A river runs through it is by far the star of the show. The other stories are fine but much less interesting, whereas the former is a masterpiece, in my opinion.

A masterpiece, imo. Riveting and insightful. Gorgeous prose and structure. A favourite.

I don’t I have anything unique to say about this. It lived up to the hype, and basically every review I’ve seen from people I follow is 5 stars, so I had high expectations. I also don’t particularly drift toward this era for historical fiction either.

But as much as it’s a pretty granular accounting of what life was like for cowboys, it’s also a thorough character study and rumination on gender dynamics and the inability to comprehend the full context of any single life.

After all, we follow Gus and the band from before they had the notion to drive cattle from Texas to Montana (a staggering feet, truly), all the way through and beyond that endeavour. And in all that time, to be honest, I had been so sure that the painting I had been looking at, for that is how well drawn the characters are in this book, that I thought I had the measure of every single one of them.

But of course as soon as we hear memories of Gus’s past—memories he recounts a few times at the fire with the boys—lived by others who shared them being told, it becomes clear that all people, especially Gus, are so multifaceted we fail to see certain moments as they really are. And when such things are fundamental to a person, that is truly the building blocks or the drive and the hopes of a person, and they involve someone else, well it’s almost terrifying how much can be internalized without ever getting the “full picture.”

Anyway, this book made me think about things like that. And the book starts you off with a notion and never really stops giving you something to chew on. That is exactly what I’m looking for from fiction. This is so rich you sink right into it. What’s more is the ending, which so many stories struggle with, is perfect, I think. Can’t say that of very many books at all.

It gets by on the strength of the concept and premise, but feels otherwise pretty antiquated; especially concerning dialogue. I’d honestly rather have an infodump than suffer through more pompous peacocking people torrenting their views to one another in a room without description. I get, you’re all very intelligent, but it feels like B movie dialogue when at its worst.

I found this deeply thought provoking and reads basically like horror to me. I’m writing a more in depth piece about my thoughts regarding it.

I’m still thinking on it. But yeah it is very different than I expected it would be, mostly because of what Lolita means right now in mainstream and pop culture.

I certainly understand women not wanting to read it, since they’re literally moving through the patriarchy. I think… experiencing a man rationalizing his disturbing and incriminating thoughts in a stream of consciousness way via beautiful, but nuanced prose, is just not an experience plenty of people would want to have.

But I also think men could take a lot away from this, particularly about how white men construct reality through their lens. So that’s what I’ll be writing a piece about, I think.

4.5 rounded up

Good prose, for those that like the ephemeral and the flowery, anyway. There’s a mystery that is compelling because the question of who the patient is ties directly into larger themes at play: identity, how and if people can substantively change (especially considering influence of upbringing and specific state indoctrination) and, the big one, trauma.

What nourishes a person and facilitates core shifts in who they are? How much is a person essentially just reacting to what happens to them rather than acting with agency. There is so much that goes into the makeup of an identity that people don’t think about or interrogate, but drive their most memorable decisions.

The scenes are free form and weave its way like memories cascading. They aren’t bound by time or place. It can be jarring and honestly takes more cognitive load than some people want. You’re piecing together the actual structure along with the mystery. I found it thematic as hell. But it’s certainly challenging at times.

The more I think about this book, the more I like it. Apparently it’s fairly polarizing for people, as lots of popular things are. But the themes and prose and structure resonated with me. I’m all about trauma and memory stories, so this is kind of my bag. Plus the exploration of selfhood just elevated the whole thing. Especially now with nationalism being a Very large topic of conversation and primary driving force of media consumption and primary western cultural identity crisis.