gabesteller's review against another edition
4.0
another edition of #MOMRECS ! For like 5 years my mom has been saying "this is one of my favorite books its really short and it won the Booker Pls pls read it already" and so i finally have. and it is in fact good stuff!
Its all about a community of people who live on houseboats of varying levels of decrepitude and their PERSONAL PROBLEMS of which their are MANY. I read that Penelope Fitzgerald is very careful about the way the title is translated but because she wats it to convey the liminal space the characters occupy which i think is really smart, cuz they are all caught between different worlds and choices that they're trying to dodge or avoid. Just a wonderful little melancholy book, about adults being happy and sad at the same time, that also featured some of the best written kids I've encountered.
Dug it! thanks mom!
Its all about a community of people who live on houseboats of varying levels of decrepitude and their PERSONAL PROBLEMS of which their are MANY. I read that Penelope Fitzgerald is very careful about the way the title is translated but because she wats it to convey the liminal space the characters occupy which i think is really smart, cuz they are all caught between different worlds and choices that they're trying to dodge or avoid. Just a wonderful little melancholy book, about adults being happy and sad at the same time, that also featured some of the best written kids I've encountered.
Dug it! thanks mom!
dianelaw's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
schnauzermum's review against another edition
5.0
This is perfect. Fitzgerald combines humour and sadness in this story of a collection of eccentric people:
‘The barge-dwellers, creatures neither of firm land nor water, would have liked to be more respectable than they were. They aspired towards the Chelsea shore, where, in the early 1960s, many thousands lived with sensible occupations and adequate amounts of money. But a certain failure, distressing to themselves, to be like other people, caused them to sink back, with so much else that drifted or was washed up, into the mud moorings of the great ride way.’
In the introduction to my edition, Fitzgerald’s biographer, Hermione Lee, describes her as ‘a humorous writer with a tragic sense of life’ and quotes the author herself: ‘I am drawn to people who seem to have been born defeated or even profoundly lost’. In the hands of another writer, the sadness might be overwhelming. It is almost miraculous how Fitzgerald writes with such humour and compassion, even about characters you expect to be unsympathetic.
Not a word is wasted, and Fitzgerald writes elegantly beautiful prose. The ending is brilliant too.
‘The barge-dwellers, creatures neither of firm land nor water, would have liked to be more respectable than they were. They aspired towards the Chelsea shore, where, in the early 1960s, many thousands lived with sensible occupations and adequate amounts of money. But a certain failure, distressing to themselves, to be like other people, caused them to sink back, with so much else that drifted or was washed up, into the mud moorings of the great ride way.’
In the introduction to my edition, Fitzgerald’s biographer, Hermione Lee, describes her as ‘a humorous writer with a tragic sense of life’ and quotes the author herself: ‘I am drawn to people who seem to have been born defeated or even profoundly lost’. In the hands of another writer, the sadness might be overwhelming. It is almost miraculous how Fitzgerald writes with such humour and compassion, even about characters you expect to be unsympathetic.
Not a word is wasted, and Fitzgerald writes elegantly beautiful prose. The ending is brilliant too.
iammandyellen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
jrl6809's review against another edition
funny
reflective
slow-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
3.0
Quaint, quirky.
esther_a_'s review
3.0
Was an easy book to read quickly so the writing style must have flowed fairly well.
Not very plot driven, there wasn’t enough to it to keep me fully interested. I never really got to know the characters and the ending was quite abrupt. Readable but not remarkable so it’s surprising that it won the booker prize.
bub_9's review against another edition
3.0
Having marvelously enjoyed The Blue Flower, I naturally made it a point to next read her sole Booker awardee, though later discovering (and I make no claims about any established agreement regarding my division) the split between the earlier works and her later ones marked by the publication of Innocence, it is perhaps not entirely surprising that I found myself enjoying this less. Perhaps a bit of a McEwan and Amsterdam situation, if you will.
The writing is again marvelous here, and so is the exploration of relationships. But the intentionality of the plot and its development cannot even begin to hold a candle to The Blue Flower, much less Innocence.
The writing is again marvelous here, and so is the exploration of relationships. But the intentionality of the plot and its development cannot even begin to hold a candle to The Blue Flower, much less Innocence.
mpatshi's review against another edition
So good and dark, with her perfect sense of humour.
Good to know that Penelope Fitzgerald lived on a riverside barge in London for a while to get inspired.
Good to know that Penelope Fitzgerald lived on a riverside barge in London for a while to get inspired.
yetilibrary's review against another edition
2.0
I read this for the 2022 BookRiot Challenge.
It is short--I believe it's still the shortest novel to win the Booker Prize.
It wasn't bad, but I didn't really like it. It was difficult to get into, and it's one of those books where it doesn't so much end as it just stops. Offshore has a meandering plot that came to an abrupt stop, and left me unsatisfied.
Also, knowledge of boats on my part would've been helpful. The novel mostly takes place aboard boats, and when Fitzgerald uses various terms (for boat parts, for sailing, etc.) it's entirely appropriate but also disorienting for a landlubber like me. It kept taking me out of the story. (YMMV.)
Here's what I did like: Fitzgerald creates wonderful characters, and is an author who can draw a character well, very quickly. It's a shame the novel is so short, because those characters were so lovely to spend time with, and it's also a shame the ending felt so abrupt; I wanted a bit more closure for them. I even checked to see if Fitzgerald revisited any of these characters in a later novel, and it doesn't look like she did.
tl;dr Wandering plot, unsatisfying ending, but tremendous characters I'll miss.
It is short--I believe it's still the shortest novel to win the Booker Prize.
It wasn't bad, but I didn't really like it. It was difficult to get into, and it's one of those books where it doesn't so much end as it just stops. Offshore has a meandering plot that came to an abrupt stop, and left me unsatisfied.
Also, knowledge of boats on my part would've been helpful. The novel mostly takes place aboard boats, and when Fitzgerald uses various terms (for boat parts, for sailing, etc.) it's entirely appropriate but also disorienting for a landlubber like me. It kept taking me out of the story. (YMMV.)
Here's what I did like: Fitzgerald creates wonderful characters, and is an author who can draw a character well, very quickly. It's a shame the novel is so short, because those characters were so lovely to spend time with, and it's also a shame the ending felt so abrupt; I wanted a bit more closure for them. I even checked to see if Fitzgerald revisited any of these characters in a later novel, and it doesn't look like she did.
tl;dr Wandering plot, unsatisfying ending, but tremendous characters I'll miss.
caroparr's review against another edition
4.0
So short and easy to read that a fast reader (me) can easily overlook Fitzgerald's writing, which is understated, witty and insightful. A novel of characters rather than action, which never bothers me a bit.
A second reading, after having read her biography, makes this even more rewarding.
A second reading, after having read her biography, makes this even more rewarding.