When Odile Mével, a French clothing designer, agrees to smuggle ceremonial May Day banners out of the former Soviet Union, she thinks she̵...
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Sep 25, 2011
Enrique
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Ted Mooney has crafted an intricate narrative labyrinth of intersecting realities, visible, but more often invisible, in The Same River Twice. His character's perceptions of high-stress events unraveling within and around them in Paris and, particularly, along La Seine, on a boat named Nachtvlinder, become so blurred at times, so ambiguous, that surreality is perception (and vice versa) in Mooney's character's collective eyes. [return][return]The novel, on its surface, focuses on art smuggling,
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Jan 02, 2012
Jason
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Mar 16, 2011
Dagny
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I have a backlog of books to "review" here on Goodreads and the reason for that is this book; it caused my judgmental flow to clog up. The contradictory qualities of this book made it not easy to review; I postponed and visited the scene and few times trying to see an angle which would in one push dislodge the trunks bobbing there in an impasse.
I appreciated the clarity and visual vivacity of the prose; it has elegance and restraint. I also appreciated the settings, first in More...
I appreciated the clarity and visual vivacity of the prose; it has elegance and restraint. I also appreciated the settings, first in More...
Jan 25, 2011
Peter
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Having read a glowing review in the NYT Book Review, and having just been to Paris for the first time last fall, I was excited about getting Ted Mooney's new novel "The Same River Twice" from the library. It is extolled as a "literary thriller," and Mooney is a master wordsmith. Some of his descriptions are breathtaking.
I jumped into this book and found myself thoroughly immersed in the multifaceted plot and characters. A French woman, a dress designer, is paid as More...
I jumped into this book and found myself thoroughly immersed in the multifaceted plot and characters. A French woman, a dress designer, is paid as More...
Aug 06, 2010
Tim
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The Same River Twice by Ted Mooney begs you to put it down. It's a convoluted plot that relies on the reader not really questioning how interconnected all of these people and events are, but to merely accept them and trust as the main characters Odile and Max trust in each other. What spurs the reader to continue are the characters, even though they are clunky fixtures banging around Paris who never truly become believable. It's hard to take a character named Groot very seriously, especially
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Jul 31, 2010
Malcolm
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Ted Mooney’s The Same River Twice is like a high-speed Maserati ride through the nightime streets of Paris: exhilarating and dangerous. The bargain with literary thrill rides is based on how far from reality the author is willing to go before all plausibility is lost. In The Same River Twice, Mooney takes us to the edge, and back.
In this contemporary mystery, Mooney casts his story with a collection of exotiques, impossibly beautiful, intelligent and morally ambiguous characters t More...
In this contemporary mystery, Mooney casts his story with a collection of exotiques, impossibly beautiful, intelligent and morally ambiguous characters t More...
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Jul 23, 2011
John
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Mooney has come up w/ some haunting disturbances in all his three novels. What arrests our attention is always the amorous connection: the girl who takes a dolphin for her lover in EASY TRAVEL TO OTHER PLANETS, in the mid-70s, & ten years later the affair initiated just as the whole world’s about to fry, in TRAFFIC & LAUGHTER. Now, in THE SAME RIVER TWICE, once again it’s love that renders things spooky — & us too, afloat on superlunary narrative. Otherwise, as a number of the GR reviews have
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Dec 05, 2011
Michael
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I read The Same River Twice because of something the author Ted Mooney said in an interview on the June 4, 2010 New York Times Book Review podcast: "Every second of every day, people believe, often in perfectly good faith, that they're doing one thing when they're actually doing something completely different, and this is what I find to be the true poignancy of being a human. I mean, it's tragic, it's comic, and in its own peculiar way, I mean I'm a human, too, it's beautiful."
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Dec 22, 2010
Corinna
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fun characters, including Paris and houseboat. satisfying pace with fast thriller chop and more flowing character development. I agree with this review:
To shape the everyday happenings of the world into a good story — isn’t that what novelists are supposed to do best? Yet readers must often choose between “literary fiction,” understood to be works of well-written but meandering prose about the “real world” of human relationships, and “commercial fiction,” fast-paced novels in which plot is More...
To shape the everyday happenings of the world into a good story — isn’t that what novelists are supposed to do best? Yet readers must often choose between “literary fiction,” understood to be works of well-written but meandering prose about the “real world” of human relationships, and “commercial fiction,” fast-paced novels in which plot is More...
Oct 01, 2011
Bruce
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I noticed, to my surprise, that are seven different books, by different authors, all with this title. If refers, of course, to the maxim of early Greek philosophy (I don't remember off hand which of the presocratics said it) that you can't step into the same river twice. In other words, everything is in flux. In the case of this novel, a literary thriller set in Paris, New York, and Moscow, the title--though never precisely explained--seems appropriate. The plot, on the surface level, is satisfy
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Jan 10, 2011
Tricia
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A stylish & atmospheric thriller with all the requisite elements for escapist winter reading: a glamorous setting in Paris, smart & idiosyncratic characters with cool jobs (filmmaking, fashion design), a plot involving the smuggling of art objects, the Russian mafia & mysterious women with tattoos ... even a bit of metaphysical speculation (Can one truly start over in life?) thrown in for good measure. In my opinion the ending fails to deliver on the promise of a surprising climactic scene, but
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Jul 02, 2011
Amy
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Art theft brings together a documentary film maker and some Russian mobsters in modern-day Paris. Loved the detail about Paris. The story is character driven, full of close examinations about relationships. It didn’t move really fast, but it did build enough suspense for me to worry that a character I liked would get bumped off. I would read more by this author.
[now some spoilers:]
As it turns out, the good guy does a bad thing (and gets away with it, easy-peasy), the w More...
[now some spoilers:]
As it turns out, the good guy does a bad thing (and gets away with it, easy-peasy), the w More...
Dec 31, 2010
Anne
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No lack of action and plot in this thriller set in Paris, but not a lot of ideas. I liked reading this after "Disgrace", a book with just the reverse. One of the main characters is a film-maker who is shooting a film which features several of the other main characters, interesting details and maybe that's the key to this book. That it's cinematic is its technique, lots of jump cutting, looking at the surface of things, letting the meaning come from the sum of many small angles?
Jul 17, 2010
Cameron
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Reading this book felt like rushing through a dream: The characters are not fully formed, the settings and situations are never quite right, but it was the mood that mattered. Two twisting plots circled each other like noir movies spliced together, events a blur, giving the constant sense that I should be fighting for more control. But things moved so quickly I never got the chance.
Like his characters, we're to accept events as they come, and react emotionally. The book's power More...
Like his characters, we're to accept events as they come, and react emotionally. The book's power More...
Oct 12, 2011
Joan
rated it:
Beautiful losers in Paris.
For some reason, this book reminded me of Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, but since it has been some time since I read that, I don't know why.
I couldn't figure out when this book took place. It had a moody '40s movie flle about it. They used cel phones, but the currency was Francs not Euros. Maybe that was intentional.
Only an OK read that got better reviews than I thought it deserved.
For some reason, this book reminded me of Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, but since it has been some time since I read that, I don't know why.
I couldn't figure out when this book took place. It had a moody '40s movie flle about it. They used cel phones, but the currency was Francs not Euros. Maybe that was intentional.
Only an OK read that got better reviews than I thought it deserved.
Jun 27, 2011
Christian
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I found this book very compelling in terms of character, plot and setting. It was fun to match what I remembered from my brief visit in Paris to the locations in the book. What I found most intriguing about the novel was the relationship between the two protagonists. I kept asking myself "is this a typical French marriage?"
Aug 13, 2010
Ali
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I can't tell if this novel was brilliant or completely crazy, but I'm leaning towards the former. The plot seems almost like a fever dream, especially towards the end -- it's disjointed and hazy, but in some ways completely inevitable. Which, I suppose, is kind of the point.
I'm being very vague and mysterious here, but I don't want to give anything away. You can read a plot summary in lots of places, so I won't get into that, except to say that the plot is really only the beginnin More...
I'm being very vague and mysterious here, but I don't want to give anything away. You can read a plot summary in lots of places, so I won't get into that, except to say that the plot is really only the beginnin More...
Feb 13, 2012
Catherine
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This book turned out better than I expected. It's one of those books that could easily be turned into a movie, with hardly any dialogue changes.
It took a while for the story to get rolling. Eventually the various plots interwine and become one at the climax of the book.
A well written novel.
It took a while for the story to get rolling. Eventually the various plots interwine and become one at the climax of the book.
A well written novel.
Sep 20, 2010
Michael
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Unlike Ali, I didn't think this was particularly brilliant *or* crazy. The plot was certainly Dickensian in its coincidences and intricacies.
Overall, I didn't care about the characters enough. By the end I was interested, but it took me a while to get there.
Just okay.
Overall, I didn't care about the characters enough. By the end I was interested, but it took me a while to get there.
Just okay.
Jan 17, 2012
Lois
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A very different, mesmerizing look at morality. What is right or wrong?
This is a good book for those who love Paris, art, intrigue, sex and can handle an end that doesn't satisfy. But that is, after all, the existential way.
This is a good book for those who love Paris, art, intrigue, sex and can handle an end that doesn't satisfy. But that is, after all, the existential way.
Jul 26, 2010
Maryellen
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This is a most unusual book, with many layers. I learned a lot about the process of making independent films, while being drwan into the story of Odile and Max and their relationship. you'll find yourself wondering about seemingly casual incidences of "deja vu".
May 05, 2011
Linny
rated it:
Thriller set in art/film scene in Paris, Russian mafia, art smuggling, drugs/human trafficking, an unusual marriage, sub plots that make for interesting characters. Read more Mooney.
Jun 01, 2011
Julie
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Really...why do I ever read Geoff's recommendations?! He promised me "relationships" in this one but I found them very simplistic and the mystery aspect uninteresting...Ugh.
Jul 29, 2011
I really liked this book in the beginning, and it is well written, but the suspense part of it kind of fizzled and it got just plain weird at the end.
Jan 12, 2011
Debby
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Story line is good and writing is nice. Just not sure what possessed the main character to get into the mess she was in... Boredom???
Aug 12, 2010
Nancy
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Interesting story but the characters were a little sketchy and there were too many loose ends.
Jul 01, 2010
Cheri
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I liked the writing but I despised nearly all of the characters and thought the plot was ridiculous and just didn't make sense.
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