was it the greatest novel ever? No. Did it open my mind to new works, phrases, and styles of writing? Absolutely. I would recommend for readers who want a slow-paced historical novel to read in their spare time.

I found this short work of fiction to be an almost unbearable chore to plow through. While Harding certainly possesses a poetic tongue, I found his prose to be vastly overblown and his style unnecessarily complex. There were numerous sentences in this novel that seemed to go on for days. One sentence, for example, stretched from page 180 to page 183 . This textbook example of high “fog count” enjoys the simplifying benefit of just one solitary semicolon and included a number of commonly used terms such as: vastation, scurf, and intaglio. Harding's frequent changes of tense and perspective were so jarring as to necessitate the use of Dramamine. Many reviewers found the novelty of Harding's “rule breaking” to be a strongly positive aspect of this award-winning work. Needless-to-say, I do not share this view. I started this book with great anticipation and I do wish I could have joined the many Goodreads reviewers who so enjoyed this work (as well the Pulitzer selection committee) and given this work high marks but, alas, to do so would be, at best, seriously disingenuous, and, at worst, wholly dishonest.

Despite the confusing switches between the father and son, this was exceptional.

I've been reading a lot about Tinkers lately on the Internets, as it kind of came out of nowhere to win the Pulitzer Prize. While it's great that a small-press novel can both fly under the radar and be critically acclaimed, I wasn't all that impressed by the novel. It's wonderfully written, but not all that interesting or memorable. For a novel that uses death to reflect on life, I'd stick with Jim Crace's magnificent Being Dead

I've been reading a lot about Tinkers lately on the Internets, as it kind of came out of nowhere to win the Pulitzer Prize. While it's great that a small-press novel can both fly under the radar and be critically acclaimed, I wasn't all that impressed by the novel. It's wonderfully written, but not all that interesting or memorable. For a novel that uses death to reflect on life, I'd stick with Jim Crace's magnificent Being Dead