kerickertful's review
4.0
I was excited to read this book based on my love for The History of Love, but it was really quite different in both writing style and theme; I found myself appreciating this more as the book went on. It was a pretty heavy book, and although it probably wasn't the best idea to start it in the dead of winter, I can't imagine reading it during the summer either. I love the way Krauss plays with plot and character. When something big happens, it's unexpected and yet is the only logical conclusion. Beautiful writing, once again.
julkatt's review
3.0
While I always appreciate Nicole Krauss's style (there are times when her words leave me absolutely breathless), Great House didn't elicit the powerful emotional response from me as did History of Love (then again, neither did Man Walks Into a Room). Although Krauss provides readers with ample background and information on the characters in order that we may sympathize with their hang-ups, plights, and actions, not enough is done to endear them to us. Most come off as selfish and callous (with some exceptions). Overall, I enjoyed the discovery of each character's story and the realization of their connectedness; I just wish that, throughout the journey, I'd cared a little bit more about how it would all turn out for them.
janice_72's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-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
4.0
ronanmcd's review
5.0
The book required a deep, methodical reading, and rewarded such.
"The dead take their secrets with them, or so they say. But it isn't really true, is it? The secrets of the dead have a viral quality, and find a way to keep themselves Adobe in another host. No, I was guilty of nothing more than the inevitable."
"The dead take their secrets with them, or so they say. But it isn't really true, is it? The secrets of the dead have a viral quality, and find a way to keep themselves Adobe in another host. No, I was guilty of nothing more than the inevitable."
randybo5's review
1.0
Some very lyrical writing with some compelling characters, but totally disjointed with a lack of narrative.
k8iedid's review
2.0
I wanted so so so hard to love this book. I never expected not to even "like" it. It felt like Everything is Illuminated, starring a desk, though in a disjointed (maybe that's attributed to the audiobook version.) way, and lacked the word artistry that I so much loved in History of Love. I normally love stories that tie disparate lives with a common theme -- and I love desks! So sad to follow Men WIthout Gods, another book with an inanimate object as main character, with this one.
The desk was huge and had lots of drawers, got it.
I'm very, very sorry, Nicole.
The desk was huge and had lots of drawers, got it.
I'm very, very sorry, Nicole.
jeezjane's review
3.0
- overall, a book about loss. there is a desk that is introduced in the first chapter, which by default i thought would be the recurring theme of the novel due to how much attention the author gave to it, and i wasn't wrong, but in retrospect i don't think the desk itself is that significant. it doesn't have any magic powers or anything, it's just a desk. one of the characters says that the desk represents death, and i can kind of see that, but it's a bit of a reach...
- anyway there are four storylines: an author, a grieving father, a grieving husband, and a young girl in love. these storylines are only related by thin threads (e.g. the author accidentally runs over the grieving father's son), so they hold up really well by themselves as self-contained novelettes. there is no running plot, other than they have all had some contact with the desk. i would say these stories are more character studies than anything else, because it is all about reminiscing and how people react when their lives have been changed irrevocably by loss: the author loses a friend and her own bearings, the father loses his wife and cannot reach out to his son, the husband loses his wife and his certainty of how well he knows her, and the girl is in love with a boy whose father lost his family during the nazi regime, which has shaped how the father raised his children.
- this is the third book in a row that i have read which doesn't bother to use quotations when people are speaking. because this author also writes in hugely long paragraphs, it was a bit more difficult to tell who was speaking as compared to the other books (all my puny sorrows, the handmaiden's tale). it doesn't really matter though, there isn't much dialogue at all. the characters mostly just focus on reminiscing, or narrating events of their lives told in retrospect. they explain any painful realizations they have, which inevitably helps form what future decisions they make.
- it is honestly beautifully written, this is primo level writing, just really enjoyable
- however i did find it dragged on. while it wasn't painful to read through any one part, i would find myself asking "when is this going to end, what is the point of this chapter, is something big going to happen?"
- i suppose i was impatient to get on with it because for some reason i thought all the storylines would be culminating into something whole and encompassing, but nope! things happen, sometimes more dramatic, but there's no climax really. i thought there would be some mega plot twist (not a twist though, like a plot link??) that'd happen near the end so i was reading on, hoping to learn more of it and see any foreshadowing, but there isn't anything major. DISAPPOINTING!
- i need a break from reading plotless "here's how my life goes" stories, i think i need to get back into YA novels or something
- e.g. that scene where the girl is walking around the castle, and stumbles upon the little boy gigi. what is the point of that scene? what is it supposed to illustrate, if anything? what does the little boy represent? or could anything else (similar to some degree) have replaced that scene and i would not feel any different about the character? honesty i don't know
- i was also disappointed that the final chapter, weisz, who is the true owner of the desk, was so bereft. i feel like he held a lot of answers in his pocket that the readers were kept from. like how why did the commit suicide? why does keeping his desk locked up away from him hurt him so much that he has to commit suicide? how did his daughter find the author, who'd owned the desk, and also the author's old correspondence to daniel varsky? why did the daughter lead the author on a wild goose chase to the old house in jerusalem in order to find the desk -- like how can the daughter know the author, a stranger, so well that she knew the author would go after the desk? maybe there are answers i can glean if i think harder, but i really want things spelled out for me a little clearer. i don't need or want 100% bad-guy-long-expositions, but i need more obvious hints. i want events to mean something, i need things to have a point, i like loose strings to be tied up! not terribly proud of the kind of reader i am but there it is.
- i should be using more names and i'm sorry but it's been a few days since i finished the book and i can't remember LOL, don't feel like looking it up either. the names didn't really much of a role anyway, since each chapter is mostly contained within the narrator's head
- each character's different kind of loss was a good experience though. i empathized most with the dad trying to reach out to his son. the author, i didn't care about much. the grieving husband i liked because i admired his single-minded and blind love for his late wife, i hope my future husband will love me so much. the daughter who was in love with weisz's son, i liked her but because so much of the weisz family seemed surreal and mysterious, they felt more detached as well.
- i would recommend this book to someone who likes character exploration, or someone who just wants to read talented writing. but idk who else, specifically, would enjoy a novel like this
- altho i appreciated the really amazing writing too, i think the novel overall is not as fulfilling as i'd hoped, and the conclusion isn't as satisfying as it should be, for something that is meant to tie up the story of the desk's journey
- anyway there are four storylines: an author, a grieving father, a grieving husband, and a young girl in love. these storylines are only related by thin threads (e.g. the author accidentally runs over the grieving father's son), so they hold up really well by themselves as self-contained novelettes. there is no running plot, other than they have all had some contact with the desk. i would say these stories are more character studies than anything else, because it is all about reminiscing and how people react when their lives have been changed irrevocably by loss: the author loses a friend and her own bearings, the father loses his wife and cannot reach out to his son, the husband loses his wife and his certainty of how well he knows her, and the girl is in love with a boy whose father lost his family during the nazi regime, which has shaped how the father raised his children.
- this is the third book in a row that i have read which doesn't bother to use quotations when people are speaking. because this author also writes in hugely long paragraphs, it was a bit more difficult to tell who was speaking as compared to the other books (all my puny sorrows, the handmaiden's tale). it doesn't really matter though, there isn't much dialogue at all. the characters mostly just focus on reminiscing, or narrating events of their lives told in retrospect. they explain any painful realizations they have, which inevitably helps form what future decisions they make.
- it is honestly beautifully written, this is primo level writing, just really enjoyable
- however i did find it dragged on. while it wasn't painful to read through any one part, i would find myself asking "when is this going to end, what is the point of this chapter, is something big going to happen?"
- i suppose i was impatient to get on with it because for some reason i thought all the storylines would be culminating into something whole and encompassing, but nope! things happen, sometimes more dramatic, but there's no climax really. i thought there would be some mega plot twist (not a twist though, like a plot link??) that'd happen near the end so i was reading on, hoping to learn more of it and see any foreshadowing, but there isn't anything major. DISAPPOINTING!
- i need a break from reading plotless "here's how my life goes" stories, i think i need to get back into YA novels or something
- e.g. that scene where the girl is walking around the castle, and stumbles upon the little boy gigi. what is the point of that scene? what is it supposed to illustrate, if anything? what does the little boy represent? or could anything else (similar to some degree) have replaced that scene and i would not feel any different about the character? honesty i don't know
- i was also disappointed that the final chapter, weisz, who is the true owner of the desk, was so bereft. i feel like he held a lot of answers in his pocket that the readers were kept from. like how why did the commit suicide? why does keeping his desk locked up away from him hurt him so much that he has to commit suicide? how did his daughter find the author, who'd owned the desk, and also the author's old correspondence to daniel varsky? why did the daughter lead the author on a wild goose chase to the old house in jerusalem in order to find the desk -- like how can the daughter know the author, a stranger, so well that she knew the author would go after the desk? maybe there are answers i can glean if i think harder, but i really want things spelled out for me a little clearer. i don't need or want 100% bad-guy-long-expositions, but i need more obvious hints. i want events to mean something, i need things to have a point, i like loose strings to be tied up! not terribly proud of the kind of reader i am but there it is.
- i should be using more names and i'm sorry but it's been a few days since i finished the book and i can't remember LOL, don't feel like looking it up either. the names didn't really much of a role anyway, since each chapter is mostly contained within the narrator's head
- each character's different kind of loss was a good experience though. i empathized most with the dad trying to reach out to his son. the author, i didn't care about much. the grieving husband i liked because i admired his single-minded and blind love for his late wife, i hope my future husband will love me so much. the daughter who was in love with weisz's son, i liked her but because so much of the weisz family seemed surreal and mysterious, they felt more detached as well.
- i would recommend this book to someone who likes character exploration, or someone who just wants to read talented writing. but idk who else, specifically, would enjoy a novel like this
- altho i appreciated the really amazing writing too, i think the novel overall is not as fulfilling as i'd hoped, and the conclusion isn't as satisfying as it should be, for something that is meant to tie up the story of the desk's journey
judyward's review
3.0
This novel is a series of intertwined short stores involving a desk stolen in World World II that passes through the lives of several individuals and profoundly affects each.
annap5519's review
2.0
Couldn't finish it. A big bore, poorly written. I don't understand all the rave review, sorry.