cheeriospank's review against another edition
2.0
This book was The Paper Street Book Club’s book for February under the category of Local Author, chosen by a member located in Idaho.
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The book takes a while to get into, mainly because of the use of 2nd person as the narrative style. This isn’t the first time I have read a book in this style and it probably won’t be the last but, it is by far my least favorite form of narrative and I don’t think it was actually the best choice for this particular story.
The beginning moves slowly as the author tries to put “us” in his mind and understand the minds of him and his wife, Andi. I understand the purpose of this since we are technically are supposed to be one in the mind of the main character, but the slowness of plot and the speed of his ever changing thoughts are tiresome.
Once we get to the plot the pace quickens. From the moment that Andi tells Grannam she is pregnant the store gets its pace. But it is often interrupted by the authors photograph rambles. I agree with some of the points he tries to make but they go on and on, and repeat WAY too often. They start to pull away from the book and start to make you feel the author only wrote the book as a way to share his feelings about the way people look at photography versus what photography really presents us with. When he pulls out of the story for these moments it also pulls me, the reader out. I feel as if I’m reading someone’s blog and like he doesn’t know when to stop.
Almost every other page you can feel the authors pretentiousness over flooding the book. The pretentiousness of the novel tries to mask an okay novel as something brilliant and fails to accomplish this task.
I loved the idea, I liked the photography but sadly that is all this book had to offer…an idea.
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The book takes a while to get into, mainly because of the use of 2nd person as the narrative style. This isn’t the first time I have read a book in this style and it probably won’t be the last but, it is by far my least favorite form of narrative and I don’t think it was actually the best choice for this particular story.
The beginning moves slowly as the author tries to put “us” in his mind and understand the minds of him and his wife, Andi. I understand the purpose of this since we are technically are supposed to be one in the mind of the main character, but the slowness of plot and the speed of his ever changing thoughts are tiresome.
Once we get to the plot the pace quickens. From the moment that Andi tells Grannam she is pregnant the store gets its pace. But it is often interrupted by the authors photograph rambles. I agree with some of the points he tries to make but they go on and on, and repeat WAY too often. They start to pull away from the book and start to make you feel the author only wrote the book as a way to share his feelings about the way people look at photography versus what photography really presents us with. When he pulls out of the story for these moments it also pulls me, the reader out. I feel as if I’m reading someone’s blog and like he doesn’t know when to stop.
Almost every other page you can feel the authors pretentiousness over flooding the book. The pretentiousness of the novel tries to mask an okay novel as something brilliant and fails to accomplish this task.
I loved the idea, I liked the photography but sadly that is all this book had to offer…an idea.
h2oetry's review against another edition
5.0
Lance Olsen is one of my favorite authors; his ability with language is uncanny. His experimental literature can compel a person to try writing -- he makes it seem like a fun, though arduous, activity. Fans of David Markson, the themes of William Gaddis' work, or perhaps the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein would like this particular book, as it recounts the upbringing of a girl who may or may not exist as an embodied person, but in any case does exist at least through means of stories and photographs. What is truth, then? That which we feel? That which we know? That which we convince ourselves and others through reproduction and repetition?
melanie_page's review against another edition
5.0
Ahhhh, better every time I read it. However, I didn't make clear to my students that while the Olsens are real people, they do not have a real fake baby.
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