sisteray's review against another edition
5.0
Flat out beautiful. This is a deep examination into grief without the intention of just being depressing. An insightful look at feeling lost to the world.
Surreal and magical. Despite being overly indulgent it never drags and keep a quick lilt pulling the reader farther into this "world".
If you are into dreamy postmodern fiction, this is as good as it gets.
Surreal and magical. Despite being overly indulgent it never drags and keep a quick lilt pulling the reader farther into this "world".
If you are into dreamy postmodern fiction, this is as good as it gets.
shawcrit's review against another edition
3.0
The ending - that is , the point at which the long sentence running throughout merges with the "main" text - is absolutely gorgeous. Although I enjoyed this, I think the metaphors should have been reined in a little bit; I can only deal with so much magic realism centered around creepy lakes as birth canals, red and blue juxtaposed to represent either gender, emotional states or menstrual flows, etc. I love all of those things, but I find it slightly irritating when male writers especially over-use images like menstrual blood and birth canals and lesbianism, etc. to produce a text that feels like its trying way too hard to be a feminist text. That said, Erickson is a great writer and I love how the different stories and characters intertwined. So many heart-breaking emotional missed connections.
deadwolfbones's review against another edition
3.0
Alternately brilliant and frustrating. Erickson does some amazing stuff in this novel, both narratively and textually, including a stunning 230 page-long single-line sentence that completes and mirrors the text that surrounds it. But on the other hand, his writing is occasionally completely over the top and self-indulgent and he really needs to get a better rein on his metaphors (or needed to, anyway--Zeroville doesn't have this problem). I really loved the way he's able to abruptly shift viewpoints and introduce important new characters without regard to conventional narrative techniques. As close to a 4th-person writing style as I've ever encountered. Worth reading, for sure.
sethsam's review against another edition
3.0
A woman rows to the center of a mysterious lake which envelopes Los Angeles and leaves her child behind in a gondola. Or does she? Is she a woman? What woman is she? Does she also have a daughter? Is her son God? Is the father of her son a hero? Does this book have a point? No. No it does not. Save yourself from this pointless, maddening (yet compelling enough to finish) book.
5wamp_creature's review against another edition
3.0
Set aside the time to pay attention to this book.
strawberrylane's review against another edition
4.0
Mesmerizing and strange. It reminded me of a David Lynch movie - spiraling realities, dreamlike cadence, and stories with flexible interpretations. There was a chunk of pages towards the end that floundered, but mostly it's tightly and beautifully written. If you like literature that experiments a bit, both in narrative and structure, I'd definitely recommend this book.
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