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Dec 17, 2009

Patrick rated it:

Reviews of “Special Topics in Calamity Physics” and the Bottle of Açaí Juice I Bought for Lunch Cleverly Masked as SAT Test Questions

Choices:
(a) Special Topics in Calamity Physics
(b) The bottle of açaí juice I bought for lunch
(c) Both a and b
(d) Neither a nor b

Questions
(1) __ I had heard good things about it
(2) __ I bought it on a whim
(3) __ If feeling extremely charitable, I might call it “frothy”
(4) __ It seemed sort of go More...

22 comments like (164 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2007

Sarah rated it:

There’s a special cold black place in my heart for writers under thirty who come out of nowhere with a best-selling much-praised first novel for which they receive huge advances and instant fame. The feeling is called jealousy - deep, shoulda-been-me jealousy that clouds my ability to judge the book itself.

Which brings us to Marisha Pessl and Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Every big review I read of it was glowing and every writer under thirty I talked to said it was a piece of More...

10 comments like (103 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Summer rated it:

Donna Tartt wrote a splendid book called The Secret History which both celebrated and skewered hyper-intellectualism as well as explored the process of interacting with a text and the pleasures of narrative devices. This book follows roughly the same storyline (and, incidentally, the storyline of Daniel Handler's The Basic Eight, down to the "study questions" at the end), except there's absolutely no reason for the precious chapter titles and the annotated references - they have no bea More...

5 comments like (37 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jessica rated it:

Any book that's a truly good book will change your life, at least for a few days after you finish it, as you walk around still somewhat in the world the author created for you. Then you become embarassed. "For Christ's sake, it's only a book," you tell yourself.
This is a story told through books themselves, a whodunnit, a coming-of-ager, and, for me at least, at least a whiff of self-help. (I found myself a bit too recognizable in the June Bug characters). It conforms to my More...

3 comments like (27 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jason rated it:

(Full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:].)

Okay, I'll admit it -- that whenever I hear of another young, good-looking first-time author in New York getting an obscenely high advance on their first book and suddenly becoming The Talk Of The Town, I automatically become suspicious, as sure a response from me as Pavlov's dogs salivating at the sound of their little bell. And that's because I've been around various people in the New More...

1 comment like (25 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Emily rated it:

I was about one-quarter of the way through this book when I had a strange revelation. It was, basically, kind of formulaic. And yet, the formula was rare and unpredictable. See, several years ago, I read Donna Tartt's The Secret History, a dark book about a group of preciously sophisticated, murderous wacked-out Classics majors at a small liberal arts college. I was captivated. Six months ago I read Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket's) The Basic Eight, about a group of precociously sophisticate More...

4 comments like (15 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Anne rated it:

Special Topics... has certainly stirred the passions of readers and critics...especially those who love-to-hate first novels by young, successful authors. At the sight of Marisha Pessl's author photo -- lovely, unsmiling introspective waif -- I had to hold down my hate reflex with both arms, both legs, and my forehead. Yet twenty pages later, any evidence of hate (or even a struggle) was gone. I was captivated.

Blue Van Meer lost her mother at a very young age and now hops around the More...

4 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Tori rated it:

Struck by a severe attack of the cutes, an over-worked bag of metaphors, and flimsy characterization. The dialogue is unnatural and in most cases unfitting for the characters (Dee and Dum's conversations in particular strike me as unreal for high schoolers). Most of these things are stylistic and, while annoying to read, can be groomed out with some forethought and good editing. The book, as has been acknowledged by other people, could easily be a hundred pages shorter than it is.

Bl More...

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2008

James rated it:

I really wanted to like this book.

But it’s a train wreck. The literary carnage is so grotesque and horrifying, you can’t help but look, read. (And I promise you, just take my word for it, that metaphor is better than most that Pessl uses in this debut novel of hers.)

Despite what Bayard says, it’s amazing what happens when you stop talking about a text and actually interact with it. I’ll tell you what happens: disappointment. Utter, utter disappointment.

For all More...

6 comments like (23 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

Shannon rated it:

This was a weird case of having high expectations and having no expectations, and being disappointed in one and reasonably well satisfied in the other. Overall, though, I didn't like it, and found it to be pretty obnoxious.

The best way to introduce this one is to use the blurb off the back:

Calamity Physics: The resulting explosion of energy, light, heartbreak and wonder as Blue van Meer enters a small, elite school in a sleepy mountain town. Blue's highly unusual past draws h

More...

4 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2008

Casey rated it:

This first bit is my initial reaction to the book. I'm keeping it up because I still think it's valid. However, see bellow for my post-reading thoughts.

Oh, how I hate this book. The parenthetic statements are making me homicidal. The dad is a jackass of unparalleled proportion, and I have yet to see Hannah do ANYTHING that warrants Blue's fascination. Sure, she picks up strange men in diners, but really, who hasn't? The writing is way too fond of its own wit, and I'm sick of a More...

8 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2008

Doug rated it:

I've read other reviews and I believe the negative reviews have been written by people who didn't take time to really read the book and follow it all the way through. It would be easy to do. It's not a book you can speed read. (See Ulysses by James Joyce) Sometimes I'll tear through a good book in a couple of days. But there is so much in this book that you have to take your time to really comprehend it and get the good stuff out of it. Marisha's writing technique is totally unique with her hund More...

7 comments like (19 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2007

oriana rated it:

Let me start by saying that I did like this book. I did. Marisha Pessl is probably too smart for her own good, but that's never stopped me before (see David Foster Wallace et al.)

That said, as with most over-intelectualized writings, I had trouble getting close to her, to her work. There's such a lot of time spent obfuscating, demonstrating how clever she is, developing stacked metaphors and allusions, that the story can be hard to get lost in. You are constantly reminded that you More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 17, 2007

nina rated it:

I read several good reviews of this book, but none of them said that it was a blatant rip-off of Donna Tartt's "The Secret History". It's about a teenager and her not-quite successful academic father. Now, I'm the daughter of a not-quite successful academic father, so I'm a good judge of the territory, and this just doesn't make the grade. The stylistic tic adopted by the narrator is to copiously footnote her story with real and imaginary books. However, she doesn't footnote correc More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2008

Gwenn rated it:

several people I know and like loved this book. I'm about halfway through and I hate it so far. it's sooo wes andersonish, a tale of WASPS who think they're clever (and are, too clever by half!) it's filled with nice words, and some of them are put together well, but I really don't see the big deal. except, oh right-the author is young, and goodlooking. the cover is eye-catching. Did I mention I hate it? I might even have to stop reading (if I could, I'd italicize that.) I almost never giv More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2007

O'Donovan rated it:

This book ... wow, this book.

I read it last fall and I'm still thinking about it. A fantastically beautiful, brilliant and clever book that doesn't seem like a mystery until suddenly, the whole thing unravels in your hand.

Unravels in the best possible way, that is.

And the heroine, Blue Van de Meer, has a great voice and the footnoting and hilariously in-character pedagogy are priceless.

It bogs toward the end, but every drop of ink in this book is More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2011

Simeon rated it:

This is an excerpt of what is apparently Blue's father speaking:

"Always have everything you say exquisitely annotated, and, where possible, provide staggering Visual Aids, because, trust me, there will always be some clown sitting in the back—somewhere by the radiator—who will raise his fat, flipperlike hand and complain, 'No, no, you've got it all wrong."

This is taken at random, but Pessl's every sentence, even her father's words, have the exact same tint More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2008

Erica rated it:

What have I learned? I've learned that apparently it's possible for a large number of fawning reviewers to confuse "pretentious" with "intelligent". I very likely got what I deserved when I chose to ignore a clear warning, namely the so called "Glossary of Terms" inside the dustjacket which introduced our 16 year old heroine, Blue van Meer, as "a brainy, deadpan, preternaturally erudite girl who...has a head crammed full of literary, scientific, and philosophic More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2008

brian rated it:

To me a good book can be a book that simply tries too hard. This is such a book. What I mean is that the author generously entrusts the reader with everything she has, lays it all out on the table. Or perhaps what I'm trying to say is that Pessl reaches way beyond expectations and yet you cannot help but bask in the brilliance as the aforementioned endeavor blazes past you.

Blue van Meer is the brilliance. She is a mix of Oscar Wao (or really Diaz) and Juno (Yes, the movie. And I ap More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2008

Susan rated it:

This may be the best book I've read all year, which isn't to say it's perfect. In fact, there are about a million reasons to hate it that most of my fellow reviewers have already touched upon: the gorgeous young It Girl-looking author for one, or the denseness of the writing (some have called it overwritten), the pretentiousness of it all. And yet, for sheer impact, I don't think I could come up with a single thing to top it. This book really gets in your head and doesn't leave it the same again More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2007

Miss. rated it:

this is a book that has struck me dumb jealous with writer's block. i really urge all my bookworm friends to buy and figuratively eat this book TODAY. it's like Eggers meets Nabokav, which is a great merger because they both cancel out any negative traits (V.N.-excessive geographic plot turns and obscure adjectives, D.E.- too much creed in The School Of I Am Too Clever) and enhances the positive (which, I think, are the same as the negative).

when i read Life Of Pi (I think Kucher agr More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2007

Rory rated it:

i didn't really read this. i read about 30 pages before announcing (to the book's cover), "I HATE YOU, BOOK. SHUT UP!" anyone who wants more details as to why i despise the book that everyone else is raving about might need to buy me a drink first.

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2007

Jessica rated it:

let me get one thing clear, before i talk about how this book made me happy, how i became friends with the characters, how sad i was to see it end, how engrossed i was from the first word: it is clever. it is precious. and it precocious. it may be too darling for many people to handle, and i can understand that and wouldnt argue if one of those many people is you. but what i would say to you if we were having a conversation along those lines is: did you not care about blue? were you not genuinel More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2007

Anna rated it:

from the little i'd heard of this book, i was sort of "meh" about reading it, since it sounded like it was going to be pretentious, but i read my dear friend laurie's review and then fortuitously spied this book on our shelf (my roommate owns a copy).

reasons i liked it:
- i identified with the narrator (well-read, extremely smart, moves around a lot, has a crazy father)
- lots of wordplay that somehow works even though a lot of it is very over-the-top (at one poi More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2007

El rated it:

Blue van Meer is a smart high school student on her way to Harvard who has spent most of her life alone with her father after a tragic accident took her mother's life early in Blue's childhood. Her father, a professor of political science, moves across the country to teach at small colleges for short periods of time, allowing Blue the opportunity to grow up as somewhat of a vagabond. By the time they reach the destination of which the book is about, Blue is unlike most kids her age. Her life More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2007

SKB rated it:

Her writing style was infuriating to me--so smug, as though she felt just so very clever for coming up with all those similes. I should have made a drinking game out of reading this book, because if I'd had a sip of liquor every time she used an outlandish simile that was totally off the mark, I'd be too drunk to type now. Now, some of her similes were extremely clever and spot-on--but maybe 2/3 of them were eye-roll inducing. Also, she had an annoying tendency to assign action verbs to inanimat More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2009

Annie rated it:

I got this book for Christmas and absolutely loved it. It was quirky and clever and EXTREMELY well written. Every sentence was a gem and I was sad when I was done with it because I kept wanting to read it. The characters are alive and seem to stick with you. I found myself thinking about the book during the day when I wasn't reading it. So why only 4 stars and not 5? The last bit was rushed I thought and ended abruptly for me. I almost gave it 5, though.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2007

Eric rated it:

what the hell? this was one of the most hyped books of the last few years. i picked it up in hardback, dying to plunge into it. i kept waiting for some semblance of a narrative to take hold. instead i got a very annoying narrator (who i can't help but think is a thinly veiled pessl) who made it very difficult for me to continue reading. it may have just been me (apparently others feel the same way, however), but life is too short to force yourself through books this annoying to feel in touc More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2008

Kathy rated it:

My friend Stacey loaned me this book after raving about it and telling me she thought I would really enjoy it. I approached it with skepticism since I can't trust her judgment since she said Kushiel's Dart was fantastic and I couldn't get past the first 50 pages.

I have to give props to her intuition on this one, though. The story revolves around Blue Van Meer and the events of her Senior year in high school. Traumatic events as she discovers a favorite teacher hung in the woods. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Malbadeen rated it:

the book was fine, the story interesting enough but the thing that lingers with me the most is Pessl's over use of simile. By the end I was rolling my eyes and wondering, "seriously, again?!" out loud everytime I heard the cue "like" or "as if".
Her writing was LIKE a magician showing off his favorite trick again and again.
AS IF that trick were a rabbit in a hat, different colors, variation in size but in the end just a rabbit being pulled from a hat over a

3 comments like (1 person liked it)