editrixie's review against another edition
5.0
Can't wait for his new book to be published this spring, so went back to the book I've re-read the least.
alisonvh's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Just a bunch of middle-class white people who are miserable despite not having any real problems. They cheat on each other and treat each other like shit because they're miserable, and the cycle of pointless misery continues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Ableism
Minor: Alcoholism and Racism
jamiereadthis's review
2.0
I’m not even sure why I disliked this, except it tapped into what I like to call the Mad Men paradox: intellectually excellent, but no joy, no bristling dark energy to capture the imagination.
(Also, for what it’s worth, I first read the story “The Bad Thing” in Jeffrey Eugenide’s collection My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead, and it stood out as one of the better. I had this book on my shelf before I read that one, but didn’t realize until reading it now that it opened with that same story. Again, it was one of the better ones. So… yeah.)
(Also, for what it’s worth, I first read the story “The Bad Thing” in Jeffrey Eugenide’s collection My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead, and it stood out as one of the better. I had this book on my shelf before I read that one, but didn’t realize until reading it now that it opened with that same story. Again, it was one of the better ones. So… yeah.)
jodiwilldare's review
4.0
When I think about just how much I enjoyed reading David Gates’ The Wonders of the Invisible World, I have to laugh. I got the book completely by mistake. I mooched it thinking it was a collection by David Schickler who wrote Kissing in Manhattan, another book I loved.
I find it difficult to write about books that I liked. It’s hard because I often come up, “I liked it because it was good” which is just about the lamest most unhelpful thing to say. It also doesn’t help that I recently read Salon’s bunch of bullshit about the death of literary criticism.
Read the rest on iwilldare.com
I find it difficult to write about books that I liked. It’s hard because I often come up, “I liked it because it was good” which is just about the lamest most unhelpful thing to say. It also doesn’t help that I recently read Salon’s bunch of bullshit about the death of literary criticism.
Read the rest on iwilldare.com
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