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_kristien_'s review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
andrea_3010's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
tavsbookshelf's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-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
jovanafinlebrun's review against another edition
3.0
Ik denk dat er meerdere dingen in dit boek zitten en dat het per persoon verschilt wat je eruit haalt. Voor mij voelde dit boek als iemand die vastzit in het leven en verdriet en moeite heeft om met dat wij hij observeert bij zichzelf en z’n omgeving te kunnen draaien. Ik vond de onmacht van de situatie en de persoon goed uitkomen, het had iets benauwend.
zilfworks's review against another edition
2.0
Overall, I thought this book was pretty dull. It belongs to a small sub-genre of books that our book club seems to hit on occasionally, which I would call "books about morose (often Jewish) middle age (or older) men trying to make sense of their lives." Others in the book club seem to like them, but I rarely connect...so maybe it's just me. I find the characters mostly unlikeable, the overall mood very blah and the stories pretty plot-less, and this one was no exception. (Others books I'd put in this category that we've read in the last few years: "Blue Nude," "The History of Love," and - sort of - "Super-Cannes.")
thephoenixflight's review against another edition
3.0
Se algum dia precisarem de uma cura para insónias, este é um bom livro a pegar.
botrap's review against another edition
3.0
A fine writer, mapping characters in deep study, I was never quite comfortable because I wasn’t sure what genre the book was going to ultimately be.
jayshay's review against another edition
4.0
Yoel is a shadowy governmental arms dealer (a spy?) at the beginning of the novel when his wife dies, electrocuted by accident in the arms of a neighbour. Was it an accident? Were his wife and the neighbour lovers, or did he just come upon the scene and get zapped himself? Yoel's powers of observation are so finely tuned, so sensitive to every nuance but the harder he looks the more everything falls apart. Yet at the same time Oz has created a character blind to everything important in his life, most especially his dead wife and daughter. By the end of the novel it seems as if Yoel has entirely lost the thread of truth he has been so desperately trying to find (maybe that is the problem he is so obsessed with the truth he entirely misses the wonder of life). His daughter, mother, mother-in-law and a potential new lover are gone. He has either lost it or become some sort of Jewish saint, or perhaps both.