xredrighthandx's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
tscott907's review against another edition
3.0
A slightly overwrought “look at us being sad and snippy with each other” read. Usually one of my favorite genres, but this fell short somewhere. Still, there are some pretty sentences and I exhale-laughed knowingly at some dialogue, so it wasn’t a total loss…
I wish the entire thing was about Leslie!
I wish the entire thing was about Leslie!
hannarosebrown's review against another edition
4.0
undesirable, pretentious characters and infidelity are balanced with insightful, somehow relatable prose to make this novel captivating to read as a twenty-something.
clellman's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the author photo, and I hoped to like the protagonist, but I didn't. I didn't even feel like I got to know or care about any of the characters. Would have liked to know Julia; she seemed like the only relateable/non-bad character. I don't tend to enjoy these depress-y morally empty books where the characters just loll around drunk and stoned. Also the parts about the dog; "Why I am I reading this sentence about the dog running over or barking or doing whatever?" A disappointment.
laurab2125's review against another edition
2.0
I think I'm not the intended audience for this book; I'm old enough to not find much entertainment in reading about a late-20's aged dude who spends his life wanting to be a writer, but instead mostly is high, drunk and cheating on his medical-student/writer girlfriend. Some of the writing was engaging, but I never cared about the protagonist, Peter.
The book, written in several parts, goes between a first-person story told by Peter and third person telling of some of Leslie's backstory. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if that were flipped? Leslie is, at least to me, the far more intriguing character in this book. And we never learn enough about Peter's girlfriend Julia to really care all that much about her, either.
So, in a word.... eh.
The book, written in several parts, goes between a first-person story told by Peter and third person telling of some of Leslie's backstory. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if that were flipped? Leslie is, at least to me, the far more intriguing character in this book. And we never learn enough about Peter's girlfriend Julia to really care all that much about her, either.
So, in a word.... eh.
merrilywereadalong777's review against another edition
2.0
Martin is clearly a witty skilled writer but I just kept thinking with so much work and lifeblood that goes into a novel THIS was the story you wanted to tell?? Some literary intellectual fuck boy "just trying to be nice" and being generally shitty to all around him. Don't get me wrong parts of it were amusing but after say 70 pages I'd certainly had enough but decided to finish since it's thankfully a relatively short book
bianka_42's review against another edition
4.0
This is the kind of book you hate to love. A story about pretentious, privileged, anxious, and depressed creative types wasting away their youths judging other people and their art while procrastinating and ultimately failing to produce anything, much less anything of worth?? Utterly unrelatable!
raykluender's review against another edition
5.0
Martin is a new favorite writer for me. If you have little tolerance for self-aware, erudite creative types drowning their anxieties in self-destructive behavior, I'd probably stay away. But if that's your bag, have I got the book for you.
The observational qualities of the novel were brilliant, there were a bunch of passages that made me laugh out loud and a bunch that left me twisting a turn of phrase around in my head in admiration. The cultural references are deeply relatable for me (there's a particularly funny exchange regarding Yeezus) and it's pretty neat to read this kind of novel from an author roughly my age.
Peter and Leslie are obviously trainwrecks; they're not supposed to be admirable characters. But they're the kind of characters who serve both as a good hang and a Stoic-style thought experiment of the worst paths one's life could take if one loosened their grip on ambitions and leaned into oblivion.
I hesitate to widely recommend this book because I think it'll rub some people the wrong way, but I loved it and devoured it in two beautiful afternoons on the Esplanade.
The observational qualities of the novel were brilliant, there were a bunch of passages that made me laugh out loud and a bunch that left me twisting a turn of phrase around in my head in admiration. The cultural references are deeply relatable for me (there's a particularly funny exchange regarding Yeezus) and it's pretty neat to read this kind of novel from an author roughly my age.
Peter and Leslie are obviously trainwrecks; they're not supposed to be admirable characters. But they're the kind of characters who serve both as a good hang and a Stoic-style thought experiment of the worst paths one's life could take if one loosened their grip on ambitions and leaned into oblivion.
I hesitate to widely recommend this book because I think it'll rub some people the wrong way, but I loved it and devoured it in two beautiful afternoons on the Esplanade.
ranireadsbooks's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
sad
fast-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
4.0
elainepeek's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0