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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/746094.Gob_s_Grief_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Gob's Grief: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1177968409m/746094.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/746094.Gob_s_Grief_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Gob's Grief: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12177.Chris_Adrian">Chris Adrian</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2125271?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars Talking about my reactions to Gob's Grief would probably be about as difficult to talk about if I tried to review a book that, well, really I'm going to have to review also now called Weiland, or the Transformation and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist. For Weiland, it was one of the first books I had read in a long, long time that just struck a chord in me at times where there passages and thoughts expressed that were so chillingly like certain perspectives of my own that I often find difficulty in expressing thoroughly, or honestly...and this was a few years ago. Gob's Grief explores, for me, the grief of the living for the dead, and the imagined grief of the dead in their longing for life, in such a profound way...profound in the raw purity of the grief, and elegant, and bizarre in the characters' obsessions with grief. 
 
 Also, let me point out something that I am a fan of: Gob's Grief is like Deadwood (the HBO television show). It takes an historical period, and notable historical figures, and weaves them into the largely true historical context in a fictional and fantastic (only fantastic in that the writing for both Gob's Grief and Deadwood is almost too good) way that brings the era to life, the historical figures to life, and the fictional figures to life on a Shakespearean level of literary authenticity. What exactly does that mean? I'm not sure really, all I'm trying to say is that Walt Whitman and Victoria Woodhull are characters in Gob's Grief. I'm sure most anyone reading this would know who Walt Whitman is. Honestly the only reason I knew who Victoria C. Woodhull was before I read Gob's Grief is because of Women's Studies classes. Here, I wikipedia'ed her for you:
 
 Victoria Claflin Woodhull (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927) was an American suffragist (see Suffragette) who was publicized in Gilded Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement in the 19th century. She became a colorful and notorious symbol for women's rights, free love, and labor reforms. The authorship of her speeches and articles is disputed. Some contend that many of her speeches on these subjects were not written by Woodhull herself, but her role as a representative of these movements was nonetheless powerful and controversial. She is probably most famous for her declaration to run for the United States Presidency in 1872.
 
 But yes, Walt and Victoria...and they're amazingly well done by Mr. Adrian. You can tell he not only did his homework on researching historical figures, and the civil war, but devoted a huge portion of his imagination to bringing them to life in his mind in a way that few people are able to do with characters whether purely fictitious or based in reality. 
 
 Basically, if I go to grad school for English ever, I will want to write three doctoral theses...one on The Interpreters, by Wole Soyinka. One on all the interconnected themes, imagery, motifs, ideas, etc. in all the works as a whole by David Mitchell (Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas, etc.), and the third would be on the imaginative historical fiction method and it's effectiveness in exploring war, death, grief, and the nature of existence in the civil war era as a reflective device of post-modern/post-industrial/high technology times we currently exist in. Ok, all that was kind of bullshit, and took some coming up with, and I have no intentions of pursuing a doctorate in English or anything else, but I think this book is as good as they come, really.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/68467?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Andy's review
rating:
bookshelves: readownedloved

Talking about my reactions to Gob's Grief would probably be about as difficult to talk about if I tried to review a book that, well, really I'm going to have to review also now called Weiland, or the Transformation and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist. For Weiland, it was one of the first books I had read in a long, long time that just struck a chord in me at times where there passages and thoughts expressed that were so chillingly like certain perspectives of my own that I often find difficulty in expressing thoroughly, or honestly...and this was a few years ago. Gob's Grief explores, for me, the grief of the living for the dead, and the imagined grief of the dead in their longing for life, in such a profound way...profound in the raw purity of the grief, and elegant, and bizarre in the characters' obsessions with grief.

Also, let me point out something that I am a fan of: Gob's Grief is like Deadwood (the HBO television show). It takes an historical period, and notable histor...more Talking about my reactions to Gob's Grief would probably be about as difficult to talk about if I tried to review a book that, well, really I'm going to have to review also now called Weiland, or the Transformation and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist. For Weiland, it was one of the first books I had read in a long, long time that just struck a chord in me at times where there passages and thoughts expressed that were so chillingly like certain perspectives of my own that I often find difficulty in expressing thoroughly, or honestly...and this was a few years ago. Gob's Grief explores, for me, the grief of the living for the dead, and the imagined grief of the dead in their longing for life, in such a profound way...profound in the raw purity of the grief, and elegant, and bizarre in the characters' obsessions with grief.

Also, let me point out something that I am a fan of: Gob's Grief is like Deadwood (the HBO television show). It takes an historical period, and notable historical figures, and weaves them into the largely true historical context in a fictional and fantastic (only fantastic in that the writing for both Gob's Grief and Deadwood is almost too good) way that brings the era to life, the historical figures to life, and the fictional figures to life on a Shakespearean level of literary authenticity. What exactly does that mean? I'm not sure really, all I'm trying to say is that Walt Whitman and Victoria Woodhull are characters in Gob's Grief. I'm sure most anyone reading this would know who Walt Whitman is. Honestly the only reason I knew who Victoria C. Woodhull was before I read Gob's Grief is because of Women's Studies classes. Here, I wikipedia'ed her for you:

Victoria Claflin Woodhull (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927) was an American suffragist (see Suffragette) who was publicized in Gilded Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement in the 19th century. She became a colorful and notorious symbol for women's rights, free love, and labor reforms. The authorship of her speeches and articles is disputed. Some contend that many of her speeches on these subjects were not written by Woodhull herself, but her role as a representative of these movements was nonetheless powerful and controversial. She is probably most famous for her declaration to run for the United States Presidency in 1872.

But yes, Walt and Victoria...and they're amazingly well done by Mr. Adrian. You can tell he not only did his homework on researching historical figures, and the civil war, but devoted a huge portion of his imagination to bringing them to life in his mind in a way that few people are able to do with characters whether purely fictitious or based in reality.

Basically, if I go to grad school for English ever, I will want to write three doctoral theses...one on The Interpreters, by Wole Soyinka. One on all the interconnected themes, imagery, motifs, ideas, etc. in all the works as a whole by David Mitchell (Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas, etc.), and the third would be on the imaginative historical fiction method and it's effectiveness in exploring war, death, grief, and the nature of existence in the civil war era as a reflective device of post-modern/post-industrial/high technology times we currently exist in. Ok, all that was kind of bullshit, and took some coming up with, and I have no intentions of pursuing a doctorate in English or anything else, but I think this book is as good as they come, really....less

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