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jaclyncrupi's review
3.0
I did not love this as much as I thought I would. It’s another attempt at a millenial novel but it fell well short of its conceit. I was initially repulsed by the (half) siblings having sex but I must say that Hauser handled this incredibly well ultimately and used it to very interesting effect. But still, gross.
detrasystem's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
tobyleblancauthor's review
5.0
I've waited for this book for years. Years before I knew about CJ Hauser I wanted this. "The Crane Wife" was an appetizer for this deep dive into regret, depravity, family, understanding, and paradise. Not a page went by where I was not completely mesmerized by the characters, the pacing, and the thoughtfulness. While the siblings create a lifeline throughout the story, the other scientists on Leap's Island bring us deeper into the despair of climate change until our own lives of social media and full highways feel absurd.
The narrative explores researchers ("Reversalists") as they come to understand how evolution is moving backward. So too do the siblings, Elsa and Nolan, move through their father's death and the wake of his parenting. Hauser masterfully brings us back through painful, formative moments, the kind we think of for hours in adulthood before being able to fall asleep. Both Elsa and Nolan are so real, so accessible, you wonder if Hauser has been siphoning your own insecurities in your sleep (I had many a moment of looking up from the page to stare at wall just to have blank space in my mind to ponder the depth of characters).
Climate change is scary, and Hauser does not shy away from this fact. Instead she leans all the way in, and then falls in, making us enjoy the plummet. As this genre continues to blossom I will continue to measure other books with the same purview against this one.
The narrative explores researchers ("Reversalists") as they come to understand how evolution is moving backward. So too do the siblings, Elsa and Nolan, move through their father's death and the wake of his parenting. Hauser masterfully brings us back through painful, formative moments, the kind we think of for hours in adulthood before being able to fall asleep. Both Elsa and Nolan are so real, so accessible, you wonder if Hauser has been siphoning your own insecurities in your sleep (I had many a moment of looking up from the page to stare at wall just to have blank space in my mind to ponder the depth of characters).
Climate change is scary, and Hauser does not shy away from this fact. Instead she leans all the way in, and then falls in, making us enjoy the plummet. As this genre continues to blossom I will continue to measure other books with the same purview against this one.
ammartinez86's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
kangaruthie's review
3.0
(3.5/5)
I have SUCH mixed feelings about this book. I was initially very excited about it because I absolutely love the author's article "The Crane Wife," originally published in the Paris Review, about the research she was conducting for the book: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/16/the-crane-wife/.
There were several parts of the book I really enjoyed:
1) Hauser is a great writer with several lines/passages that can pack a punch, i.e.:
- "They were fondlers of old grudges and conjurers of childhood Band-Aid smells. They were rescripters of ancient fights and relitigators of the past. They were scab-pickers and dead-horse-beaters and wallowers of the first order." The prose was readable, thoughtful, and multi-layered.
2) Elsa's experiences throughout the book touch on several relatable points about the complexities and contradictions of female desire.
- "When men desire things they are 'passionate.' When they feel they have not received something they need they are 'deprived' or even 'emasculated,' and given permission for all sorts of behavior. But when a woman needs she is needy. She is meant to contain within her own self everything necessary to be happy."
- "He knew that she was afraid to ask for small things like this because the need in them did not seem big enough to draw attention. That she was afraid her small needs would go unnoticed, and so she made plays at bigger ones instead."
- "But Elsa could not have anything she wanted. The things she wanted were lost or impossible or unnameable or would collapse under the weight of her need for them, so no, she did not want this, but this, at least, she could have, and so it was yes."
3) The discussions of what it means to be an activist and what it means to be a scientist, especially what type of evidence is necessary for believability and truth.
- "Perhaps there was a quiet dignity in doing nothing rather than doing something well-intentioned but stupid."
- "Sometimes, [scientists] were just as in the dark as the rest of us. Or maybe more, because the good ones knew better than anyone all the things we do not know. How important it was not to be ignorant, but to fully comprehend what was not yet known or knowable. To sit with this kind of necessary uncertainty struck Elsa as a harder task than her current burden of feeling she knew too much."
However, there were also several parts of the book I really disliked and struggled with.
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]
1) First and foremost, I really hated the sexual relationship between the two main characters. You don't find out until halfway through the book that they aren't actually related by blood, which makes the grimacing impact of the all detailed sexual descriptions of their relationship you had to read BEFORE you knew this information feel really cheap. They were raised as half-siblings for most of their lives, but then Elsa finds out they aren't related by blood and seduces Nolan. This scene was messed up in a lot of ways, especially since he was 20 and he was only 14, and at the time he did NOT know they weren't related by blood. Also, the ongoing implication that "blood relations" are the only signifier of family made me extremely uncomfortable. The fact that they're not related by blood is supposed to make the fact that they had sex okay, even though she continues to refer to him as her brother throughout the rest of the book. This theme plays out in Elsa's relationship with her father as well, which crumbles when they both learn he isn't her biological father. Somehow, this nullifies the 6 years he spent raising her as her father?? All of this made me really uncomfortable. And the sexual scenes added absolutely nothing to the story for me - instead, they detracted from it and made me cringe.
2) One of the central themes of the book is that this family is fixated on trying to find a "starting point" for when it all fell apart and when their collective pain started. Maybe it was just because I couldn't relate to this feeling, but I could not understand why the characters were so fixated on this. The author kept bringing it up again and again. It felt pointless to me.
3) The questions the siblings are trying to find out the entire time (what were the circumstances of their father's death, and what scientific research he was working on?) are never actually really answered in a satisfying way. The half-answers you get don't feel satisfying in light of how much time is spent hashing out the questions throughout the rest of the book.
4) The author's stab at exploring a variety of characters' backstories felt underdeveloped and unnecessary. She was not able to fully develop the characters of each scientist on the island by merely spending 2-3 pages hastily explaining how they got there. It felt like she was writing it in a way that was supposed to give a greater impact to the story, whereas it just seemed like a disjointed interruption that didn't add much. Even the main characters in the story felt underdeveloped and difficult to be sympathetic towards.
Overall, I have very polarizing feelings about this book. It is rare for me to read a book that contains things I really enjoy AND really hate within the same pages, but this one somehow hit that mark. I'm not sure whether I would recommend it. If anything, The Crane Wife story hits on much of what I loved about the book in way less space and with exponentially greater impact, so it might be better to read that instead and forget about the book.
I have SUCH mixed feelings about this book. I was initially very excited about it because I absolutely love the author's article "The Crane Wife," originally published in the Paris Review, about the research she was conducting for the book: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/16/the-crane-wife/.
There were several parts of the book I really enjoyed:
1) Hauser is a great writer with several lines/passages that can pack a punch, i.e.:
- "They were fondlers of old grudges and conjurers of childhood Band-Aid smells. They were rescripters of ancient fights and relitigators of the past. They were scab-pickers and dead-horse-beaters and wallowers of the first order." The prose was readable, thoughtful, and multi-layered.
2) Elsa's experiences throughout the book touch on several relatable points about the complexities and contradictions of female desire.
- "When men desire things they are 'passionate.' When they feel they have not received something they need they are 'deprived' or even 'emasculated,' and given permission for all sorts of behavior. But when a woman needs she is needy. She is meant to contain within her own self everything necessary to be happy."
- "He knew that she was afraid to ask for small things like this because the need in them did not seem big enough to draw attention. That she was afraid her small needs would go unnoticed, and so she made plays at bigger ones instead."
- "But Elsa could not have anything she wanted. The things she wanted were lost or impossible or unnameable or would collapse under the weight of her need for them, so no, she did not want this, but this, at least, she could have, and so it was yes."
3) The discussions of what it means to be an activist and what it means to be a scientist, especially what type of evidence is necessary for believability and truth.
- "Perhaps there was a quiet dignity in doing nothing rather than doing something well-intentioned but stupid."
- "Sometimes, [scientists] were just as in the dark as the rest of us. Or maybe more, because the good ones knew better than anyone all the things we do not know. How important it was not to be ignorant, but to fully comprehend what was not yet known or knowable. To sit with this kind of necessary uncertainty struck Elsa as a harder task than her current burden of feeling she knew too much."
However, there were also several parts of the book I really disliked and struggled with.
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]
1) First and foremost, I really hated the sexual relationship between the two main characters. You don't find out until halfway through the book that they aren't actually related by blood, which makes the grimacing impact of the all detailed sexual descriptions of their relationship you had to read BEFORE you knew this information feel really cheap. They were raised as half-siblings for most of their lives, but then Elsa finds out they aren't related by blood and seduces Nolan. This scene was messed up in a lot of ways, especially since he was 20 and he was only 14, and at the time he did NOT know they weren't related by blood. Also, the ongoing implication that "blood relations" are the only signifier of family made me extremely uncomfortable. The fact that they're not related by blood is supposed to make the fact that they had sex okay, even though she continues to refer to him as her brother throughout the rest of the book. This theme plays out in Elsa's relationship with her father as well, which crumbles when they both learn he isn't her biological father. Somehow, this nullifies the 6 years he spent raising her as her father?? All of this made me really uncomfortable. And the sexual scenes added absolutely nothing to the story for me - instead, they detracted from it and made me cringe.
2) One of the central themes of the book is that this family is fixated on trying to find a "starting point" for when it all fell apart and when their collective pain started. Maybe it was just because I couldn't relate to this feeling, but I could not understand why the characters were so fixated on this. The author kept bringing it up again and again. It felt pointless to me.
3) The questions the siblings are trying to find out the entire time (what were the circumstances of their father's death, and what scientific research he was working on?) are never actually really answered in a satisfying way. The half-answers you get don't feel satisfying in light of how much time is spent hashing out the questions throughout the rest of the book.
4) The author's stab at exploring a variety of characters' backstories felt underdeveloped and unnecessary. She was not able to fully develop the characters of each scientist on the island by merely spending 2-3 pages hastily explaining how they got there. It felt like she was writing it in a way that was supposed to give a greater impact to the story, whereas it just seemed like a disjointed interruption that didn't add much. Even the main characters in the story felt underdeveloped and difficult to be sympathetic towards.
Overall, I have very polarizing feelings about this book. It is rare for me to read a book that contains things I really enjoy AND really hate within the same pages, but this one somehow hit that mark. I'm not sure whether I would recommend it. If anything, The Crane Wife story hits on much of what I loved about the book in way less space and with exponentially greater impact, so it might be better to read that instead and forget about the book.
abarkmeier's review
3.0
This book made me uncomfortable because it should have made me more uncomfortable. The pretty light and even heroic discourse around two separate incidences of sexual abuse is alarming, although I appreciate full development of the perpetrators. However their abuses of power with people in their custody (in one form or another) aren’t reckoned with for what they are, but rather for how they inform what kind of feels like a rom com.
fialia's review
4.0
Habla del todo y de la nada. Del universo y de los humanos de los millenials y de las familias. De donde venimos y a donde vamos.
tallystocks's review
3.0
i want to love it, so badly. hauser is essentially unmatched when it comes to prose. it was beautifully written, intriguing and thought provoking.
that being said...i felt she was trying to incorporate too many themes, and it essentially became the downfall of the novel.
that being said...i felt she was trying to incorporate too many themes, and it essentially became the downfall of the novel.
cmorrisclark's review
3.0
An estranged half brother and sister venture to the island on which their late scientist father had been living and working on, studying the "reversal" of human society. An insightful look at challenging family dynamics. Quite lovely prose passages. 3.5/5 stars.
wordsmithreads's review
4.0
Earlier this year, I read, as I am sure many readers of this book have, Hauser's The Crane Wife essay on The Paris Review, and was immediately floored by it and put this book on hold that very day. So this book had been highly-anticipated for me.
That said, while I still find myself drawn further in by The Crane Wife (I think because of the raw honesty), Family of Origin has a similar pull and beauty about it.
I would make the argument that the book, at its core, is a book about growing up and being OK with life not being what you expected. All of us have regretted a choice, or have wanted something to go differently. You have to be OK with how a situation evolves, regardless of its mutations.
Hauser packages this moral in the fraught relationship of three parents and two children, some weird backward-evolving ducks, and (what is essentially) a cult, all while making pretty sharp criticisms and statements about the world we've currently brought ourselves into.
However, that said, I round it up to 4 because of the way Hauser gets her point across—it is no surprise she knows her way around a sentence. Some of my favorite phrases and passages:
- They were scab-pickers and dead-horse-beaters and wallowers of the first order.
- The hot, family smell of dirty sheets forgiven in bleach.
- Nolan thought perhaps there was a quiet dignity in doing nothing rather than doing something well-intentioned but stupid.
- Stillness was frightening, because it meant you were waiting for the other shoe to drop. So long as you ran headlong into trouble, it could never take you by surprise.
- Back when he was still becoming, his parents watching with rapt attention, waiting for him to unfurl into something remarkable.
- To Elsa, it seemed the birders were so empty of life they needed to catalogue the living things they'd spotted: beautiful or ugly winged creatures who couldn't care less about being seen. Be the bird, Elsa thought. Be the bird, not he crazy old lady watching it.
- If such a thing as the Moment It All Went Wrong did exist, it was a moment you made yourself.
- To find any kind of happiness, Elsa would have to turn around.
As a final note, I would disagree with the final line I highlighted. While I think in the context of the story it's beautiful and highlights the crux of Elsa's discontentment, happiness isn't found behind you or in front of you, but by learning to be OK with both of them.
That said, while I still find myself drawn further in by The Crane Wife (I think because of the raw honesty), Family of Origin has a similar pull and beauty about it.
I would make the argument that the book, at its core, is a book about growing up and being OK with life not being what you expected. All of us have regretted a choice, or have wanted something to go differently. You have to be OK with how a situation evolves, regardless of its mutations.
Hauser packages this moral in the fraught relationship of three parents and two children, some weird backward-evolving ducks, and (what is essentially) a cult, all while making pretty sharp criticisms and statements about the world we've currently brought ourselves into.
Spoiler
I have to say, I was really very put off by the incestual nature of Elsa and Nolan's relationship, even after it was revealed that they weren't really truly biologically related. That doesn't matter to me. Biology doesn't make you siblings. Adopted siblings getting married would still be gross. Family is made from shared experiences. I only barely tolerated this part of the novel and it is most of the reason this book hovers at 3.5 to me. The other small portion of the reason is because the lack of quotes was sometimes hard to follow for the dialogue.- They were scab-pickers and dead-horse-beaters and wallowers of the first order.
- The hot, family smell of dirty sheets forgiven in bleach.
- Nolan thought perhaps there was a quiet dignity in doing nothing rather than doing something well-intentioned but stupid.
- Stillness was frightening, because it meant you were waiting for the other shoe to drop. So long as you ran headlong into trouble, it could never take you by surprise.
- Back when he was still becoming, his parents watching with rapt attention, waiting for him to unfurl into something remarkable.
- To Elsa, it seemed the birders were so empty of life they needed to catalogue the living things they'd spotted: beautiful or ugly winged creatures who couldn't care less about being seen. Be the bird, Elsa thought. Be the bird, not he crazy old lady watching it.
- If such a thing as the Moment It All Went Wrong did exist, it was a moment you made yourself.
- To find any kind of happiness, Elsa would have to turn around.
As a final note, I would disagree with the final line I highlighted. While I think in the context of the story it's beautiful and highlights the crux of Elsa's discontentment, happiness isn't found behind you or in front of you, but by learning to be OK with both of them.