mwilliams1402's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
All I can say about this book is wtf. Interesting read. But wtf.
lifesaverscandyofficial's review against another edition
totally psychotic. laughed out loud often. namedrops Muriel Spark and Ravel's Mother Goose Suite! ending too neat for my tastes and the last 100 pages or so I was like omg literally enough of this but I also know that's the point. wish I could have had the framework of graduate school to discuss this, but everyone would have had a meltdown.
chelseamartinez's review against another edition
3.0
This was the last Nicholson Baker book I read. The fact that it is his longest and the pornographic one can't be a coincidence, right? I guess I think of NB as fatherly because he has a beard, so reading this book makes me feel only slightly less grossed out than finding my father's Playboy stash. What I learned from this book is simply a reinforcement of a notion which is pretty common sense, which is that nerds and bookworms are just as capable of being perved out as people who can't hammer and nail sentences together worth a damn.
The only NB books I have left to read are the (boring, right?) book about card catalogs and Checkpoint. Ah, I like the formatting tips on the side of this "review" box, someone's thought this website out! Ok, but anyhow, the last thing I was going to say is that the only thing more uncomfortable than reading an author's thinly veiled autobiographical erotica is reading thinly veiled autobiographical political assassination fantasies. So I probably won't.
The only NB books I have left to read are the (boring, right?) book about card catalogs and Checkpoint. Ah, I like the formatting tips on the side of this "review" box, someone's thought this website out! Ok, but anyhow, the last thing I was going to say is that the only thing more uncomfortable than reading an author's thinly veiled autobiographical erotica is reading thinly veiled autobiographical political assassination fantasies. So I probably won't.
suannelaqueur's review against another edition
5.0
THE most bizarre book ever. It defies description. I read it first in 1994, and my boyfriend (now my husband) was reading it at the same time. Suffice it to say we were often late to work, and frequently didn't leave our apartment for days at a time. If you've ever wondered if it's possible to be freaked out AND horny at the same time, it is. Weird. Good. But weird.
kavinay's review against another edition
1.0
Once in a while I venture back towards "literary fiction" in the hope that maybe there's more to it than WASPy sexual dysfunction.
Nope.
I've never understood this fascination literary writers or their fans have with self referential composition as end to itself--a profoundly empty meta. Congrats to Baker for reaching Ondaatje levels of lettered masturbation.
As an aside, man has this book not aged well to boot. The adventures of a serial rapist are not as charming or funny as Baker seems to think he makes them.
Nope.
I've never understood this fascination literary writers or their fans have with self referential composition as end to itself--a profoundly empty meta. Congrats to Baker for reaching Ondaatje levels of lettered masturbation.
As an aside, man has this book not aged well to boot. The adventures of a serial rapist are not as charming or funny as Baker seems to think he makes them.
em_jay's review against another edition
4.0
A perfect book for GarbAugust WTF week on BookTube.
Bizarre, disgusting, odd, curious, awkward, erotica with a decent ending.
Bizarre, disgusting, odd, curious, awkward, erotica with a decent ending.
notconfusing's review against another edition
5.0
In Italy the some bus stops are labelled Fermata, and coincidentally those are good places to read The Fermata, because you wouldn't always want to read this book in public. Nicholson Baker explores a thought that's probably occurred to you as a child, being able to freeze time, but with an creative effort that you'll envy. The magic in this book occurs partly in the inventive and unashamedly sexual and perverse uses for time freezing, but mostly in their justification, their analyses, their rationale, their elaborately described irrationality. As Baker is not shy to spend 20 pages describing a single thought and all its recursive sub-thoughts until to their primitive axiomatic conlusions; this 240 page meditation is actually a definitive work on time freezing.
elaichipod's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This book is incredibly strange. I didn't know what I was getting into. I did not like the protagonist at all. The author, however, writes really well.
Here's a passage I thought was really interesting. It's about a braid.
Here's a passage I thought was really interesting. It's about a braid.
It is arranged in what I think is called a French braid. Each of the solid clumps of her hair feeds into the overall solidity of the braid, and the whole structure is plaited as part of her head, like a set of glossy external vertebrae. I'm impressed that women are able to arrange this sort of complicated figure, without too many stray strands, without help, in the morning, by feel. Women are much more in touch with the backs of themselves than men are: they can reach higher up on their back, and do so daily to unfasten bras; they can clip and braid their hair; they can keep their rearward blouse-tails smoothly tucked into their skirts. They give thought to how the edges of their underpants look through their pocketless pants from the back. ("Panties" is a word to be avoided, I feel.) But French braids, in which three sporting dolphins dip smoothly under one another and surface in a continuous elegant entrainment, are the most beautiful and impressive results of this sense of dorsal space. As soon as I saw Joyce's braid I knew that it was time to stop time. I needed to feel her solid braid, and her head beneath it, in my palm.