A luminous and unforgettable first novel by an astonishing new voice in fiction, hailed by Esquire magazine as “one of America’...
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Dec 10, 2011
Ian
rated it: 
A Reader Walks into a Room
I bought "Man" after loving "The History of Love".
I don't think I realised until I started reading it that "Man" was her first novel.
There were times when I could understand why other readers might be tempted to give it up.
I persisted out of loyalty to "History" and out of a sense of anticipation for "Great House".
Little did I realise that it would (almost) have More...
I bought "Man" after loving "The History of Love".
I don't think I realised until I started reading it that "Man" was her first novel.
There were times when I could understand why other readers might be tempted to give it up.
I persisted out of loyalty to "History" and out of a sense of anticipation for "Great House".
Little did I realise that it would (almost) have More...
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Apr 07, 2008
Brent
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So, my reading group virtually voted to kick me out of the group whenever they decided to move our monthly meetings from Thursday to Wednesday. It's okay that I couldn't make it to the most recent meeting because I seem to like this book much less than the other reading group members here on Goodreads.com
It starts out with a thirty-something year-old man who has no memories since the age of 12. He has all these years and years of people who remember him and things that happen More...
Feb 21, 2009
bookczuk
rated it: 
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book, now that I am through with it. I am convinced that Nicole Krauss is a marvelous writer. Of that, there is no doubt. But I never fully engaged in the story here. Part of that is Samson's fault, though. I don't think he fully engaged in his story either. The ending came abruptly -- a rapid change of pace, with the epilogue in a different character voice which left me disorientated. (Ha! Just a note to add that I, too, find the use of this wo
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Feb 21, 2008
Sarah
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This book had a very interesting premise: a middle-aged man loses all his memory since he was 12 but still has the sophisticated mind of an adult: how does he cope?
Parts of the novel are very poignant-- mostly the scenes between Samson and his wife and Samson and his great uncle. Other parts really drag and seem caught up in vague ruminations on memory.
All in all, I don't think the book hung together too well and I much prefer her other novel, _A Brief History of Love_. More...
Parts of the novel are very poignant-- mostly the scenes between Samson and his wife and Samson and his great uncle. Other parts really drag and seem caught up in vague ruminations on memory.
All in all, I don't think the book hung together too well and I much prefer her other novel, _A Brief History of Love_. More...
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Dec 23, 2007
Maggie
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"She's lovely. Beautiful and kind and what's not to like? but why her and not someone else?"
"That place just beyond everything she knows for sure."
"Who was I? What did I care about? What did I find funny, sad, stupid, painful? Was I happy? All of those memories I accumulated, gone. Which one, if there could have been only one, would I have kept?"
"He knew she liked him but couldn't say why, and now he wondered whether sh More...
"That place just beyond everything she knows for sure."
"Who was I? What did I care about? What did I find funny, sad, stupid, painful? Was I happy? All of those memories I accumulated, gone. Which one, if there could have been only one, would I have kept?"
"He knew she liked him but couldn't say why, and now he wondered whether sh More...
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May 03, 2008
Jafar
rated it:
The book starts off very promising. A man loses 24 years of his memory due to a brain tumor. As the book says, we’re nothing but a collection of habits and accumulation of memories. If we lose those memories and habits, we lose our self and start over with a blank slate. That should make a good concept for a very interesting novel. Instead, the story meanders through a series of irrelevant event and characters and doesn’t offer much in the end.
From the few places where Krauss discuss More...
From the few places where Krauss discuss More...
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Jun 02, 2011
Laala
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I love Nicole Krauss. I read The History of Love mid 2006. I loved it, but for some reason did not hunt for other books the author had written. Perhaps I had a long enough To Read list as it was. Earlier this summer I stumbled upon this book, and after recalling how much I loved the first book of hers I’d read, decided to give her debut a go.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it almost start to finish without putting it down. I put it down just the once, and because I had to. I loved Sa More...
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it almost start to finish without putting it down. I put it down just the once, and because I had to. I loved Sa More...
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Jan 24, 2009
Tung
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Mar 02, 2009
AMAMAM
rated it:
I was going to give this 4 stars but changed my mind at the last few pages. Not that it ended poorly, but I just can't put my finger on it. I loved the writing and the poetic one-liners that Krauss is so good at. But I got the "first novel" vibe from this for sure ... in that she seemed to have SO many good things to write/ideas to share that she just inserted gratuitous paragraphs/plotlines that really did nothing for the story. Nice to read those parts since she writes so beautif
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Jul 07, 2010
p 39: The gestures we repeat over and over, they're just our need to be recognized. // Te kiss stayed there with no place to go, no sensory reserve that could absorb it and fit it away as a common act of intimacy, a thousand times received. He knew what Anna was asking: whether you could love someone without habits.
p 41: anechoic chamber of autism
p 48: if he got lost he walked until the city reorganized itself around him and he found himself somewhere he'd been before. More...
p 41: anechoic chamber of autism
p 48: if he got lost he walked until the city reorganized itself around him and he found himself somewhere he'd been before. More...
Apr 03, 2011
Katie
rated it:
This book is about a man named Samson Greene, who is found in the middle of the Nevada desert without any idea of who he is. Doctors at the hospital he is taken to find a tumor in his brain and remove it, but even then he doesn’t fully recover. He regains his memories up to age 12, but the subsequent 24 years are a complete blank. He can’t remember his wife, what he did for a job, or the fact that his mother is dead. And so it goes, with him adapting to his new condition and deciding which life
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Jul 01, 2010
Abeer
rated it:
This book is about a man whose brain tumour removal causes him to lose his memory from age 12 onwards. If you leave aside the fact that he's still able to create new memories and is perfectly mentally and physically fine otherwise, I still found it unconvincing. Not only can he understand vocabulary and concepts that he must have learned post adolescence, he seems perfectly well able to function in a world as a 36 year old despite that huge blank space. Sure he has some relationship and caree
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Oct 30, 2011
Annemieke
rated it:
Reading an early novel written by an author you've already read later novels from always feels like a bit of archeology to me. Can we already see the brilliance that's was to come out later. Man walks into a room was the debut of Nicole Kraus, author of A history of love. Her second novel I felt compelled to read and I loved it. It was evocative and showed great empathy.
That was harder with Man walks into a room. The story: a young man loses all his memories after age twelve after a tumor w More...
That was harder with Man walks into a room. The story: a young man loses all his memories after age twelve after a tumor w More...
Jun 01, 2011
Patty
rated it: 
I once knew an art professor who would buy multiple copies of books he liked. He would put one in his back pocket and when he ran into a friend, whip out the book and give it to his friend. This is that sort of book: I want to buy a few copies and give them out to the people I love.
But don't get me wrong: this is not necessarily a cheery, upbeat book.
I may be peculiar; I am drawn to books about people who have lost their memories. The first book of the Monk series, by Ann More...
But don't get me wrong: this is not necessarily a cheery, upbeat book.
I may be peculiar; I am drawn to books about people who have lost their memories. The first book of the Monk series, by Ann More...
Jul 20, 2010
Laura
rated it:
Perhaps due to my status as a Krauss enthusiast, I really enjoyed "Man Walks into a Room." Krauss is just such a poignant writer who is so well versed on the subtitles of human psychology. Her characters are very real, which is probably her strongest asset of all. On the other hand, I am consistently blown away by the beauty of her written lines. For example, "Samsom woke to the alarm and felt Anna wake, roll and climb out of bed. Her bare feet across the wooden floor. A spl
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May 03, 2010
Amy
rated it:
This book is beautifully written. The book is about a man who has a brain tumor and loses all his memories from ages 12-36. He retains his childhood memories up until age 12 and is able to make new memories but 24 years of his life are just gone. I tried to imagine losing all the moments that make you who are and not only having all these personal events occur and not remember them, but also the events that go on in the world and having no idea what's going on. Losing the happy moments seem to h
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Feb 16, 2011
B
rated it:
I wanted to read her latest book, Great House, but the library didn't have it in. Nicole Krauss wrote one of my favorite books ever, The History of Love. It's a realistic history, not a fluffy engorged pink one. Man Walks Into a Room was her first book and I'm glad I read it. It has such a great hook. A 35-year-old man has a brain tumor the size of a cherry removed. The surgery is successful, however, along with the tumor, every single memory the man had since he was 12-years-old is also removed
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Dec 20, 2010
Erin
rated it:
I am conflicted about this book. I really wanted to give it three and a half stars. On one hand, the writing is excellent and the characters engaging. There are some interesting philisophical discussions and endearing comedic interludes. On the other hand, the story has some weak points and I found myself thinkig, "Who cares? Get on with the story!"
While the premise is interesting and the phrasing is very good, there is a sense of aimlessness in the execution. The More...
While the premise is interesting and the phrasing is very good, there is a sense of aimlessness in the execution. The More...
Jul 23, 2010
Kendall
rated it:
Something about this book could not keep my full attention. The themes of memory and loss and identity were really lovely, and there were a handful of really beautifully-written passages.
From one of Samson's memories of being twelve-years-old:
"It was the vivid color of the memory that startled him, a luminous blue. It was all around him, warm and smooth, and moving through it toward the glow of light he could hear muted sounds that seemed to come from a great, impassable d More...
From one of Samson's memories of being twelve-years-old:
"It was the vivid color of the memory that startled him, a luminous blue. It was all around him, warm and smooth, and moving through it toward the glow of light he could hear muted sounds that seemed to come from a great, impassable d More...
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Mar 30, 2009
Garrett
rated it:
Favorite excerpt:
"He inched towards her until their sides were touching, arm to arm, leg to bare leg. Sam? she whispered. Do you think--- This was Jollie Lambird, whom he had been in love with since the second grade, and he was ready to answer any question she might have for him. But he didn't hear the rest of it because just then he kissed her, a kiss that may have lasted for hours while porch lights shuddered and went out across the neighborhood. While stars themselves li More...
"He inched towards her until their sides were touching, arm to arm, leg to bare leg. Sam? she whispered. Do you think--- This was Jollie Lambird, whom he had been in love with since the second grade, and he was ready to answer any question she might have for him. But he didn't hear the rest of it because just then he kissed her, a kiss that may have lasted for hours while porch lights shuddered and went out across the neighborhood. While stars themselves li More...
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Jan 20, 2009
Antof9
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 27, 2011
Gr8reader
rated it:
"A man is found wandering the desert outside Las Vegas. The cards in his wallet identify him as Samson Greene, a Columbia University English professor last seen leaving campus eight days ago. Thirty-six years old, with a wife, Anna, and a dog, Frank. But Samson doesn't even recognize his own name, and by the time Anna has make her way across the country to pick him up, doctors have discovered a cherry-sized tumor in his brain; its removal eradicates the last twenty-four years of Samson's me
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Feb 28, 2011
Katherine
rated it:
“The wind blows continually in the wrong direction, a strange wind that unsettles us, swirling the dust in restless eddies. We eat our meals with sand between our teeth” (4).
“…a man who did not wake each day to the misery he’d left slumped in the chair the night before” (14).
“Later he tried to remember exactly what he felt and thought in those first hours, but unlike the sharp clarity of what followed, he could only recall the vague wake of the anesthesia” (15).
"He had stu More...
“…a man who did not wake each day to the misery he’d left slumped in the chair the night before” (14).
“Later he tried to remember exactly what he felt and thought in those first hours, but unlike the sharp clarity of what followed, he could only recall the vague wake of the anesthesia” (15).
"He had stu More...
Dec 19, 2010
Richard
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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May 11, 2010
Alana
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While Man Walks Into a Room was Nicole Krauss's debut novel, I was first brought to experience her genius in The History of Love. Her first work feels like less of a novel and more like a lengthy short story -- though, to its credit, it certainly doesn't feel any longer than a short story. Instead, it's more of a lingering discussion on an idea that begs to be explored. As a result, it feels hard to summarize the plot in a tantalizing way beyond the initial scenario, as a large part of the no
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Aug 31, 2011
Eugenides
rated it:
I was largely interested in this book because a friend recommended it. It's about a man who loses his memory from age 12 to the present, so he has no memory of his wife or profession or current life. He's cognitively developed as a 30+ man, but has no memory of what got him there. The writing in the book is as sparse as the mind Krauss tries to imagine, and that fact is beautiful; it's the reason I wanted to read the book. But the writing wasn't actually good enough to make me want to finish it.
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Jun 10, 2010
Kristen
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May 23, 2010
Jen
rated it:
I can't wait for The Great House. I didn't think this was as amazing as History of Love, but considering that is one of the greatest books I have ever read in my life, that is not saying much. I am so grateful someone sent Nicole Krauss my way. I don't think there are many people who say things that actually matter. Her work matters to me. I guess maybe it won't to someone else, maybe there won't be, in the way she captures everyday intimacy, something that matters to him or her. That is just h
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Sep 05, 2011
Annette
rated it:
I almost didn't pick this one up: I loved Krauss' History of Love, but Man Walks into a Room's topic (someone suddenly looses their memory) has already been done to death. Most such stories that I had read rely on the oddness and magnitude of what they describe for drama - they contrast past and present versions that differ greatly, and ask (in rather artificial ways) if people can change; often they are about individuals, selves, what makes us us, but are so specific their way of approaching th
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May 02, 2011
Kristin
rated it:
This is my favorite of hers.
Krauss can pull my heartstrings like no other. The pain and loss of her characters is almost unbearable, and yet I always come back for more.
These people love each other. There's no physical boundary to keep them apart. And yet they just can't be together. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.
If I replace myself with any one of them I would try to say the thing(s) that needed to be said to try to be together again, but then I am not as beautif More...
Krauss can pull my heartstrings like no other. The pain and loss of her characters is almost unbearable, and yet I always come back for more.
These people love each other. There's no physical boundary to keep them apart. And yet they just can't be together. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.
If I replace myself with any one of them I would try to say the thing(s) that needed to be said to try to be together again, but then I am not as beautif More...
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