Debbie
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This is a book I would never have picked up if it hadn't been my book club choice - and that's a good thing about book clubs.
The first hundred, or even two hundred, pages I slogged through... . but people kept telling me it would be worth it, and I will concede that they were right. When Russell finally, gradually reveals what she's been getting at, it's quite fascinating. The cross-cultural lessons of how we do not understand what we see if we interpret it through the lens of our own culture and how we inadvertently change the dynamic of a culture the moment we interact with it gave us a low to chew on at book club last night.
That said, this book needed more editing! It worked best at the points it became a page turner, but the lead up was tedious. The characters never seemed real to me, and their elaborate back stories seemed besides the point. ]]>
This book is way more than a clever retelling of Lear. Smiley's description of Iowa and the small towns and the farms rivals the work of (my personal favorite) Willa Cather. I completely loved this book! ]]>
This book revisits the characters from The Rain God, but doesn't tie up any loose ends. I really liked The Rain God, but this one seems a bit less incisive. There are some memorable scenes, but not as many. ]]>
I listened to the audio version of this book - and from what I read online, this probably made it more bearable.
There were polished parts of writing that I really liked, but I ended up feeling that I had to suspend too much disbelief to make this book work.
I particularly disliked the Grandmother's "Letter" to Oscar, and disliked much of the grandfather's narrative too. It's a provocative idea to link the 9/11 attacks to the Dresden bombings, but I I felt the author struggled to reach the voice of those two characters - and wondered if they were added simply to savlage a different piece of writing that Safran Foer had been unable to complete.
But Oscar's story - somehow - some of the time - worked for me. Again, I don't think the voice was always authentic, but it got closer. ]]>
On one level this is yet another baby boomer memoir about growing up in the suburbs - but I'm a baby boomer myself - and I grew up in a suburb.
We baby boomers are The Greatest Generation (of Navel Gazers), and each memoir has a twist that makes it interesting. I enjoyed reading about growing up Australia, and about the quest (pre-Facebook) for finding where they are now.
The book reads easily, and is never dull - but at times it felt more written as she thought it than organized. ]]>