caroparr's review against another edition
3.0
Another Carey book with a mad giant in it! Wonderfully read by Susan Lyons, again. I lost the thread a bit with the Henry Brandling part. Maybe I would do better with Carey in print...
em_harring's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. I should love this book, as the blurb on the back makes it sound exactly like the sort of novel I would not only pick up to read once, but return to again and again.
Sadly, this is not the case.
The book centers around Catherine Gehrig, a conservator at a London museum, who tries to deal with the grief of losing her lover. As she grapples with this grief, her boss entrusts her with a mechanical bird he wants her to restore. The crates bearing the different parts also include a set of ten notebooks written by the man who commissioned the bird to be built for his ill son. The reader, then, gets chapters from the point-of-view of Catherine, the man (Henry Brandling), and a mixture of the two. As the back of the book states, "Through the clockwork bird, Henry and Catherine will confront the mysteries of creation, the power of human invention, and the body's astonishing chemistry of love and feeling." Sounds awesome, right?
The book had so much potential. Its first mistake comes from the fact that the mechanical bird, easily the most interesting aspect of the novel, becomes completely overshadowed by domestic issues. There is far less of the restoration process and an excess of Catherine's problems, which I really couldn't be bothered to care about. I had a difficult time connecting with Catherine. Henry was quite a charming character, and I thought his motivation to construct the bird was endearing, but both of them could use more complexity behind their actions. Soon enough, how they felt just became repetitious and I stopped seeing character growth. As someone who adores character novels, I would have liked the novel more if the characters had been given more room to grow. This was a character novel, but not a well executed one.
The level of absurdity within the novel was maddening, as well. I can't begin to understand the motives behind Eric (who needs a hobby so he stops interfering with other people's business) and Amanda. Neither of them made any sense to me at all and their actions constantly disoriented me and took me out of the novel.
I enjoyed the fairy tale aspect of the novel, but it could have been built up a bit more. Some of the prose was also quite beautiful and clear.
What ultimately maddened me the most and is the reason I only gave the novel two stars was the end. I felt that the text hadn't earned the last twenty or so pages. The question of human existence and other worlds hadn't been prevalent throughout the novel, then it was suddenly shoved into the narration and made to be this huge deal. It wasn't clear what it brought to the overall story arch and what its purpose was within the space of the novel. Were there interesting questions brought up? Yes. These questions weren't developed, though, and could have been developed a lot better.
Thus, not a book I enjoyed. It's tolerable at parts, but holistically there are far too many character and plot holes to make me want to read this book again.
Sadly, this is not the case.
The book centers around Catherine Gehrig, a conservator at a London museum, who tries to deal with the grief of losing her lover. As she grapples with this grief, her boss entrusts her with a mechanical bird he wants her to restore. The crates bearing the different parts also include a set of ten notebooks written by the man who commissioned the bird to be built for his ill son. The reader, then, gets chapters from the point-of-view of Catherine, the man (Henry Brandling), and a mixture of the two. As the back of the book states, "Through the clockwork bird, Henry and Catherine will confront the mysteries of creation, the power of human invention, and the body's astonishing chemistry of love and feeling." Sounds awesome, right?
The book had so much potential. Its first mistake comes from the fact that the mechanical bird, easily the most interesting aspect of the novel, becomes completely overshadowed by domestic issues. There is far less of the restoration process and an excess of Catherine's problems, which I really couldn't be bothered to care about. I had a difficult time connecting with Catherine. Henry was quite a charming character, and I thought his motivation to construct the bird was endearing, but both of them could use more complexity behind their actions. Soon enough, how they felt just became repetitious and I stopped seeing character growth. As someone who adores character novels, I would have liked the novel more if the characters had been given more room to grow. This was a character novel, but not a well executed one.
The level of absurdity within the novel was maddening, as well. I can't begin to understand the motives behind Eric (who needs a hobby so he stops interfering with other people's business) and Amanda. Neither of them made any sense to me at all and their actions constantly disoriented me and took me out of the novel.
I enjoyed the fairy tale aspect of the novel, but it could have been built up a bit more. Some of the prose was also quite beautiful and clear.
What ultimately maddened me the most and is the reason I only gave the novel two stars was the end. I felt that the text hadn't earned the last twenty or so pages. The question of human existence and other worlds hadn't been prevalent throughout the novel, then it was suddenly shoved into the narration and made to be this huge deal. It wasn't clear what it brought to the overall story arch and what its purpose was within the space of the novel. Were there interesting questions brought up? Yes. These questions weren't developed, though, and could have been developed a lot better.
Thus, not a book I enjoyed. It's tolerable at parts, but holistically there are far too many character and plot holes to make me want to read this book again.
unicornsinshangrila's review
3.0
In a lot of ways, this book was beautifully written. It's a shame it was slow going.
I enjoyed Catherine's perspective, Henry's I found taxing.
In the middle of the book, I wished for it to be over but by the end, I felt better about it.
I enjoyed Catherine's perspective, Henry's I found taxing.
In the middle of the book, I wished for it to be over but by the end, I felt better about it.
daisyq's review against another edition
4.0
This was fascinating. I loved the chapters from Catherine's perspective: the operation of the museum and the restoration process, how she deals with grief that largely stays hidden, her relationships with her colleagues, and the way it is so firmly anchored in time.
The Henry chapters started out great, but I found them somewhat less engaging in the middle sections, when the various characters' motivations seemed... obscure.
The Henry chapters started out great, but I found them somewhat less engaging in the middle sections, when the various characters' motivations seemed... obscure.
selfwinding's review
3.0
While much of this story is about clockwork conservation, it's mostly about grief and unhealthy relationships. The connection between Catherine and the Henry Brandling represented in the notebooks is interesting, and Henry's mystery is compelling, but there's a significant distance I was never able to bridge in truly sympathizing with Catherine.
One of the biggest problems I had with The Chemistry of Tears was the little jumps that sometimes fell between paragraphs. It was often more difficult to follow what was happening in a chapter which should have been linear, than in one depicting incomplete notebooks over 100 years old. It made certain moments frustrating and I had to just "go with it." I will allow that some confusions could result from the mental states of the characters, but that made it no less frustrating to read.
For the purposes of my thesis, there are several useful descriptions of the automaton restoration. One element I've wrestled with is how much detail those moments need, and The Chemistry of Tears offers a nice balance between understanding the restoration and being concerned with the human elements in the story.
Aside from confusion in some scenes, the language and images are frequently very interesting:
"...his bone-crushing handshake had roots somewhere in the years of his birth, in the manly 1950s..." - p. 8
"I had grown up with the sound of clocks and they had been a comfort to me, the whole orchestra of movements like the currents of the sea, an all-engulfing natural order. To refrigerate a clock was an extremely violent act, not one I could explain to anyone." - p. 123
"Then the body moved, and that was worse. Then there were two, I was certain, moving like moles inside a blanket." - p. 189
One of the biggest problems I had with The Chemistry of Tears was the little jumps that sometimes fell between paragraphs. It was often more difficult to follow what was happening in a chapter which should have been linear, than in one depicting incomplete notebooks over 100 years old. It made certain moments frustrating and I had to just "go with it." I will allow that some confusions could result from the mental states of the characters, but that made it no less frustrating to read.
For the purposes of my thesis, there are several useful descriptions of the automaton restoration. One element I've wrestled with is how much detail those moments need, and The Chemistry of Tears offers a nice balance between understanding the restoration and being concerned with the human elements in the story.
Aside from confusion in some scenes, the language and images are frequently very interesting:
"...his bone-crushing handshake had roots somewhere in the years of his birth, in the manly 1950s..." - p. 8
"I had grown up with the sound of clocks and they had been a comfort to me, the whole orchestra of movements like the currents of the sea, an all-engulfing natural order. To refrigerate a clock was an extremely violent act, not one I could explain to anyone." - p. 123
"Then the body moved, and that was worse. Then there were two, I was certain, moving like moles inside a blanket." - p. 189
sarahc3319's review
1.0
okay, so I didn't actually read it-- the opening creeped me out and I just hated the main character. gave up on this after 35 pages.
han_cat's review
2.0
Not sure, read it/finished and still not sure! I wanted to enjoy it with the potential for an interesting quirky plot but I disliked the characters, couldn't understand a lot of the motivations and by the end I was actually a bit bored.
Shame as reading the blurb you really think it should have something.
Shame as reading the blurb you really think it should have something.
erinelizabeth's review
3.0
Museum conservator Catherine grieving over the death of her secret lover of thirteen years works on restoring a nineteenth-century automaton. The writing and emotion is wonderful, unfortunately the story in the story of the creation of the automaton is boring, and the story didn't go far enough for me.
buzzgirl's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to love this book, but struggled to find a connection with any of the characters besides Catherine and then only through her loss. Pages were skimmed over the further I read through.....breaking my heart a little, given the authors typical ability to draw me in so deep I can barely pull myself away from his books.