treandgro's review against another edition
2.0
If you are looking for an unexpected, fizzy take on Southern Gothic, you'll find much to love here. This imagined history of a Mississippi dynasty finding success, excess, and secrets stretching across generations weaves together people and events real and imagined with an approach that reads as "Ragtime" and "Colonel Roosevelt" cocktail. In some places, decades are spanned in single sentences; the omnipotent POV it adopts makes this work to some extent, but with the frenetic pace of switching between a panorama of interconnected characters and timelines, it can be a challenge to remember to feel for these characters. About halfway through, one of the fictional characters notes of a real-life celebrity who makes her way into the narrative that it was the first time she had emoted rather than performed emotion. For all its dazzle, its many whip-smart references, ambitious humor, and incisive observations of cultural context, that captures my overall reaction to this novel: it performs. That lends additional power to the moments where it really allows itself to breathe, and explores a discrete space and time for extended periods. I found it most successful in evoking empathy for its characters in these sections. In short, there's something to love for most readers in this book; I just wish it had more of that stuff that I love.
ginger_curmudgeon's review against another edition
3.0
Finally finished this one. That makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy it, which isn’t the case. I did enjoy it. My issues were more external - not being able to focus on reading when I had COVID and then a lack of time when I was working my third job.
I actually really enjoyed this novel. I’m a sucker for historical fiction that blends fact and fiction, and that reads almost like a historical account. I appreciate that the reader was meant to believe this novel to be a historical work about the Forster family and Panola Cola. The inclusion of actual historical books as reference points only adds to that fun. (Side note, if you have a physical copy, look at the pages toward the very end of the book.) You can tell Wright spent some time and effort fine tuning the details of the story. He returned to Mississippi for, I think, a year and a half to work on this book.
Non-linear storytelling can be difficult - trying to keep characters straight and trying to maintain some semblance of events. But, I think Wright’s version of this works well. You might get a couple of sentences or less telling you something happens, only for the details to come much later in the book. I think of it as spoilers within the text. In this case, they made me that much more interested in finding out what happened later.
I did occasionally have difficulty maintaining interest. I think in some instances it was due to the level of detail, whether it was too much or too little. Ramsey’s time in Paris being the one that stands out the most. Take out the prostitution part (I kept wanting to ask her why she went along with it) and the Paris story would have been more interesting, but I do appreciate how he tied that into Ramsey’s overall story.
I think some of the delivery can be thought of as Wright taking the easy way out or him wrapping up arcs he doesn’t care about, but I sort of appreciate the quick hit details around how some of the family members met their demise versus having more chapters devoted to those details. I also think there are some families that just have luck that follows that path so it doesn’t bother me how “messed up” the family wound up being. If you think about it, we have those families in real life too.
I actually really enjoyed this novel. I’m a sucker for historical fiction that blends fact and fiction, and that reads almost like a historical account. I appreciate that the reader was meant to believe this novel to be a historical work about the Forster family and Panola Cola. The inclusion of actual historical books as reference points only adds to that fun. (Side note, if you have a physical copy, look at the pages toward the very end of the book.) You can tell Wright spent some time and effort fine tuning the details of the story. He returned to Mississippi for, I think, a year and a half to work on this book.
Non-linear storytelling can be difficult - trying to keep characters straight and trying to maintain some semblance of events. But, I think Wright’s version of this works well. You might get a couple of sentences or less telling you something happens, only for the details to come much later in the book. I think of it as spoilers within the text. In this case, they made me that much more interested in finding out what happened later.
I did occasionally have difficulty maintaining interest. I think in some instances it was due to the level of detail, whether it was too much or too little. Ramsey’s time in Paris being the one that stands out the most. Take out the prostitution part (I kept wanting to ask her why she went along with it) and the Paris story would have been more interesting, but I do appreciate how he tied that into Ramsey’s overall story.
I think some of the delivery can be thought of as Wright taking the easy way out or him wrapping up arcs he doesn’t care about, but I sort of appreciate the quick hit details around how some of the family members met their demise versus having more chapters devoted to those details. I also think there are some families that just have luck that follows that path so it doesn’t bother me how “messed up” the family wound up being. If you think about it, we have those families in real life too.
lutecephysics's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
hlpaterson's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
cheye13's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
4.0
jenabest's review against another edition
3.0
This was hard to rate, so I kind of went for average.
"The gas chromatography indicates we're off by as little as one point three grams of something."
As someone who does GC/MS for flavor for work every. single. day. this made my brain ITCH. That's not how GC/MS works.
My biggest problem wasn't the itchy brain though. This was probably the jumpiest story I've ever read. The individual stories were really quite interesting! But the way it is structured has you jumping in time, viewpoint, or both in each chapter - sometimes even on the same page!
I think I would have liked this so much more if it just stuck to a single structure. Its like there were so many ideas that the author wanted to try them all, when it should have followed the idea of Coco Chanel and taken at least one artistic style out before it left the (publishing) house.
"The gas chromatography indicates we're off by as little as one point three grams of something."
As someone who does GC/MS for flavor for work every. single. day. this made my brain ITCH. That's not how GC/MS works.
My biggest problem wasn't the itchy brain though. This was probably the jumpiest story I've ever read. The individual stories were really quite interesting! But the way it is structured has you jumping in time, viewpoint, or both in each chapter - sometimes even on the same page!
I think I would have liked this so much more if it just stuck to a single structure. Its like there were so many ideas that the author wanted to try them all, when it should have followed the idea of Coco Chanel and taken at least one artistic style out before it left the (publishing) house.
bbennett128's review against another edition
4.0
(4 stars)
Pros:
- The concept of this book was super interesting, a kind of fictional nonfiction of sorts. I loved where this book went and all the characters we got to meet. Each was so unique and I found myself really enjoying learning about their lives even though I'm usually more of a plot-driven reader.
- I loved the author's writing style and how he explained or worded things. I felt really beautiful/lyrical without being overly confusing or convoluted.
Cons:
- the format of this book took away from the story for me. Its extremely non-linear, jumping between generations, characters, and points in character's lives with no warning or real reason. I didn't see the reason or need for this, and it made it difficult for me to keep track of deaths/births, major milestones, and all the other things that shaped the character's stories. Although everything does wrap up and connect at the end (kinda) I still had to keep flipping back while reading to remind myself of what had happened and where we were in the timeline of the family, which was distracting to my reading experience. If it had followed a more straight forward path through the generations I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more.
Conclusion:
- If the premise sounds interesting to you and you're more of a character-driven reader vs a plot-driven reader, give this one a shot!
Pros:
- The concept of this book was super interesting, a kind of fictional nonfiction of sorts. I loved where this book went and all the characters we got to meet. Each was so unique and I found myself really enjoying learning about their lives even though I'm usually more of a plot-driven reader.
- I loved the author's writing style and how he explained or worded things. I felt really beautiful/lyrical without being overly confusing or convoluted.
Cons:
- the format of this book took away from the story for me. Its extremely non-linear, jumping between generations, characters, and points in character's lives with no warning or real reason. I didn't see the reason or need for this, and it made it difficult for me to keep track of deaths/births, major milestones, and all the other things that shaped the character's stories. Although everything does wrap up and connect at the end (kinda) I still had to keep flipping back while reading to remind myself of what had happened and where we were in the timeline of the family, which was distracting to my reading experience. If it had followed a more straight forward path through the generations I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more.
Conclusion:
- If the premise sounds interesting to you and you're more of a character-driven reader vs a plot-driven reader, give this one a shot!
amecola's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
patsaintsfan's review against another edition
1.0
Well, this is a DNF For me. I actually won this through librarything, but I couldn't get through it. I didn't like the set-up of the chapters.i didn't like the racist tone of the book. I'm so sad, because I was really looking forward to reading this novel. However, I just couldn't do it. Sigh.