cynicalworm's review against another edition
5.0
Really resonated with where I am in life. Prose took a little getting used to but became very comfortable.
madamwobbles's review against another edition
1.0
I don't hate novels without plots. I can follow a meandering, beautifully written character through an uneventful book but Crain's writing bored me, as did Jacob. I barely cared about any of the characters and ending up skimming through half of it before giving up. This was pretty disappointing, especially since I'm really interested in post-Velvet Revolution Prague. Sigh.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
Set just after the 1990 Czech revolution, this book is clearly a labor of love. Coming in at close to 500 pages, it follow American Jacob Putnam as he travels to Prague hoping to rack up new life experiences. The writing is at times quite lovely, but I never found myself truly invested in the characters -- but that may be as much my fault as Crain's. I do think the book suffers a little under its own weight. I hesitate to throw out accusations of too long, but the shoe just might fit this time. If Crain had trimmed the book down a bit, it may have dragged less and I may have found it a touch more engaging. As it stands, there's not a lot of movement or tension that kept me turning the pages.
flightpool's review against another edition
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.0
windingdot's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this more than I did. There were some passages in it that really were beautiful and thought-provoking. But for the most part, I found it tedious. It was overlong for the amount of plot, honestly. The protagonist, Jacob, just wasn't a particularly interesting character, and the people in his circle of friends weren't drawn distinctively enough to tell apart in many cases. I didn't hate it, and, as I said, in some places I really liked it, but overall it's a novel I probably could have skipped.
mattmatros's review against another edition
4.0
First let me say that no one is likely to accuse this book of being a page-turner. The prose is dense, the descriptions lush, and just when a little narrative momentum gets built up, the scene ends and we move to a different location with different characters and all the drama from the previous scene has disappeared. I'm glad I'm forcing myself to read more this December, otherwise this book would've likely taken me several weeks instead of several days.
Having said that, much of the writing is great, and there are plenty of interesting ideas and observations that emerge out of this long novel. Meditations on convention (why do American expats always seem to make themselves come back?), relationships (is it better for the health of a relationship to live in the moment, or to think of the future?), and the power and failure of language pop up throughout the book. As someone who has defied career conventions for more than a decade, a lot of these meditations resonated with me. Some of them resonated so well, in fact, that I'm giving this book an extra star.
But at least a third of the time when these characters were having their pseudo-philosophical arguments I had no idea what they were talking about, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be laughing at their pretentious nonsense, or if I was just too stupid to appreciate their intelligence. Either way, I wasn't laughing.
It's strange to give this book four stars, while simultaneously saying I don't recommend it, but that's the kind of book it is. Beautiful, impressive, and I'm sure I'll never read it again.
Having said that, much of the writing is great, and there are plenty of interesting ideas and observations that emerge out of this long novel. Meditations on convention (why do American expats always seem to make themselves come back?), relationships (is it better for the health of a relationship to live in the moment, or to think of the future?), and the power and failure of language pop up throughout the book. As someone who has defied career conventions for more than a decade, a lot of these meditations resonated with me. Some of them resonated so well, in fact, that I'm giving this book an extra star.
But at least a third of the time when these characters were having their pseudo-philosophical arguments I had no idea what they were talking about, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be laughing at their pretentious nonsense, or if I was just too stupid to appreciate their intelligence. Either way, I wasn't laughing.
It's strange to give this book four stars, while simultaneously saying I don't recommend it, but that's the kind of book it is. Beautiful, impressive, and I'm sure I'll never read it again.
adevans16's review against another edition
3.0
Expats in Prague, 1990. Sounds awful, but is wonderful.
sarahjsnider's review against another edition
2.0
Why was this so long, though? At least 75 pages could have been trimmed without much effort. Not much happened to these characters, and what did happen didn't need to be experienced in real time. Why was the class of dissident ESL students even brought up? I'm a future ESL teacher (I hope), and I was very interested in reading about the full experience. But some editing would have made this a better novel.
I thought Jacob's coming out process was incredibly slow, too. It was the 1990s, and I've never come out to anyone, so maybe that's how it was done back then. But his group of friends was allegedly so close-knit, but Jacob didn't come out to all of them until...nine months after meeting them? Seems a bit slow. Overall, Jacob seems really immature about his attitudes toward sexuality, but that was meant to reflect the transition Prague was going through at the time. I feel more inclined to check out the author's short stories, but this novel doesn't quite work for me.
I thought Jacob's coming out process was incredibly slow, too. It was the 1990s, and I've never come out to anyone, so maybe that's how it was done back then. But his group of friends was allegedly so close-knit, but Jacob didn't come out to all of them until...nine months after meeting them? Seems a bit slow. Overall, Jacob seems really immature about his attitudes toward sexuality, but that was meant to reflect the transition Prague was going through at the time. I feel more inclined to check out the author's short stories, but this novel doesn't quite work for me.
mdbow22's review against another edition
1.0
I was excited for this book: a gay man living in Prague just after the Velvet Revolution. Prague has become one of the most accepting cities in Eastern Europe for the LGBT, so I thought this might be a good insight into that (the book claims to be about what it means to be gay in Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War).
Instead I got a boring fresh-out-of-college man who puts out before even asking if he's on a real date. And he does it after a partner jokes about having AIDS. I didn't think people were that stupid. Most of the novel takes place in bars, coffee shops, and gay nightclubs (where everyone is either a prostitute or looking for one! Because that actually happens).
I couldn't figure out if the author was ever trying to get to a point, and I couldn't empathize with the protagonist at all. I felt like the author simply sat down and started writing without any idea where he was going to go, and he never bothered to figure it out. That sort of writing can work under the right circumstances, but the book is 480 pages. My attention span isn't big enough for such a long book of nothing. Stephenie Meyer would be proud.
Instead I got a boring fresh-out-of-college man who puts out before even asking if he's on a real date. And he does it after a partner jokes about having AIDS. I didn't think people were that stupid. Most of the novel takes place in bars, coffee shops, and gay nightclubs (where everyone is either a prostitute or looking for one! Because that actually happens).
I couldn't figure out if the author was ever trying to get to a point, and I couldn't empathize with the protagonist at all. I felt like the author simply sat down and started writing without any idea where he was going to go, and he never bothered to figure it out. That sort of writing can work under the right circumstances, but the book is 480 pages. My attention span isn't big enough for such a long book of nothing. Stephenie Meyer would be proud.