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zoer03's review against another edition
2.0
Ok so the good things about this novel... I love the sense of the change of time over the centuries in one small village like the changing of the seasons. I love how as you go through the centuries the language in the book changes with each new decade though I found the last part of the book incredibly irritating and just plain batty also I couldn’t actually read the last bit because it was script and I was reading it on kindle it felt like a waste as I had no idea what the ending was like because it was too small. I also found certain ye olde English extremely trying and just annoying as hell. So by the end I just wanted to finish it not caring if I actually read the last few pages. So ok but not great
janaroos's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars rounded down.
FINALLY. This wasn't all that bad, really, and some parts of the slice-of-life, slice-of-time approach to village life I really enjoyed. The little connections that threaded through the stories were satisfying to notice, and gave the village of Ulverton a veracity, a reality.
But. Then there was the section written entirely in vernacular without any punctuation whatsoever, without any paragraph breaks, not even for dialogue switching between speakers, and which I could barely stomach reading a page at a time. How dare you make me read that with my own eyes.
And that just broke my momentum completely. The fact that I finished it at all became an achievement, and the latter half of the book was a joyless slog despite the fact that I would otherwise have actually enjoyed much of the writing. It cost the book two whole stars. For one stretch of unbearable dialect. Readers beware, but writers even more so.
FINALLY. This wasn't all that bad, really, and some parts of the slice-of-life, slice-of-time approach to village life I really enjoyed. The little connections that threaded through the stories were satisfying to notice, and gave the village of Ulverton a veracity, a reality.
But. Then there was the section written entirely in vernacular without any punctuation whatsoever, without any paragraph breaks, not even for dialogue switching between speakers, and which I could barely stomach reading a page at a time. How dare you make me read that with my own eyes.
And that just broke my momentum completely. The fact that I finished it at all became an achievement, and the latter half of the book was a joyless slog despite the fact that I would otherwise have actually enjoyed much of the writing. It cost the book two whole stars. For one stretch of unbearable dialect. Readers beware, but writers even more so.
tombennett72's review against another edition
1.0
This is probably a fantastic book.
But it's not for me.
But it's not for me.
indy_oc's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
krobart's review against another edition
4.0
See my review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/day-1034-ulverton/
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/day-1034-ulverton/
rhiabelleh's review against another edition
2.0
This just wasn’t for me. Had to read it for a class and some chapters were cool but others were literally illegible. I understand what he was going for, but I can think of better ways to go about it. Writing with the intention of befuddling the reader doesn’t necessarily make it “good”, you know?
rhiannonbh's review against another edition
2.0
This just wasn’t for me. Had to read it for a class and some chapters were cool but others were literally illegible. I understand what he was going for, but I can think of better ways to go about it. Writing with the intention of befuddling the reader doesn’t necessarily make it “good”, you know?
mightymeep's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 really. Although some of the individual passages were well written, I really didn't enjoy this at all. The sections with local dialect were just too challenging to read for very little return to the reader. I like the premise of the book, with the same place featuring through time from 17oo's until the present day, but found it focused more on the people rather than the place and it didn't engage me or give me a sense of the place through time. It's difficult when the sections are so disparate and rather obscure. My favourite section was near the end, set at the start of WW1. I thought this was very well written. The very last part is impossible to read on the Kindle version but I tried my best. All in all an unsatisfying read.
michael5000's review against another edition
4.0
Ten or so carefully interlocking stories over several centuries of an English village. Difficult going in places, possibly a tiny bit too clever for its own good in others, and one that I think needs at least two reads to fully grasp.
shelfofunread's review against another edition
Style wasn't for me. Whilst technically ambitious, I didn't feel that Smith wholly captured the style of the eras that he was conveying. I also found the book too slow in terms of pace and lacking in plot.