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marymerrick's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
I am not sure why the protagonist was such a miserable person. I guess being in a new place gave him the idea that he could be anybody and say anything. Which is one thing, but being a truly mean, despicable person is another. Not much action or storyline. Unclear character development. Since Adam’s poetry was completely fraudulent, for me, no valid point could be made about anything. Some of the writing was quite good, but much of the poetic writing was incomprehensible. I am not fond of Lerner and find his writing pretentious and pointless. That said, I was able to finish it, and was propelled forward by some of the small action and decent writing.
eliserey's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
profoundlymisunderstoodartist's review against another edition
Narrator wants to be my username sooo badddd
iwnbh's review against another edition
3.0
i don't hate lerner's writing style, but i guess it is a very modern-day american MFA type of deal. some sentences are brilliant (this is from the topeka school, but i especially like the line:
“He touched a wrestling state-championship banner hanging in the foyer with the distance of an anthropologist or ghost.”)
the way lerner portrayed the experience of learning a language - of knowing all the basics, all the fundamentals, but still lacking the fluency and confidence that is required in real-life situations - was one of the best parts of this book. the way he described it really stuck with me. i think he said something like hearing another character's sentences and not really understanding it fully, but understanding it like notes of a chord, disparate ideas without real syntax. a picture so big as to be meaningless. i'm learning spanish in school and that's really what it feels like.
the main character was insufferable but i (very unhappily) found myself relating to him at times. i think unlikable/critically flawed characters can still successfully lead stories though. the experience was very grating but since the book wasn't that long i was able to get through it. and despite there being so many cringe-worthy scenes, there was enough appealing writing that it made it almost worth it (like the second language stuff).
i can't say in good faith that i enjoyed reading this. however, i would recommend it over the topeka school, for those who want to read lerner's work but aren't sure where to start.
“He touched a wrestling state-championship banner hanging in the foyer with the distance of an anthropologist or ghost.”)
the way lerner portrayed the experience of learning a language - of knowing all the basics, all the fundamentals, but still lacking the fluency and confidence that is required in real-life situations - was one of the best parts of this book. the way he described it really stuck with me. i think he said something like hearing another character's sentences and not really understanding it fully, but understanding it like notes of a chord, disparate ideas without real syntax. a picture so big as to be meaningless. i'm learning spanish in school and that's really what it feels like.
the main character was insufferable but i (very unhappily) found myself relating to him at times. i think unlikable/critically flawed characters can still successfully lead stories though. the experience was very grating but since the book wasn't that long i was able to get through it. and despite there being so many cringe-worthy scenes, there was enough appealing writing that it made it almost worth it (like the second language stuff).
i can't say in good faith that i enjoyed reading this. however, i would recommend it over the topeka school, for those who want to read lerner's work but aren't sure where to start.
diandian's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sofiaf10's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
i love to hate a pretentious narrator. the writing style was more interesting than the actual plot.
acselman's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
christopherc's review against another edition
3.0
While still a young man, the American writer Ben Lerner won a year-long literary fellowship in Madrid in 2004. Some years later, he published this novel that seems to be a thinly fictionalized account of that year in Spain. As a foreign student in Madrid whose time there overlapped with Lerner’s (we never met), I was curious to see his impressions of the city. In fact, other than some shared geographical landmarks, our experiences were nothing alike. Nevertheless, the novel has some features that made it worthwhile, albeit not the indisputable modern classic it is sometimes held up as.
One memorable feature is the sheer unlikability of the protagonist, although this does not make the narrative itself unlikable. “Adam Gordon” is a liar, a drug addict, a literary fraud, cantankerous, obsessive and possibly autistic – and he is well aware of this. This Bildungsroman perhaps benefited from being written several years after the events it describes, when Lerner could look back more soberly on his younger self.
Besides the protagonist’s revealing these personal foibles through one botched social relationship after another, little happens in this novel. Some reviewers have criticized that, but the narrative is elevated through the rich language Lerner uses to tell it and the sheer introspection into his experiences, for example:
The protagonist refers several times to John Ashbery as his favorite poet, and your enjoyment of this novel may relate to how much you can enjoy Ashbery.
Ultimately my rating is a middling one. I feel that the narrative starts to lose its carefully sculpted quality and interest towards the end of Gordon’s stay in Madrid, for example, when the aftermath of the 2004 Madrid train bombings is described in a less engaging fashion than preceding material. Also, tThe book doesn’t so much rise to a emotionally moving ending as simply stop at the end of that fellowship year.
One memorable feature is the sheer unlikability of the protagonist, although this does not make the narrative itself unlikable. “Adam Gordon” is a liar, a drug addict, a literary fraud, cantankerous, obsessive and possibly autistic – and he is well aware of this. This Bildungsroman perhaps benefited from being written several years after the events it describes, when Lerner could look back more soberly on his younger self.
Besides the protagonist’s revealing these personal foibles through one botched social relationship after another, little happens in this novel. Some reviewers have criticized that, but the narrative is elevated through the rich language Lerner uses to tell it and the sheer introspection into his experiences, for example:
My plan had been to teach myself Spanish by reading masterworks of Spanish literature and I had fantasized about the nature and effect of a Spanish thus learned, how its archaic flavor and formally heightened rhetoric would collide with the mundanities of daily life, giving the impression less of someone from a foreign country than someone from a foreign time; I imagined using a beautiful and rarefied turn of phrase around the campfire after Jorge had broken out the powerful weed and watching the faces of the others as they realized their failure to understand me was not the issue of my ignorance or accent but their own remove from the zenith of their language.
The protagonist refers several times to John Ashbery as his favorite poet, and your enjoyment of this novel may relate to how much you can enjoy Ashbery.
Ultimately my rating is a middling one. I feel that the narrative starts to lose its carefully sculpted quality and interest towards the end of Gordon’s stay in Madrid, for example, when the aftermath of the 2004 Madrid train bombings is described in a less engaging fashion than preceding material. Also, tThe book doesn’t so much rise to a emotionally moving ending as simply stop at the end of that fellowship year.
madetodecay's review against another edition
4.0
fucking love this narrator. he is so me on a tuesday if i was more of a nitbag (he is really annoying)