beth_pattison's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
rosiefrog's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
spiderfelt's review against another edition
3.0
This was another difficult book to rate because the storytelling was very fine, but the story itself was not especially engaging. On a ten point scale, I would rate this a 7.It may be because I'm in the middle of listening to several books full of drama and action that I become spoiled to the subtle story. Jon McGregor crafts this tale with finesse and grace using several interesting devices to frame the narrative.
sarahmorecoffee's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't enjoy it as much as "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things", but it is still a wonderful read. The pace and tone of the novel are understated and simple. It's a novel about the ordinary.
mazza57's review against another edition
5.0
I so loved this book which took a unique view through the narrative of one man's life. The use of memory and memento to colour in the important parts was innovative and really moving. The reader was taken from the 1940's to the present day through a complex interwoven storyline the features both truth and lies, the known and the unknown The writing was excellent a real triumph of a book.
frostblade's review against another edition
3.0
Prezentarile acestui roman se refera invariabil la faptul ca protagonistul, David Carter, afla printr-o intamplare despre faptul ca fusese adoptat, motiv pentru care porneste in cautarea mamei adevarate. Din fericire romanul nu este chiar atat de bidimensional. Autorul creeaza mai degraba o cronica a protagonistului sau si nu se plafoneaza pe o singura idee.
Ba mai mult, David Carter este un personaj minutios prezentat; pasiunea sa pentru istorie va avea de multe ori repercursiuni in viata sa de zi cu zi. Problemele si trairile sale par autentice, iar David devine si ramane un personaj interesant, cu toate ca are o serie de reactii ciudate in legatura cu aflarea adoptiei mentionate anterior.
Nu m-au impresionat insa atat de mult personajele feminine; am ramas cu senzatia ca Jon McGregor are tendinta de a crea personaje feminine vulnerabile, din varii motive.
Ceea ce mi-a placut insa la Atatea inceputuri este stilul. Scriitura lui McGregor este placuta, desi poate ca nu este tocmai spectaculoasa. Mi-au placut titlurile de capitole, care mentioneaza cate un obiect, precum si localizarea acestora in timp, trecerile de la o perioada la alta sau perspectiva cat se poate de vizuala a istoriei pe care o traieste David.
Ba mai mult, David Carter este un personaj minutios prezentat; pasiunea sa pentru istorie va avea de multe ori repercursiuni in viata sa de zi cu zi. Problemele si trairile sale par autentice, iar David devine si ramane un personaj interesant, cu toate ca are o serie de reactii ciudate in legatura cu aflarea adoptiei mentionate anterior.
Nu m-au impresionat insa atat de mult personajele feminine; am ramas cu senzatia ca Jon McGregor are tendinta de a crea personaje feminine vulnerabile, din varii motive.
Ceea ce mi-a placut insa la Atatea inceputuri este stilul. Scriitura lui McGregor este placuta, desi poate ca nu este tocmai spectaculoasa. Mi-au placut titlurile de capitole, care mentioneaza cate un obiect, precum si localizarea acestora in timp, trecerile de la o perioada la alta sau perspectiva cat se poate de vizuala a istoriei pe care o traieste David.
vgk's review against another edition
3.0
I was really blown away by McGregor's two other novels, 'Even the Dogs' and 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things'. I thought they were both flawless books, with beautiful prose, inventive structures and styles, and sharp and compassionate observations. I would classify both books as more than just novels, I would classify them as art. After them, 'So Many Ways to Begin' was a bit disappointing. The beautiful prose is still present, as are the sharp and compassionate observations, but the story itself was lacking for me. Where his other books have you desperate to turn the page, to work out what the story is really about, this book's plot is obvious from the first pages. I also found I wasn't all that interested or involved with the characters. I could easily have put the book down and never picked it up again throughout it's entire length. In fact I would have, had I not been so impressed by his other books. It was an effort to read this, and I would be mortified if anybody read this first and consequently decided against reading his other novels. It isn't a bad book, it just doesn't live up to the quality of his other work in my opinion. Jon McGregor is a brilliant writer, this just isn't his finest work.
zoemig's review against another edition
4.0
"These things, the way they fall into place. The people we would be if these things were otherwise."
So Many Ways To Begin by Jon McGregor's second novel, the touching and complicated story of David Carter and the lives that are tangled into his. David is a collector of things, a man who dreamed of having his own museum since he was a little boy, who carried home rejected belongings from former bomb sites in England as his own pieces of history. Every object in David's collection tells a story, and So Many Ways To Begin is a collection of these stories, with each belonging being linked to a specific incident in David's life which is recalled throughout the book. After his increasingly senile Aunt Julia lets slip a family secret David is forced to reassess the history he thought he knew as he goes digging for what really happened. The story moves non-chronologically throughout time, as David marries his long-distance Scottish girlfriend Eleanor at a young age and eventually becomes a father. The novel is the result of a specific series of events which would have produced an entirely different outcome if anything had happened differently- but if it had McGregor wouldn't have had such a beautiful story to tell.
So Many Ways To Begin manages to be complex, told in little pieces which end up connecting into a beautiful and pure story. McGregor's writing is reserved and subtle, with a lyricalness and beauty infused in it. The novel flows with an elegance that is distinct and lovely. It is extremely difficult to capture what is so wonderful about So Many Ways To Begin because it is a novel which is unique, which manages to begin again and again, each time drawing the reader into a different time and giving them a taste of it before moving on and beginning again. In the end, McGregor tells a story with wisdom and grace far beyond what you would expect of such a young writer; So Many Ways To Begin is a novel with a deep soul and so many connections you can't help but become tangled in the beauty of them.****
So Many Ways To Begin by Jon McGregor's second novel, the touching and complicated story of David Carter and the lives that are tangled into his. David is a collector of things, a man who dreamed of having his own museum since he was a little boy, who carried home rejected belongings from former bomb sites in England as his own pieces of history. Every object in David's collection tells a story, and So Many Ways To Begin is a collection of these stories, with each belonging being linked to a specific incident in David's life which is recalled throughout the book. After his increasingly senile Aunt Julia lets slip a family secret David is forced to reassess the history he thought he knew as he goes digging for what really happened. The story moves non-chronologically throughout time, as David marries his long-distance Scottish girlfriend Eleanor at a young age and eventually becomes a father. The novel is the result of a specific series of events which would have produced an entirely different outcome if anything had happened differently- but if it had McGregor wouldn't have had such a beautiful story to tell.
So Many Ways To Begin manages to be complex, told in little pieces which end up connecting into a beautiful and pure story. McGregor's writing is reserved and subtle, with a lyricalness and beauty infused in it. The novel flows with an elegance that is distinct and lovely. It is extremely difficult to capture what is so wonderful about So Many Ways To Begin because it is a novel which is unique, which manages to begin again and again, each time drawing the reader into a different time and giving them a taste of it before moving on and beginning again. In the end, McGregor tells a story with wisdom and grace far beyond what you would expect of such a young writer; So Many Ways To Begin is a novel with a deep soul and so many connections you can't help but become tangled in the beauty of them.****
deea_bks's review against another edition
5.0
There are more kinds of books: the ones that you perceive as wonderful, but you struggle to get them finished as they have a really difficult style, the ones that you like for the story, but not so much for the eloquence of their writing, the ones that you like for the eloquence of writing, but not so much for the story, the ones that are great, but which are not very complex, and the ones that once you connect to their story don’t cease to impress you. You would say that my list above is not exhaustive and you are right: this is just a subjective categorization. It however serves the point I want to make: “So Many Ways to Begin” is a member of the last category: once you get connected to its story, it never stops being amazing, not for a page, not even for a line. Just Like “Stoner” or “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, books that I discovered last year.
The temporal plans in this book are craftily juggled: there are short episodes from the future or present intercalated with the past, but mainly, the author keeps a chronological order. I’m not sure how to explain this, but what he succeeds in doing is magnificent: he can add only a glimpse of an idea that he will have in the future or a memory from the future and then unravel past and present events chronologically until you realize that he is actually explaining how that idea/memory formed over time. He therefore found this unique way to explore the ”so many ways to begin”: how relationships form over time, how we can lie just because saying the truth is extremely difficult, how we may judge others because we don’t understand that we would do the same in their place in the same situation, how abuse in childhood affects us as adults, how when committing adultery, people might do this out of solitude and frustration and helplessness, rather than out of a desire to be treacherous.
There are similarities between the other book by Jon McGregor that I read (“If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things”) and this one that I could not help but notice: there is an abusive mother that we are told about (in INSRT her actions were not presented in detail, we were only told about one of the characters’ difficult relationship with her mother; here however, Eleanor’s mother’s behavior is presented extensively); David gathers all kinds of objects and exhibits them in the house ever since he was a child and also each chapter of the book centers its story around important objects from David and Eleanor’s life which are catalogued in the same way the exhibits in a museum are (while in INSRT one of the characters gathers objects belonging to his neighbors and takes snapshots of them in an attempt to take a mental picture of the humans surrounding him).
The temporal plans in this book are craftily juggled: there are short episodes from the future or present intercalated with the past, but mainly, the author keeps a chronological order. I’m not sure how to explain this, but what he succeeds in doing is magnificent: he can add only a glimpse of an idea that he will have in the future or a memory from the future and then unravel past and present events chronologically until you realize that he is actually explaining how that idea/memory formed over time. He therefore found this unique way to explore the ”so many ways to begin”: how relationships form over time, how we can lie just because saying the truth is extremely difficult, how we may judge others because we don’t understand that we would do the same in their place in the same situation, how abuse in childhood affects us as adults, how when committing adultery, people might do this out of solitude and frustration and helplessness, rather than out of a desire to be treacherous.
There are similarities between the other book by Jon McGregor that I read (“If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things”) and this one that I could not help but notice: there is an abusive mother that we are told about (in INSRT her actions were not presented in detail, we were only told about one of the characters’ difficult relationship with her mother; here however, Eleanor’s mother’s behavior is presented extensively); David gathers all kinds of objects and exhibits them in the house ever since he was a child and also each chapter of the book centers its story around important objects from David and Eleanor’s life which are catalogued in the same way the exhibits in a museum are (while in INSRT one of the characters gathers objects belonging to his neighbors and takes snapshots of them in an attempt to take a mental picture of the humans surrounding him).
You get to discover together with David his life story in a similar way in which you discover stories when/after visiting a museum. You see objects, you read their description, their history, their importance in the characters’ life, you might even start investigating more and digging for more details. Then, you compile all the stories about the objects you’ve seen and this helps you scribble a story in your head. It’s not a complete one, a story can never touch all the aspects of a real life, but you get a very clear picture of what it must’ve been like. And this is what Jon McGregor does: he tells us the story of two normal people (just like me, or you or someone we know) who are fragile as only humans can be and he explores where it all begins (how they turned to be the people they are, when exactly they began making certain mistakes, what determined them, how they became depressed, what made them happy or unhappy, what was the exact beginning of the outcomes of the present).
“These things, the way they happen. These things, the way they begin.” “Isn’t it funny to think we almost never met?”
nocto's review against another edition
5.0
This book has a long prologue entirely written in italics. I decided I hated the book and I might as well skip the unreadable prologue and see if the chapters were any better. They were.
I liked the way the story was put together by a museum creator handling objects from his family's past and recalling stories associated with them. I also liked the way all the speech was reported with not a quote mark in sight. The story itself isn't anything remarkable; it's just a very nicely told tale of fairly ordinary happenings that are kind of out of the ordinary in themselves. Hard to explain.
I went back and read the italicised prologue when I reached the end of the book. I don't think I missed anything; all it does is confirm that something that happens at the end of the story happened how you thought it did from reading the rest of the book. Seemed to be spoiler like to me. I thought the book was better off without it anyway.
I liked the way the story was put together by a museum creator handling objects from his family's past and recalling stories associated with them. I also liked the way all the speech was reported with not a quote mark in sight. The story itself isn't anything remarkable; it's just a very nicely told tale of fairly ordinary happenings that are kind of out of the ordinary in themselves. Hard to explain.
I went back and read the italicised prologue when I reached the end of the book. I don't think I missed anything; all it does is confirm that something that happens at the end of the story happened how you thought it did from reading the rest of the book. Seemed to be spoiler like to me. I thought the book was better off without it anyway.