Review:
To some people, I'm sure, this book is a revelation and a triumph. To me, it is mostly raunchy. Far too much of this book is spent masturbating for me. I just did not enjoy it.
Words for which I Sought Help:
lacuna -- an unfilled space or interval
Review:
Wow. This is a remarkable book. Story within story as you might expect from the author, but the way the same basic life inhabits multiple characters and how they impossibly interact is wonderful. The way that Doerr has woven this story to life is the kind of thing that you look at from a distance and try to find a seam.
I like that Doerr does not shy away from looking at both the good and the bad within people and companies. It is rather amazing that he can find common character traits and then show how these traits are both helpful and not.
Review:
This is an odd book. The story is rife with character development and the double entendre of "matrix" being a mother, a complicated situation, a way of looking at the labyrinth, and as a reference to the Virgin Mary makes the book rich. There are interesting perspectives (e.g. man is made of dust, but woman is made from bone) and it is interesting to view the miracles, visions, and church plans from the view of practicality and how these might be used to create a mystique that helps provide a supernatural grandeur to simple practicalities. I also really like the way that Groff has demonstrated how each character comes into her own and deals with the situations that each character faces becoming oddly religious as a result of their own failings.
Review:
The story of the stone is an odd red herring throughout the novel. I don't really think it helps tell the story beyond an encounter toward the end of World War II. I found it to be a non-innocent addition to the story as though it is much more meaningful then it is.
There is an odd repeated sense of decimation and loss (odd because it seems that there is no bottom). It seems that horror and loss are components required for a Pulitzer prize. I had not wanted to read this book partly for that reason. There is little doubt that Doerr is gifted and builds characters, places, and addresses issues of large moment artfully. It would be nice, however, if that could all be done without the fear of imminent death. Maybe, also, I'm a little tired of coming of age stories.
Words for which I Sought Help:
exogamy -- the social norm of marrying outside one's social group
Review:
This book has to move anyone who reads it. This is a good book that helps put the experience of the Indian into perspective. The time span is huge. It is impossible to read this book and not be moved. Treuer writes well and his story is remarkable. Makes one ashamed to be an American...how can we all be better together?
When describing the traumatic loss of a still born child, "...this is a time in your life when the whole page turns..." What a wonderful turn of phrase that captures so much.
Review:
The story is told mostly from a third person, but it does involve internal thoughts of some of the individual characters, so it can be a little disconcerting. The story is not a happy one, but it is interesting to see how two (or more) people can see the same circumstance in completely different ways. It is also a good look at the dynamics of marriage from several different perspectives including retrospective/revisionist. I can't say I enjoyed the book, but I do think it was well worth the time.
Review:
The story, largely, of a boy with synesthesia who is abandoned by his birth-mother. His subsequent adoption was unsettling and his eventual search for his birth-mother dominates most of the book. His unsettled nature mimics his birth-mother's unsettled nature. The book does change perspective to that of his birth-mother at times and provides insight into her experiences.
I feel like I have now heard of the sense of deportation/immigration from every angle despite this being a clear novel with no effort to necessarily reflect the truth, but with a clear effort to embody the process of deportation. In that sense it was a hard read, but I have to say that the great similes and metaphors (I especially liked the sense of security being retracted like the cord into a vacuum cleaner) made the book enjoyable without regard for content. I think this kind of thing is what elevates a good book into a finalist for the National Book Award.
