Reviews

Divide Me by Zero by Lara Vapnyar

kaitlinshares's review

emotional sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer

tracy2_0's review against another edition

5.0

I began this book in the morning over coffee and with the exception of a nap and brief snack I read it straight through.

kaelynreads's review against another edition

4.0

I will say that I was not immediately impressed with this novel, but it grew on me after about 100 pages. The emotion in the story felt very real and I often felt myself getting sucked into Katya’s world.

ursulamonarch's review against another edition

5.0

I think I would have loved this book purely for its portrayal of youth in the Soviet Union followed by emigration to the United States and the excellent setting and distinct characters described, but what really put it over the top for me was the evolving relationship between the protagonist and her mother, who

dies in her care very shortly after her 67th birthday

. The math book that the protagonist tries to assemble is fascinating and poignant. The kids are wonderfully human, which sometimes feels rare. This book reminded me a lot of [b:Lost and Wanted|40177418|Lost and Wanted|Nell Freudenberger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547406325l/40177418._SX50_.jpg|62330649] in female platonic yearning for a women of science/math.

jbraith's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Grief

paceamorelibri's review against another edition

5.0

[b:Divide Me By Zero|43726618|Divide Me By Zero|Lara Vapnyar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563768259l/43726618._SY75_.jpg|68053736] begins with an encounter between the narrator, Katya Geller, a 40-something mother of two, and a fish seller in Staten Island from whom Katya is buying caviar. “I was brought up in the Soviet Union, where caviar was considered a special food reserved for children and dying parents,” Katya says. The fish seller, another Soviet immigrant, understands Katya’s meaning and the two lock eyes and begin to cry. This moment of intense connection between two strangers charts the course for Lara Vapnyar’s frank and emotionally honest story of love and loss.

You can read the rest of my review HERE on BookBrowse, and you can read a piece I wrote on the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky HERE.

nebelgazer's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

canadianbookworm's review against another edition

3.0

https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2020/06/divide-me-by-zero.html

rachel_from_avid_bookshop's review against another edition

5.0

Lara Vapnyar’s DIVIDE ME BY ZERO is about love. It’s about a mother’s love, love lost, falling in love, what one would do for love, for, after all, isn’t love the most important thing? Katya Geller is an immigrant from the Soviet Union whose father died young (broke her mother’s heart), and whose mathematician mother was more than a little harsh. While in the midst of a mid-life crisis and her mother’s death, Katya finds the notes for her mother’s last unwritten math textbook. Using them to reflect upon her life and analyze how she got to this point is ridiculously entertaining. Vapnyar writes beautiful, weird, funny characters and the book is full of “warning notes to parents” regarding their children that are spot-on.