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gquartin's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sophie_elyse's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
thedogmother's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this one. A fantastic reminder that an amazing story doesn’t need to be 300+ pages. Less really can be more as it is in the case of Tin Man. That ending was brilliant. Wow tears.
I did prefer Ellis’s parts better. I think we got more depth of emotion from him than we did Michael. His sadness was palpable and beautifully expressed in lines like this: “Everywhere he went he knew they had gone before.” What a beautiful and true sentiment about how our own memories haunt the places around us. Ellis’s Oxford was imbued with this bittersweetness.
Loved this line from Michael about the life that could have been: “And I remember thinking, how cruel it was that our plans were out there somewhere. Another version of our future, out there somewhere, in perpetual orbit.” Who hasn’t felt this way? So much is just one choice or chance away from being possible or impossible.
Most of all, though, I felt Ellis’s longing for things to stay the same forever because they are so good and sweet. At their backyard campout bachelor/ette party his toast asks “for nothing to change.” But of course everything does. He captures beautifully the fleeting interlude between the moment when everything was still the same and the moment that everything is lost forever: “That was the world he inhabited between the time of it happening and the time of him knowing. A brief window, not yet shattered, when music still stirred, when beer still tasted good, when dreams could still be hatched at the sight of a plane careering across a perfect summer sky.”
Overall, really fell in love with Ellis’s character. Has me curious about the rest of Winman’s work.
I did prefer Ellis’s parts better. I think we got more depth of emotion from him than we did Michael. His sadness was palpable and beautifully expressed in lines like this: “Everywhere he went he knew they had gone before.” What a beautiful and true sentiment about how our own memories haunt the places around us. Ellis’s Oxford was imbued with this bittersweetness.
Loved this line from Michael about the life that could have been: “And I remember thinking, how cruel it was that our plans were out there somewhere. Another version of our future, out there somewhere, in perpetual orbit.” Who hasn’t felt this way? So much is just one choice or chance away from being possible or impossible.
Most of all, though, I felt Ellis’s longing for things to stay the same forever because they are so good and sweet. At their backyard campout bachelor/ette party his toast asks “for nothing to change.” But of course everything does. He captures beautifully the fleeting interlude between the moment when everything was still the same and the moment that everything is lost forever: “That was the world he inhabited between the time of it happening and the time of him knowing. A brief window, not yet shattered, when music still stirred, when beer still tasted good, when dreams could still be hatched at the sight of a plane careering across a perfect summer sky.”
Overall, really fell in love with Ellis’s character. Has me curious about the rest of Winman’s work.
casebounder's review against another edition
4.0
*Update two years later: this story still maintains an elusive quality on a reread. I can visit and have an experience but I can’t fully encompass it. Friggin enigmatic. It’s an experience of connection, friendship and desire, melancholy and deep empathy, abuse and loss and love and memory. (2020)
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Sarah Winman’s Tin Man is a quietly complicated and deeply emotional story, bending time and breathing language. I actually think this is one of my favorite instances of changing character POVs, because each is so enriched by the other. These two boyhood friends are bound to one another throughout life, and I just love stories like that. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but here’s my biggest tip: read it with patience. There’s so much to absorb in this slim book, I definitely felt it needed to go right onto the to-reread list. It’s a beautiful and unique novel. (2018)
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Sarah Winman’s Tin Man is a quietly complicated and deeply emotional story, bending time and breathing language. I actually think this is one of my favorite instances of changing character POVs, because each is so enriched by the other. These two boyhood friends are bound to one another throughout life, and I just love stories like that. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but here’s my biggest tip: read it with patience. There’s so much to absorb in this slim book, I definitely felt it needed to go right onto the to-reread list. It’s a beautiful and unique novel. (2018)
readbybeckyrose's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
katiestinylibrary's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
cry count: 3
i fell in love with these characters and their love for one another. tinged with sadness and grief the whole way through but still so, so beautiful. almost didn’t read because the author didn’t use quotation marks but i’m so glad i did because i think i really understand the purpose of leaving them out. it blurs the line between memory and present day, one line in one decade and the other in the next, and makes you feel as though you too are with ellis, remembering. to annie and ellis and michael <3
“And the three of us swam. Mr. and Mrs. Judd and me.”
i fell in love with these characters and their love for one another. tinged with sadness and grief the whole way through but still so, so beautiful. almost didn’t read because the author didn’t use quotation marks but i’m so glad i did because i think i really understand the purpose of leaving them out. it blurs the line between memory and present day, one line in one decade and the other in the next, and makes you feel as though you too are with ellis, remembering. to annie and ellis and michael <3
“And the three of us swam. Mr. and Mrs. Judd and me.”
alixbecker's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
piarat's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75