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To the End of the Land
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2022/3 Discussion for David Grossman's To the End of the Land
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Jan
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rated it 5 stars
Feb 20, 2022 09:03PM
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this was an excellent book, but sad of course. most of it is a dialogue as the protagonist and another walk the trail through most of Israel. I was very affected by it and actually liked it more than the other 2-3 books I have read by Grossman.
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Thanks, Shelley. Very encouraging. :)
Here's a summary of my review of To the End of the Land. I can't remember any time in the last 20 years that I have failed to finish reading a book even if it's slow and boring. Yet I have to report I did not finish “To the End of the Land.” I was greatly disappointed in this book. The reviews here are largely 4 and 5 stars so I was eager to read it. But I soon felt like I was reading “Waiting for Godot,” plodding along with the two main characters, waiting for something interesting to happen. I’m in my 8th decade and have lot of other books on my “to read” list, so I gave up. In brief, I found the book tedious, devoid of plot and action—interminable and repetitious. No even a 1-star.
Books are subjective and sometimes I read glowing reviews of books I think are medicare and poorly written at best and wonder what the reviewers see in them, Sometimes I almost envy those readers as it leads me to conclude that I must have unreasonable expectations. I rarely leave a harsh review because I respect that the author put a lot into the research and writing and managed to get published which is worth a lot.HOWEVER, in this case I have more trouble understanding a scathing review of a book that I found very moving.. More often than not I agree with Maggie's reviews but in this case not. I found that very soon I got into the protagonists's head about the increasing tension and desperate belief that by isolating himself he can avoid hearing potentially terrible news. His walk of the trail which allowed him and his walking partner to ruminate about their lives and fears was not action based it is tru, but drew me in with empathy and pain for what they were facing. So goes to show different strokes for different folks.
Shelly, well said. It’s hard to fathom why an author would go on an online book forum and trash another author’s work. It’s quite disheartening and certainly won’t stop me from reading it.
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So...I'm going to keep an eye on posts under this discussion topic; it costs nothing to be nice.
Sometimes we don't recognize how a tone of a post comes across to a reader.
Whether you loved a book, liked a book, or simply said- the book just wasn't for you, this should not deter others from reading it. There is no law I know of that states we must finish a book we started.
I read this book for my synagogue's book club in 2019. The reviews were mixed--some people said the sadness and journey of the protagonist, Ora, resonated with them. Others (myself included) said they didn't care for Ora or her journey. I didn't really care for the love triangle. I gave it 2/5 stars. My review: "Didn't care about anyone in this book or their journey/relationships to each other. Just could not get into it."
I have not read any other Grossman books.
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Melissa, what would you say came out of your synagogue's book club discussion? What were the benefits even given the mixed opinions?
Jan wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I read this book for my synagogue's book club in 2019. The reviews were mixed--some people said the sadness and journey of the protagonist, Ora, resonated with them. Others (myself ..."I would say we had a good discussion about love and loss. We talked about how this was an "Israeli" novel versus and "American" novel. How the perspective of someone who had served in the army in Israel (or not) would affect how the novel was read. It was a while ago, so I am not sure I really remember the discussion all that well.
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Thanks, Melissa. Just what I was wondering.
I have checked this book out from the library but has been sitting in my stack with all the competition for a week. Now I'm resolved to crack it. Nothing like a little controversy!
I am almost on page 200 (approx. 1/3 of my hardcover edition). I find it very difficult to keep track of all the characters and plot lines. This book could have benefitted with maps, lists of characters. Still, I intend to finish it.
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Judith, I understand how that could inhibit your read; it can become annoying especially when reading for pleasure, many of us dont want to work so hard getting through a book.
But I'm curious to know if the story for you so far has conjured up any emotions; familiar or otherwise?
When reading the synopsis years ago, I remember my apprehension and put it down for a few months.
I knew I would take on some of the anxiety from my friend. ( see below)
A close friend's son was in the army for maybe only about
six months before her nightmares and day-fears began; rightly so. That led into unplugging phones and , she and her husband stopped sitting on their front porch having coffee as they habitually had done for years. Because of the time difference, chatting with her became
only a temporary diversion until the physical illnesses developed.
Omg, this was only from the synopsis.
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I can't remember any time in the last 20 years that I have failed to finish reading a book even if it's slow and boring. Yet..."
Maggie, I had to laugh when I came across this quote from the novelist Robert Harris in Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac the other day:
“It is perfectly legitimate to write novels which are essentially prose poems, but in the end, I think, a novel is like a car, and if you buy a car and grow flowers in it, you’re forgetting that the car is designed to take you somewhere else.”
It reminded me of your critique, for whatever reason, even though I've just begun the book and may not think the quote applies to it.
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So what does this mean?
If we feel different about the book, is it a reproof of those who feel the other way?
Is it polarized -- one way or the other -- or could our reactions be on a continuum? Maybe for some books the reaction is one way or the other: it either works for you or it doesn't
Why? Maybe in that case, why would be a legitimate question. Why does this book work for you? Or not?
When we start to write a comment that rule pops up about "for the sake of heaven." We may not be all that much better than anybody else on handling conflict, but at least we have it in our philosophy!
It's good, isn't it, that we like all different sorts of books? Thank goodness that different ones of us like different shapes of bodies, so the same goes for books. :D
I was thinking maybe to start a general discussion on "bookish disagreements," but for now brought it up here.
Stacey B wrote: "Judith wrote: "I am almost on page 200 (approx. 1/3 of my hardcover edition). I find it very difficult to keep track of all the characters and plot lines. This book could have benefitted with maps,..."Stacey B wrote: "Judith wrote: "I am almost on page 200 (approx. 1/3 of my hardcover edition). I find it very difficult to keep track of all the characters and plot lines. This book could have benefitted with maps,..."
Stacey B, I am now almost on page 525. It does stir up emotions, although I don't find reading about certain bodily functions. Also tough trying to figure out who are Jewish/Arabic/Mixture of both.
Please excuse typos.
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I had that dilemma along with a few other questions. Finding
the answers, I perused about five articles which put together as a
cocktail gave me the explanations while still reading the book.
There is one from Grossman himself. My heart broke reading it;
yet it did not affect my rating.
so interesting, I am usually in the position of being stingy with my stars and thinking many other people are profligate with their 4 and 5 stars. I read this book some years ago and gave it 5 stars which for me is quite rare. I guess it just hit people differently.
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Shelley,
I just read some reviews that were rated from five stars down from here and Amazon. I was curious to see different viewpoints.
The stars are all over the place, high and low. Not as consistent as I assumed. I'm not sure why, but I tend to trust more reviews from GR's than Amazon.
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I actually read this in February. It was my second book by the author. What I liked how the author showed us the grief parents experience when their child is in the service. I also like the idea of walking as a way of dealing with the emotional tension. I did only rate it a 3 star. I think it was a book that you had to work at reading.
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Sadly, still haven't gotten back to it. I hope to but at the moment can't do it. (May have to persuade my other book club to read it!) Thanks for your comment, Kristel, and for your energy in keeping on reading it. That itself might be like a long hike! :)
Would love to hear from others as well. You would be helping me keep thinking about it along with sharing your own views.
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Had to start over.
I was able to put this on audio. It works surprisingly well in audio. Of course, I still have the paperback to follow along. It's moving along and have almost gotten back to where I had to leave off: p. 187!
I won't be deterred again. On audio I can listen when I wouldn't have been able to read anyway, such as while going through exercise routine.
When I was looking at what to put in the audio slot that opened up, I realized this was the one. David Grossman will give me something valuable.
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By any chance, does anybody here who read it remember that quote, how it goes & where it is?
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