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Jun 25, 2014
Laurel Bradshaw
rated it
it was ok
Shelves:
chunky-450,
ghosts,
daytimers-book-club,
coming-of-age,
wisconsin,
dogs,
16th-century,
hamlet,
literary-fiction
I don't quite know what to make of this book. It has some nice literary prose. The author can certainly paint pictures with words. But plotwise I thought it was tedious in the extreme. For a book that is supposed to be a retelling of Hamlet, it had nothing of Shakespeare's eloquent examination of what it means to be human. Too much was said in the way of endless details about dog training, and sign language, and what Edgar stole when he was surviving in the woods, and how he chose names for the
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I thought this book was amazing. Wasn't ready to like it. Oprah book, best seller. I'm too snooty I guess. But it was extraordinary. The writing is beautiful. The evocation of place is so precise. It helped that I read it in a mountain wilderness area. Oh, and Almondine's chapters. They are beautiful. I will read them to my fifth grade students. The fact that the story is a retelling of Hamlet is pretty wonderful too.
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Maybe what was so special about this book was hidden somewhere inside of Wroblewski's lack of explanation. There was just way too much left open for interpretation throughout this book—not enough concreteness for my liking. And as for the notoriously bad ending... It wasn't THAT bad, but certainly lacked the creativity that I was hoping for. There were a few colorful characters that made the book more interesting than it could have been (thank God). In addition, this story was filled with some r
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I got to the middle of the book and just as something bad was about to happen, I found myself thinking "I just don't care." So I took it back to the library.
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Good bits of writing, if not so well-constructed.
Powerful and gripping. I know that it had some of what my bookclub calls flora and fauna (extra STUFF) but I thought it added to the story, not took away, because it built the characters and helped you understand who they were. I had to keep putting the book down at the end because I was afraid of what would happen; I knew what was going to happen but I couldn't stop it.
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Hefty book, but it reads so easily. I didn't want this one to end. Really human characters; good story; beautiful and vivid writing. Could see this as a movie. Highly recommended!!
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Mar 15, 2013
Donna
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library,
audiobooks
4.5 stars.
Oct 02, 2008
Sandra
marked it as online-electronic
Mar 14, 2009
Janae
marked it as to-read
Apr 12, 2009
Rhiannon
marked it as to-read
Apr 15, 2009
Lorna DH
marked it as to-read
Apr 28, 2009
Lori
marked it as to-read
Jun 08, 2009
Peze
marked it as to-read
Aug 08, 2009
Marius van Blerck
marked it as to-read
Dec 09, 2009
Anna
marked it as to-read
Mar 23, 2017
Tara
added it
