erindoesdesign's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mamalemma's review
5.0
This is a delicious book: a great story, gorgeously written. I couldn’t put it down and was totally immersed in it’s fine world (at least the world as remembered and lovingly tended by Bit, the main character. I know this world in real life would have been hard and scary to me, both as a child and adult. It’s part of the accomplishment of the writing to make this world so attractive.) I loved all the people as if they were my own, and wept and laughed with them. The writing is lush and beautiful, the words easily weaving emotion and image in a way few authors can achieve. To wit:
“Pigeons sit heaped on the roofline, buttoning house to sky.”
“He thinks of the rotten parachute they played with as kids in Arcadia: they hurtle through life aging unimaginably fast, but each grasps a silken edge of memory that billows between them and softens the long fall.”
I am sad that the book has ended, but much like the protagonist, Bit, I believe that I, too, will return to Arcadia in my mind from time to time. It’s an extraordinary book — go read it!
“Pigeons sit heaped on the roofline, buttoning house to sky.”
“He thinks of the rotten parachute they played with as kids in Arcadia: they hurtle through life aging unimaginably fast, but each grasps a silken edge of memory that billows between them and softens the long fall.”
I am sad that the book has ended, but much like the protagonist, Bit, I believe that I, too, will return to Arcadia in my mind from time to time. It’s an extraordinary book — go read it!
lilacs_'s review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
4.75
krysreads's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Drug use, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol
Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Rape
kaileycool's review against another edition
5.0
This was perhaps my third or fourth time trying to read this book. I’m glad I persisted because it was beautiful. I sobbed through the last ten pages.
katrinaamartin's review against another edition
4.0
Groff’s pose is as stunning as ever, and I love how this book explores themes of identity, community, and our relationship with nature. However, I felt like this book fell off at the end a bit, and had me rushing to finish. The middle was delicious though!
jmooremyers's review against another edition
3.0
City of the Sun / Heliopolis / Isles of the Blest / Garden of Earthly Delights
Parts of the world click into shape, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. But the puzzle is alive; it grows; new pieces appear for him to fit together faster than he can gather them in his mind."(p 21)
Time comes to him one morning, stealing in. ... he understands something he never knew to question. He sees it clearly, now, how time is flexible, a rubber band. It can stretch long and be clumped tight, can be knotted and folder over itself, and all the while it is endless, a loop. There will be night and then morning, and then night again. The year will end, another one will begin, will end. (p 71)
He closes his eyes to keep the daydream in. Fervently, he bargains. It doesn't have to be as perfect as it had been in the brief pulse of a vision. He knows that a longing for perfection is the hole in the dam that can let everything pour out. (p 115)
None of it is as beautiful as the place that lives in his head, of course. Though the vast gulf between imagination and execution is familiar, it still always comes as a sharp surprise. (p 170)
It leaves him breathless at times, how much faith people put in one another. So fragile, the social contract: we will all stand by the rules, move with care and gentleness, invest in the infrastructure, agree with the penalties of failure. ... The invisible tissue of civilization: so thin, so easily rendable. It's a miracle that it exists at all. (p 203)
As ever, his kind is frozen by the magnitude of the problem; the intentionally ignorant still deny that there is a problem. (p 223)
The sky fades from gray to inky blue. The moon, bright arbiter, waits for him. (p 235)
He thinks of Linnaeus's flower clock blooming the hours, chicory to dandelion to water lily to pimpernel, a gentler way to live time. (p 255)
'Why'd you leave the world, Glory?' Bit says. 'Why did you come back?' She stands and shrugs. 'It is lonely,' she says. 'Five years, I was lonely. Then I realized that I was not happy, and would do anything to be taken in and loved. It seems a give-and-take, you know? Freedom or community, community or freedom. One must decide the way one wants to live. I chose community.' (p 268)
He will miss this quiet full of noise: the nighthawks, the way the woods breathe, the things moving unsuspected through the dark. (p 286)
She has more of a shell than he ever will. Already, she watches life from a good distance. This is a gift he has given her. (p 288)
Peace, he knows, can be shattered in a million variations ... He will wait for the hushed spaces in life ... Pay attention, he thinks. Not to the grand gesture, but to the passing breath. ... In this moment that blooms and fades as it passes, he is enough, and all is well in the world. (p 289)
Parts of the world click into shape, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. But the puzzle is alive; it grows; new pieces appear for him to fit together faster than he can gather them in his mind."(p 21)
Time comes to him one morning, stealing in. ... he understands something he never knew to question. He sees it clearly, now, how time is flexible, a rubber band. It can stretch long and be clumped tight, can be knotted and folder over itself, and all the while it is endless, a loop. There will be night and then morning, and then night again. The year will end, another one will begin, will end. (p 71)
He closes his eyes to keep the daydream in. Fervently, he bargains. It doesn't have to be as perfect as it had been in the brief pulse of a vision. He knows that a longing for perfection is the hole in the dam that can let everything pour out. (p 115)
None of it is as beautiful as the place that lives in his head, of course. Though the vast gulf between imagination and execution is familiar, it still always comes as a sharp surprise. (p 170)
It leaves him breathless at times, how much faith people put in one another. So fragile, the social contract: we will all stand by the rules, move with care and gentleness, invest in the infrastructure, agree with the penalties of failure. ... The invisible tissue of civilization: so thin, so easily rendable. It's a miracle that it exists at all. (p 203)
As ever, his kind is frozen by the magnitude of the problem; the intentionally ignorant still deny that there is a problem. (p 223)
The sky fades from gray to inky blue. The moon, bright arbiter, waits for him. (p 235)
He thinks of Linnaeus's flower clock blooming the hours, chicory to dandelion to water lily to pimpernel, a gentler way to live time. (p 255)
'Why'd you leave the world, Glory?' Bit says. 'Why did you come back?' She stands and shrugs. 'It is lonely,' she says. 'Five years, I was lonely. Then I realized that I was not happy, and would do anything to be taken in and loved. It seems a give-and-take, you know? Freedom or community, community or freedom. One must decide the way one wants to live. I chose community.' (p 268)
He will miss this quiet full of noise: the nighthawks, the way the woods breathe, the things moving unsuspected through the dark. (p 286)
She has more of a shell than he ever will. Already, she watches life from a good distance. This is a gift he has given her. (p 288)
Peace, he knows, can be shattered in a million variations ... He will wait for the hushed spaces in life ... Pay attention, he thinks. Not to the grand gesture, but to the passing breath. ... In this moment that blooms and fades as it passes, he is enough, and all is well in the world. (p 289)
aeagle73's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75