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explodingalice's review against another edition
4.0
Both bleak and hopeful. The landscape feels like the main character and adds beautiful texture to everything as it unfolds.
p_t_b's review against another edition
5.0
wrecked me. the cover NYT blurb about this being a love story is a little misleading; it's a love story in the way that "othello" is a love story, except iago gets replaced by a combination of combat trauma, the patriot act, and a scuzzy ex-con biker/prodigal son, and the genders are flipped i think.
hyper-sensory novel of PTSD, loneliness, marginalization, brief human connections that let us breathe just long enough to realize we're dying, bad smells. basically the complete opposite of playful postmodernism. a succession of simple descriptions, like hemingway but not selfparodically macho
quibbles: too many descriptions of leg muscles and shapes of butts; there was a little bit of descriptive flab/jumble that could have been purged but never enough to loosen the book's grip on my eyeballs
it took me 100 pages to get into the author's sentence-tempo, but it eventually locks in.
this book is nauseatingly sad but only in the way that actual real life is nauseautingly sad so you can handle it.
strong buy recommend. also show a tiny-ass publisher some love.
hyper-sensory novel of PTSD, loneliness, marginalization, brief human connections that let us breathe just long enough to realize we're dying, bad smells. basically the complete opposite of playful postmodernism. a succession of simple descriptions, like hemingway but not selfparodically macho
quibbles: too many descriptions of leg muscles and shapes of butts; there was a little bit of descriptive flab/jumble that could have been purged but never enough to loosen the book's grip on my eyeballs
it took me 100 pages to get into the author's sentence-tempo, but it eventually locks in.
this book is nauseatingly sad but only in the way that actual real life is nauseautingly sad so you can handle it.
strong buy recommend. also show a tiny-ass publisher some love.
kiki_pegg's review against another edition
3.0
A devastating and sobering look at America. So much detail it’s almost like poetry. Here hope is hard to cling on to. I struggled greatly to read this, every sentence and word was like a punch in the gut that you saw coming.
booksadaisyes's review against another edition
3.0
It took me a while to get into this book. It was a brutal, disturbing and tragic read. Not what I was expecting. No sugar coating - the writing and imagery is raw. I don't think I could recommend this - it's too traumatic a read. I like to read to escape but this book made me feel scared and often I thought of giving up - glad I finished it, not sure I'm glad to have read it though.
alexismouledoux's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know about this one...I think it was had truly remarkable everyday details that brought the anonymity and darkness of living in a big city like NYC to light. I wanted to like it but I think hearing it as an audiobook didn't do it justice. Or maybe it was the narrator who ruined it for me, he had a really monotone voice and unfortunate Asian and black accents. Either way, I found myself moved by the description but I couldn't get into this one as much I I think I would have if I read it the ol' fashioned way.
sehmort's review against another edition
4.0
This is a difficult and equally rewarding read. His prose style is incredible and raw and forces you to tap into emotions that you wouldn't willingly try to feel. I'll be thinking about this book for awhile.
doritobabe's review against another edition
3.0
I would have to say that I didn't like this book very much and I think it is because I didn't like the characters. As hard as the author tried to give them back-stories; details about their lives before they met each other and how, potentially, all of this information affected the meetings and their present and futures, (etc etc) I feel like he did not do a very good job. There was just something lacking through out the whole text; maybe it was the over arching nihilism and misanthropy? Does the author really feel that negatively about life for people?
I can really respect what Lish was trying to do, however. Provide the reader with examinations and portraits of people who are lesser-than in our American societies. Both Skinner and Zou Lei were active conduits for each side of the system: those who were rejected and abandoned by their own Americans and those who never had a chance, yet wanted one and tried to give themselves one (immigrants, those who deal with flagrant racism, etc etc).
I guess this is not supposed to be a happy or hopeful novel; there is no flowery language to support any hopes of the reader. It's just a bunch of real people in real ways, whether they are good or bad.
As I am writing this, I could argue with myself that maybe I did really like this novel, and while I do appreciate it, I do not like it, because there was not one thing that was to my liking. I still give this book 3/5 because I appreciate the challenge of reading this in its entirety and what the author was trying to do. Maybe there is something about this text that I am just not getting. Whatever it is, it is over and I am glad I read it. I do not know if I would agree that this is "One of the best books of 2014" (the list where I found it), but it may very well be an important novel nonetheless.
I can really respect what Lish was trying to do, however. Provide the reader with examinations and portraits of people who are lesser-than in our American societies. Both Skinner and Zou Lei were active conduits for each side of the system: those who were rejected and abandoned by their own Americans and those who never had a chance, yet wanted one and tried to give themselves one (immigrants, those who deal with flagrant racism, etc etc).
I guess this is not supposed to be a happy or hopeful novel; there is no flowery language to support any hopes of the reader. It's just a bunch of real people in real ways, whether they are good or bad.
As I am writing this, I could argue with myself that maybe I did really like this novel, and while I do appreciate it, I do not like it, because there was not one thing that was to my liking. I still give this book 3/5 because I appreciate the challenge of reading this in its entirety and what the author was trying to do. Maybe there is something about this text that I am just not getting. Whatever it is, it is over and I am glad I read it. I do not know if I would agree that this is "One of the best books of 2014" (the list where I found it), but it may very well be an important novel nonetheless.
stinkyfacegrace's review against another edition
4.0
There is another review on here that says this novel contains a story the reader must bear witness to rather than an enjoyable read. I couldn't agree more. The writing is beautiful, the characters are engaging, the story told is important, and this is a book that will linger with you after you read because you do get emotionally invested. But honestly, I hesitate to recommend it because the first 100 pages are downright brutal to get through, and the remainder is, at best, anxiety inducing and uncomfortable. If you do decide to read this book, I'd schedule a lighthearted read after; you'll need a break.
geoffreylittle's review against another edition
3.0
First, definitely check out the interview with the author via the Other People Podcast http://otherppl.com/atticus-lish-interview/ This gave me a great framework with which to engage the novel. The author, Atticus Lish, is a brilliant, if complicated, 21st century writer, and his interview here is as good as the book. I listened twice.
The novel is a dazzling dystopic journey. The two lead characters (perhaps three, including Jimmy), are fragile, lost souls. Interesting at their worst, and moreso amidst their modest steps toward wholeness. There are earned, glorious breakthroughs through the quagmire. These were thrilling and heartbreaking. Lish's command of pain and moments of redemption are A-list. He guides us through a love story so fraught with emotional and physical danger, I can hardly imagine anything like it in contemporary times.
What is unnecessary in this novel is the styling. Lish's commitment to ultra-minimalist dialog notation and ice cold narration -- for these hundreds of pages... man, it burned me out. I find it highly distracting. I found myself saying, "Lish, dude, STOP trying to be so cool that you never use a single quotation mark or summarize any scene's importance (forcing me to re-read CONSTANTLY)." Lish makes Old Man and The Sea feel like a Hallmark card.
To further say it, he is a fantastic creator, conjurer. His topic is one of the most important to write about - our society's banishment of the immigrant old and new in 2014. He is quietly peeling at the definition of the stranger/alien, and the patriot, revealing their similar estrangements and homecomings. Lish handles such subjects masterfully from philosophic and semiotic vantagepoints. I sincerely like his material and characters. I see it's potential in full color; this is was what I will long cherish.
I recommend Preparations for the Next Life, with the aforementioned reservations. It does make my short list of best books of 2014.
The novel is a dazzling dystopic journey. The two lead characters (perhaps three, including Jimmy), are fragile, lost souls. Interesting at their worst, and moreso amidst their modest steps toward wholeness. There are earned, glorious breakthroughs through the quagmire. These were thrilling and heartbreaking. Lish's command of pain and moments of redemption are A-list. He guides us through a love story so fraught with emotional and physical danger, I can hardly imagine anything like it in contemporary times.
What is unnecessary in this novel is the styling. Lish's commitment to ultra-minimalist dialog notation and ice cold narration -- for these hundreds of pages... man, it burned me out. I find it highly distracting. I found myself saying, "Lish, dude, STOP trying to be so cool that you never use a single quotation mark or summarize any scene's importance (forcing me to re-read CONSTANTLY)." Lish makes Old Man and The Sea feel like a Hallmark card.
To further say it, he is a fantastic creator, conjurer. His topic is one of the most important to write about - our society's banishment of the immigrant old and new in 2014. He is quietly peeling at the definition of the stranger/alien, and the patriot, revealing their similar estrangements and homecomings. Lish handles such subjects masterfully from philosophic and semiotic vantagepoints. I sincerely like his material and characters. I see it's potential in full color; this is was what I will long cherish.
I recommend Preparations for the Next Life, with the aforementioned reservations. It does make my short list of best books of 2014.