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A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity: A Novel
by
Whitney Otto
In a novel about drifting and reckless youth looking for a more permanent form of happiness, Whitney Otto transports us to San Francisco, a magical, fog-shrouded city suffused with possibility and restless energy. Her characters congregate night after night at a North Beach bar called the Youki Singe Tea Room, their lives conjoined by bonds of friendship and shared experie...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
March 5th 2002
by Random House
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I read this in high school and absolutely loved it; a recent reread with slightly more cynical eyes diminished the enjoyment a tad, but the book is still beautifully written with great insight and a surreal, dreamy quality to the story. The imperfections in each relationship are poignant. I think I liked it less the second read partly due to many of the characters' hipster-like tendencies, though the author often comments on them with tongue-in-cheek observations that I very much enjoyed. (The b...more
i love this book. i loooooveee this book! i love the world otto creates, and the people she puts in it. these are the sorts of people i'd like to be friends with, and the kind of person i suppose i'd like to be. i love the way she writes, and i love the little vignettes. i love how she linked the japanese "floating world" to 1980s san francisco. i have a not-so-small obsession with san francisco, even though i've never been there. a few co-workers of mine used to live there, and they've told me...more
Vignettes of underemployed twenty somethings who do not want to or can not grow up. I enjoyed that they did not bemoan their fate, though they sometimes questioned it. The central focus is a tea house in which they all gather before and after their nightly adventures. The setting is 1980s San Francisco. The whole Peter Pan / Lost Boys theme put this book close to my heart. Each chapter is introduced by a Japanese woodcut. Very well done, this book really clicked with me!
Since I loved The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, I couldn't help but be interested in the idea of a book in which a character, Elodie, writes her own pillow book based on the ancient Japanese manuscript. The book gives snapshots of the character's lives, separated under title sections (some taken from Sei Shonagon). Elodie's notes revolve around her friends and acquaintances and their relationships. It makes for an interesting read.
This is without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read! It is lyrical, descriptive, and beautifully written. I would go so far as to say it was pure magic! This was an engaging read that now when I look back at my journal review I see that I had plans to purchase and I in fact have it on my bookshelf. As a writer it is inspirational to me! In fact I wrote that I needed to read it again. Amazing!
This is one of my top 10 books. I read this when I was a new mother and I loved reading about the lives of hedonistic 20 somethings, with very few cares in the world. I liked Otto's narrative style which I thought very well represented the lives of her subjects, not linear but crazy. I would like to read this again and see how I feel about it.
Aug 26, 2008
Mitch
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone who loves great romantic writing
Shelves:
book-club
Whitney Otto writes this story as if it were a Japanese pillow book. She takes a modern story of a group of young people and relates it as if they are living in the Edo period in Japan, living in the Ukiyo, the Floating World.
This story does float. It has a dreamy, sleepy quality that draws you in and lingers in your mind. As I was reading this book, I thought it was just ok. But with some distance, I've never forgotten the moody and tone she sets and the stories she tells. I've come to realize...more
This story does float. It has a dreamy, sleepy quality that draws you in and lingers in your mind. As I was reading this book, I thought it was just ok. But with some distance, I've never forgotten the moody and tone she sets and the stories she tells. I've come to realize...more
I thought all the different vignettes in the book really created a taste for the culture in the story. I loved how all the characters had their little history, and how everybody's overlapped somwhere, somehow.
A book that makes some interesting contrasts. I found all the characters and all the history fascinating and very different--hard to explain but people and times that I would not have linked together.
A good friend gave me this book and I was completely entranced. I've never encountered writing like this, and Otto's ability to weave a beautiful visual story with abstract thoughts is completely mindblowing.
I love Whitney Otto. I read and re-read this book. I love the style of her writing and how she can encapsulate her characters in such a succinct and clear way. Beautiful.
Wonderfully written prose. Characters are all educated, struggling to affluent, drifting in their late 20s/ early 30s. Instead of doing something, many of them are merely content to see and be seen on the fringes of San Francisco's art scene.
Drifting through life with fantastic Japanese art. Nice.
about SF
This book, much like her previous work, dealt with a group of people. This was a larger group, telling back-stories and side bits about a clique of party-people in San Francisco. Excellent in some parts, blah in others, it built up into a very interesting story and then.....finished with a whimper. The kind of ending where you re-read the last chapter, thinking that you *must* have missed something. Worth reading, but don't expect too much.
2003- It is impossible not to be transported back to the early 1980's in San Francisco while reading this book. The cast is huge, and we get to see only a small sliver of their lives...which is a bit annoying. We also don't have any or very little background on most of the characters as well. However, the book still is a good read, for it intertwines art and poetry into the daily events of the not yet ready to become full-fledged adults' lives.
I bought this on the force of Otto's novel, "How To Make An American Quilt." I found it a less rosy tale, but along the same lines. The book covers the lives of several young women in their mid-twenties to thirties and the paths they take, sometimes brushing against each other as they wait for life to happen. It's an interesting and thought-provoking read, less beautifully written than Quilt, but still a strong offering.
Maybe it's not fair for me to write a review for a book I haven't finished, but this is one I just had to put out to pasture. Right away when I began reading it, I thought to myself, "Well someone most certainly owns a word-a-day calendar.". It just felt like Otto was trying too hard or something. I don't know, something about the book was off kilter, and it just kept me from getting in to it.
A book with characters seeking the top of Maslow's hierarcy is also an american interpretation of the floating world. I can't explain why I enjoy rereading this book as much as I do. Something about how you get to piece the information together to slowly feel like you're closing in on characters. So many details, so little direction. But very satisfying none-the-less.
I'd probably stop short of "amazing" -- but this is the best book I have read in quite some time. Beautiful prose, and some poignant insights into relationships. The Japanese woodblock prints did not seem to be tightly coupled with the story line, but maybe that is just my cultural ignorance.
Admittedly, this book is mostly atmosphere than substance, but it's beautiful atmosphere, thoughtfully written. I liked this novel far better than "How to make an American quilt"... but perhaps it was more my ability to empathize with the characters and their lives.
Wonderful book--what I read of it. I love how Otto uses ancient Japanese paintings and lifestyles to shed light on a group of young San Franciscans--a great cross-fertilization.
Alas, the evil, evil New York library took it back before I could finish.
Alas, the evil, evil New York library took it back before I could finish.
One of my favorite leisure books. Linklater-esque in its amount of characters and their interactions, but all set in San Francisco and describing a number of lives I wouldn't mind living.
This book is about the sort of people I would like to meet. They live life so thoroughly and without fear of being judged. I love that there are snippets of the different lives being led.
I worried that this book might be too coy, too self-important, but I ended up liking it alot. I can't say that I truly care about any of the characters that much, but it works.
A good book. Not great. Not aspiring to be great. But good is sometimes good enough.
http://satia.blogspot.com/2008/05/col...
http://satia.blogspot.com/2008/05/col...
This is a unique and well-written book. Somehow, I just wasn't drawn to the characters. It was kind of like a collection of entertaining short-stories.
Love Otto's writing. Wish she would write another book! This is one of my favorites...love the juxtaposition of the paintings and the storyline.
This was a fun read. The characters are really interesting and the story takes place in SF. Also, I loved the Japanese illustrations throughout the book.
i read this book by candlelight during an ice storm in which the power was cut off. i always enjoy Whitney Otto's work. she lives in Portland!
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| Found this book in a thrift store.lent it out and never got it back. do not make my mistake | 1 | 2 | Jun 18, 2012 02:14am |
Whitney Otto is the bestselling author of How to Make an American Quilt (which was made into a feature film), Now You See Her, and The Passion Dream Book. A native of California, she lives with her husband and son in Portland, Oregon.
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“S___ likes being around other people; she just isn't particularly comfortable talking to them. She supposes that she is some variety of voyeur, enjoying the spectacle, breathing in the atmosphere, while experiencing uneasiness when asked to become part of it. None of this makes her unhappy. The life of a wallflower, she often thinks, is not such a terrible life.”
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Jan 17, 2008 06:13pm