A review by shelleys_book_nook
The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 The absurdity of my very long, very strange life hits me, too, and suddenly I’m laughing with him. What else can I do?

I loved this book and Isaac Dahl so much. The format Bart Yates used was wonderful. He wove real-life historical moments with Isaac’s fictional ones seamlessly. We get twelve chapters of important events in Isaac’s life, in eight-year increments, starting when Isaac was just eight years old in the 1920s.

The book’s historical sections are impeccably researched and what I loved the most about the book is the fact that even things that aren’t monumental to everyone made it into Isaac’s important chapters. Yes, there was war, unbelievable natural disasters and other phenomena but we also get the mundane, like when Isaac’s great-nephew goes through puberty one winter weekend at the beach.

The chapters are long and I usually don’t prefer that but it was needed in the case to clearly understand why that part of Isaac’s life was so important for him to share. Yates’ writing style was so absorbing that the twenty-page chapters just flew by. The book itself is fairly short at 240 pages and I was so into it I read it in a couple of sittings. The pages are filled with love, history, loss, adventure and adversity. This book was everything. All. The Stars.