gorecki's review against another edition
3.0
A splinter is a foreign body that enters through your skin, nestles in under it and aches. It’s a sharp piece of wood, a glass fragment, a cutting shock of ice or the loss of a loved one. And once it settles in, it spreads pain like winter moving through your blood. That’s what I got out of this book: the way you lose a loved one, and then another one, and then another, and there’s this winter that spreads across your body and freezes you solid and cold and detached, and you’re lost in the white wilderness and can’t find your way. Even in the heat of summer in Montana. A splinter aches, but the cold numbs it down, and then it just becomes comfortable.
I wish I loved it more, but it confused me and didn’t speak to me on many levels. I don’t know if this was the intention and if it was meant to show how detached you can grow from other people, how you can lose the ability to understand and appreciate social interactions, but every time the narrator met or spoke with other characters, I could not understand what is happening or why or where it’s going. Every time he was alone with nature, though, the book just bloomed and blossomed and winter was gone.
It’s a bitter beauty, this. I don’t know if I would recommend it, or I probably would if you were a certain kind of reader (I don’t yet know what that kind would be), but I found it and bought it as a recommendation from Louise Erdrich on a blog post she wrote years ago, and I am grateful and definitely planning to read more James Welch so there’s that.
I wish I loved it more, but it confused me and didn’t speak to me on many levels. I don’t know if this was the intention and if it was meant to show how detached you can grow from other people, how you can lose the ability to understand and appreciate social interactions, but every time the narrator met or spoke with other characters, I could not understand what is happening or why or where it’s going. Every time he was alone with nature, though, the book just bloomed and blossomed and winter was gone.
It’s a bitter beauty, this. I don’t know if I would recommend it, or I probably would if you were a certain kind of reader (I don’t yet know what that kind would be), but I found it and bought it as a recommendation from Louise Erdrich on a blog post she wrote years ago, and I am grateful and definitely planning to read more James Welch so there’s that.
wynnepei's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
emsprobablyreading's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
shanviolinlove's review against another edition
4.0
Thoughtful, elegant. Welch takes the time to invite you into the natural world, paying attention to three mallards that cut across the sky, to the feel of heat or winter chill on the skin, the sounds and smells that surround his narrator in the country and in the city.
davidpatricx's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ben_miller's review against another edition
3.0
The dialogue is great; the descriptive writing a little more uneven, sometimes slipping into that dreaded vein known as "Bad Hemingway." (Something along these lines: The mountains were green. It was cold. I was fourteen then. The mountains were green and cold and we felt good.)
The story is slack, largely without tension or stakes, though a sense of hurt and emotional damage pervades it, lending some weight to the proceedings. I didn't mind the meandering plot, because individual scenes were handled so well. It didn't really feel like a novel, though, more like a 177 page short story. It has an impact at the end, but I'm not sure if it is as much as the author wanted.
The story is slack, largely without tension or stakes, though a sense of hurt and emotional damage pervades it, lending some weight to the proceedings. I didn't mind the meandering plot, because individual scenes were handled so well. It didn't really feel like a novel, though, more like a 177 page short story. It has an impact at the end, but I'm not sure if it is as much as the author wanted.
beccaalina's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
james7634's review against another edition
3.25
Story follows a native man as he travels Montana confronting his relationship with family culture history and sense of purpose. It’s written well and without much sentimentality. I liked it’s matter of fact narrative.
gloweyyyy's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
From introduction by Louise Erdrich: “The consciousness, the eye, the beholder and observer, is present and absent. His inner life is revealed through what he chooses to notice. Still, because Welch rarely allows his protagonist to show an emotional reaction to what occurs in his life, this novel is sometimes misunderstood as a work about alienation. To me, the absence of personal affect in the narrator is more about the modesty of his despair.
To refuse to feel is to refuse to be a victim, it is true. But in the end, all you really own is your indifference.”
shannonli1026's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0