2026-05-02
It's moments like these when I wish I was reading books in a book club or an English class so I would be able to complain about them to other people. Instead I have you!
This is the most divided I’ve felt about a book in the past 10 years (since A Little Life).
There is some absolutely intoxicating writing in this book. There are characters and scenes that I will probably never forget. The hint of a mystical evil lurking in the background is so well done.
At the same time, this book is sprawling to the point of distraction. I almost quit this book on multiple occasions because I had grown so interested in parts of the story just to be dropped in another location and time to start over again. To the authors credit, the final portion of the book does make an effort to tie the threads of the story together but so much is left disconnected.
It reminds me of Michelangelo’s Slaves. Obviously the work of a master… and yet unfinished.
2025-07-31
The first book in ~2.5 years to crack my booklist. This book has more character voices than any book I’ve read in a long time. I can hear so many of them: Dorothea, Celia, Fred, Caleb, Mary, and especially Mr. Brooke in my head.
A rebuke to the idea that cellphones ruin the plot of movies. Almost all of the driving conflicts in this story are about the things people cannot bring themselves to say. Dorothea reminds me of George Bailey: “The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
I was blown away by the self reliance of the main characters. They are so reluctant to blame others for their problems and/or lash out at them. I wonder if this reflects how society has changed?
I expect someday I’ll read it again. See also Mark’s ‘reflections on it.
2025-06-14
Super easy to read.
Has some moments of real clarity and brilliance and some moments that seem self indulgent.
A great book to pick up in the middle of a life change. It isn’t going to tell you what to do, but will get you thinking. Will absolutely stay on my bookshelf.
The three chapters that resonated with me most this time around: