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hannah_gingersnap's review
slow-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
2.75
These characters drove me up the wall, but I also couldn’t put it down? Took me two months to read and I every time I put it down I forgot everything that happened. Constant cheating on amazing female characters. I know the characters are supposed to be insufferable, but as a woman in my 20s I could not stand it.
kristianawithak's review against another edition
3.0
This book started well, but suffered from me working harder than listening well. The structure was great, each chapter told from one of three men's lives. It spans the time from college to midlife and has very minimal overlap. It reads like interrelated short stories.
ella1801's review against another edition
2.0
I really need to stop reading these insecure little Brooklyn men. They make me feel self-congratulatory and entitled and unfulfilled and inadequate and misanthropic, which is a whole laundry list made of wastes of time.
On the last page, Gessen suddenly can't suppress the natural desire for happiness anymore and loses his cool for the last two paragraphs. I don't really get it, but it's too little too late for me.
On the last page, Gessen suddenly can't suppress the natural desire for happiness anymore and loses his cool for the last two paragraphs. I don't really get it, but it's too little too late for me.
colemanwarnerwriter's review against another edition
5.0
The title alone was what had called out to me when I picked it up at used bookstore in NYC. I figured maybe it had something to teach me; something which could explain what was so sad about being young and wanting to be literary simultaneously. The truth is that it did.
abbywdan's review against another edition
4.0
When I went to the library to rent [book: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything], it wasn't there, and I had to get on the wait list, so I picked [book: All the Sad Young Literary Men] up off the "new fiction" shelf because:
a) The title began with the same word.
b) Gawker hates [author: Keith Gessen].
c) I knew some sad young literary men in my days as a sad young literary lady. I guess I still know some now, but they aren't so pathetic, these ones.
d) My brother went to Harvard and was miserable. I had a feeling that the tales of Harvardian woe I knew (again, thanks to the Gawks) were in this novel would be familiar and satisfying.
Four good reasons!
Anyway, if you ever doubted (like me, that one time in like March 2006!) that the men of the liberal arts world are utterly pathetic, you need only read [book: All the Sad Young Literary Men] to be reminded. Looking back, if I recall correctly, I wished, upon finishing the novel, that Gessen had either tried harder to connect his gaggle of navel-gazers or given it up altogether. I don't understand the necessity of the cute pictures and diagrams that turn up at the start of the novel and then disappear. That I've basically forgotten my other thoughts about it a mere month after reading it can't be a good sign; that I remember the characters, their general plots and failures (because really, there are few successes), and enjoyed seeing them fail gets this one a four-star report. It's fast but dense, a little juicy, and makes me glad I'm in love with an engineer.
a) The title began with the same word.
b) Gawker hates [author: Keith Gessen].
c) I knew some sad young literary men in my days as a sad young literary lady. I guess I still know some now, but they aren't so pathetic, these ones.
d) My brother went to Harvard and was miserable. I had a feeling that the tales of Harvardian woe I knew (again, thanks to the Gawks) were in this novel would be familiar and satisfying.
Four good reasons!
Anyway, if you ever doubted (like me, that one time in like March 2006!) that the men of the liberal arts world are utterly pathetic, you need only read [book: All the Sad Young Literary Men] to be reminded. Looking back, if I recall correctly, I wished, upon finishing the novel, that Gessen had either tried harder to connect his gaggle of navel-gazers or given it up altogether. I don't understand the necessity of the cute pictures and diagrams that turn up at the start of the novel and then disappear. That I've basically forgotten my other thoughts about it a mere month after reading it can't be a good sign; that I remember the characters, their general plots and failures (because really, there are few successes), and enjoyed seeing them fail gets this one a four-star report. It's fast but dense, a little juicy, and makes me glad I'm in love with an engineer.
matthewwester's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. This is one of those books where disillusioned young men (the three main characters) feel aimless, depressed, and as a result make poor decisions regarding their dating relationships and their futures. Many times throughout the book I cringed at how pathetic they became. But that's the point of the book. And overall it wasn't bad.
The book would have been complete without the final chapter but wow, I am definitely glad the last chapter (2008) was included. Anyway, I would recommend this book to anyone wants to hear about a graduate student's attempt to study the Russian Revolution and/or anyone who is interested in a character "crafting the first great Zionist epic." If neither of those things pique your interest then don't feel bad giving this one a pass.
The book would have been complete without the final chapter but wow, I am definitely glad the last chapter (2008) was included. Anyway, I would recommend this book to anyone wants to hear about a graduate student's attempt to study the Russian Revolution and/or anyone who is interested in a character "crafting the first great Zionist epic." If neither of those things pique your interest then don't feel bad giving this one a pass.
harryhas29's review against another edition
And still the trash got picked up, and the subways kept running.
nssutton's review against another edition
2.0
i've got a soft spot for neurotics in person and a hatred for neurotics in books. i just can't handle people who use paragraphs and sentences to describe how they can never ever ever get their shit together. or worse, they liken their personal indiscretions to politics. you spend the whole book feeling terrible for the girls who actually slept with these men, who then write these situations out in their books as if that behavior can be viewed apologetically.
but that was a solid edith wharton reference.
but that was a solid edith wharton reference.
meganstreb's review
3.0
I can't remember reading this book. The main characters sound vaguely familiar. The fact that one of them lived in Syracuse for a while rings a bell. But I honestly couldn't tell you if I liked it, if I gained anything from it, who the characters were, and whether they changed over the course of the book.
So. . . . I'm guessing that it's not a great book, since it left zero impression.
Or I never read it and gave it three stars by accident one day.
So. . . . I'm guessing that it's not a great book, since it left zero impression.
Or I never read it and gave it three stars by accident one day.