Mack Eulet

surprisingly bad

Revisado: 02-24-25

full of breathy, sophomoric generalizations. The author restates any idea about 10 times, as if unable to convince herself that it matters.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

good as it gets yet still gets better

Revisado: 12-12-24

Amazing that this is Wharton's first novel. Like Athena, she bursts mature and in full armor from the skull of literature.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Not great

Revisado: 12-01-22

All the major outlets have given this book rave reviews. I don't tend automatically to disagree with reviews from such outlets; on the contrary, I bought the book as a result of those reviews. But the reviews seem wrong to me now. For one thing, the first part of the book is *not* "Whartonesque" -- no more so than pvc pipe is granite-esque. The writing in the first three sections is clunky and tedious. It doesn't matter if the writing is intending to impersonate an amateur effort; that doesn't make it good. Even in the third section, the record of one who's supposed to be a writer, what we get is a bunch of statements. While the last section sounds more "literary" I guess, this section nonetheless seems awkwardly to crash through any sense of verisimilitude in that the diarist starts filling in lots of backstory. Why would a woman dying of cancer suddenly start using her private diary to write down what she already knows, obliging the reader? This novel is conceptual art, not art itself.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

bad writing

Revisado: 10-24-22

The writing is lifeless, every sentence passive, the observations general and trite. For instance, after an earthquake, the protagonist notes that "the old man was covered with blood." So the protagonist asks the old man, "Are you ok?" Yet I don't think this or any scene in the book supposed to be funny. A tedious slog to get halfway through.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

delicately yet expansively mind-blowing

Revisado: 03-06-21

Ishiguro's amazing, the ways he explores how small- and large-scale ethical issues transpire amid and affect interpersonal connection, how feelings of love, loyalty, dedication, and desire try to make sense of themselves in societies dominated by self-centered and greedy powerful interests. This novel may be his best yet. Holy cow the way he describes how Klara, the "artificial friend," perceives reality-- the book's told from Klara's point of view-- these passages are just gorgeous, like descriptions of Diebenkorn landscapes, yet they convincingly, startlingly represent the ways AI might translate complex images into useful data. And wow how this novel explores the nature of "humanity." Wow wow wow wow wow. Bravo.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 55 personas

moving, deep, expansive

Revisado: 12-30-20

Engrossing, thought-provoking stories. Nimbly exploring different patterns of interconnection-- among individuals, nations, histories, life forms, art forms. It begins subtly, quietly; the energy builds as each story echoes notes and characters from prior stories, creating complex resonances. Some of the readers seemed a little stiff, and some of them incorrectly pronounced basic Japanese words (like making "nabe" rhyme with "babe"), but that's just a minor stuff. Good stuff.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

okay but disappointing

Revisado: 11-17-20

interesting premise, but too much of the book takes place in the anxious/neurotic thoughts of the characters' heads, and the characters seem like types, props, in the book just to do what they're told.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

ressurecting

Revisado: 11-12-20

jia tolentino writes so incisively, gracefully, fearlessly, brilliantly, generously. she identifies and resolves, among other things, the vaporous, toxic blur that arises from the mix of vulnerability and inequalaity, like from the mix of ammonia and bleach. the real deal. after reading this book, I feel more whole, more here, more understood, more hopeful than I have in over a decade. I say this while subsumed within an amazon subsidiary-- time to clear the air. katsu!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

want my money back

Revisado: 10-05-20

the book is magnificent, as is Morrison's reading of it. Random House Audio, Inc. mauls the ending-- a stupid-sounding guitar muzak intrudes while Morrison reads the final paragraph. This stupid muzak is an insult. I mean, if Morrison wanted guitar music at the end, she would have written it into the book. She didn't. It's distracting. They might as well flash some kind of advertisement instead of the final paragraph. I mean, that stupid muzak is not necessary. A moving book and reading, and totally blown, wasted by the producer's insulting stupidity by adding that music. The producer needs to do books in which the words don't matter so much. Which ain't this one.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

powerful, eloquent

Revisado: 09-18-20

i'm quite blown away. impressed and grateful. didn't know there was such an eloquent, insightful, intelligent, and principled christian in this country these days-- the book is reason to hope.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña