polly_chapman's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
esther_a_'s review against another edition
3.75
Beautiful prose and many times very poetic.
I felt some parts were a bit fragmented and the switch in narration for the second part took me a moment to adjust.
Overall it’s clearly a clever book but I couldn’t fully immerse myself within the plot.
plisetskys's review against another edition
3.0
3/5 stars
"We define a man by what he admires, what raises him."
I thought I would like this way more than I did. The story sounded so interesting, yet I grew confused and bored as I read on. The timing was sort of unclear to me and the second part of the book completely threw me off.
What I liked the most about this book, and what made me rate it a good 3 stars, was that there were so many quotes that I completely adored.
I definitely wouldn't read this again but I don't know, I don't regret reading it.
"We define a man by what he admires, what raises him."
I thought I would like this way more than I did. The story sounded so interesting, yet I grew confused and bored as I read on. The timing was sort of unclear to me and the second part of the book completely threw me off.
What I liked the most about this book, and what made me rate it a good 3 stars, was that there were so many quotes that I completely adored.
I definitely wouldn't read this again but I don't know, I don't regret reading it.
msvenner's review against another edition
4.0
This is a beautiful book. On language alone, I would give it five stars. As a narrative, I would only give it three. The book is intentionally fragmented, as Jakob himself is fragmented from horrific experiences during the war. He is haunted by those he has lost and must learn to be the survivor. Jakob's story, while sometimes confusing and scattered would stand alone but the addition of a second narrator, with much the same voice and inflection as the first, dilutes the novel. I spent much of my time wondering if this second narrator is somehow connected to Jakob's lost family. Given the outstanding reviews, I wanted more story to hold this together.
atlantisblauw's review against another edition
4.0
I read it at uni, but didn't like it. I tried again and liked it better this time but I don't think I'll ever read it again. It was tough to read, very slow, both because of the theme - war trauma - and the style. It's very poetic, but sometimes the metaphors are strange and the endless descriptions of nature are just too much for me.
sampena16's review against another edition
5.0
"Find a way to make beauty necessary; find a way to make necessity beautiful."
"Alone on the roof those nights, it's not surprising that, of all the characters in Athos's tales of geologists and explorers, cartographers and navigators, I felt compassion for the stars themselves. Aching towards us for millennia though we are blind to their signals until it's too late, starlight only the white breath of an old cry. Sending their white messages millions of years, only to be crumpled up by the waves."
Filled with beautiful and profound statements like the above quotes, Anne Michaels's highly lyrical prose brings the reader into Jakob Beer's world of stories that are shaped by loss, trauma, and displacement. However, Michaels proves that redemption can be found in language and poetry, that memory staves of absence and preserves lives, and that people can be saved from the horror of the past by the people and places surrounding them.
"Alone on the roof those nights, it's not surprising that, of all the characters in Athos's tales of geologists and explorers, cartographers and navigators, I felt compassion for the stars themselves. Aching towards us for millennia though we are blind to their signals until it's too late, starlight only the white breath of an old cry. Sending their white messages millions of years, only to be crumpled up by the waves."
Filled with beautiful and profound statements like the above quotes, Anne Michaels's highly lyrical prose brings the reader into Jakob Beer's world of stories that are shaped by loss, trauma, and displacement. However, Michaels proves that redemption can be found in language and poetry, that memory staves of absence and preserves lives, and that people can be saved from the horror of the past by the people and places surrounding them.
tlm1964's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
whatcarlaread's review against another edition
More interested in writing pretty sentences than characters. Hard to connect. Feel guilty cause Claire gave it to me