This was a really compelling read once I got into it. I had a hard time with the first few chapters because I utterly did not sympathize with the dad, but once the perspectives started shifting I liked it. I was pretty impressed with its portrayal of Down syndrome (after Savarese´s disability lit seminar I´ve been touchy about such things).

YES to this book. Chabon very effectively created a sense of time and place, as well as interesting and compelling characters.

Perhaps also my interest in comics made this book more interesting to me? I thought the interspersed history of the comic book industry was fascinating, but perhaps non-nerds might not be as enthralled.

I liked this, but not as much as I liked [book:A Prayer for Owen Meany]. Here are some reasons I liked it less, I think: more cleverly self-aware, which I usually like, but somehow not here; less likeable characters, I suppose?; while being more self-aware (a lot of writing about writing about writing...) also being less believable, to me.

BUT STILL: I like John Irving's prose, and even though I found myself liking the characters less than those in Owen Meany, I still did care for them.

I just re-read this for the first time and would probably downgrade this to a four-star book at most, but I think it's maybe unfair to do that since I admittedly had ruined a lot of the suspense that powered my first read through.

Mostly I think I am perhaps increasingly uncomfortable with John Irving's attitude re: women and sexuality. If I hadn't already left the book in the library I might pull out some concrete examples, but I did. And I'm lazy.

Also the second time around I lost some of my suspension of disbelief for Owen Meany. Aka like, the whole plot. AH WELL, still a good read.

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(First time review)
I know, right, I just now read this book? The hardest thing about this book was that I wanted to tear through it so fast to Find Out What Happened, but at the same time I wanted to savor it.

Anyway, I loved it, it was funny and sad and nostalgic. The weird thing was no matter how many crazy things happened, I was never disbelieving. I guess because the characters (minus Owen) were always like WTF too, so I just felt like they were along for the ride too. Anyway, if you haven't read this yet, probably you should do that.

This I didn't like as much as her first three books; I can't really put my finger on why. Perhaps the emphasis on "money doesn't necessarily make you happy!" pushed it closer to being cliche than the other books of hers that I've read?

I still liked it, but I suppose I would not recommend it as wholeheartedly as Love Medicine, the Beet Queen, or Tracks.

i re-read this in september because i was going to go to a great gatsby themed picnic. didn't end up hitting the picnic, but it still a classic of american literature blah blah blah hooray.

Holy Jesus. I'd had this on my shelf for two years, ever since I bought it for my Postcolonial lit class, only to have it dropped from the syllabus. I finally got around to reading it and Loved It. Her prose is stunning, exactly my favorite style of writing, and I love her sense of character. I didn't realize until after I read it that this was third in a "series"; I guess it is more like a prequel to her other books, which all use the same broad set of characters. It didn't matter at all that I read this one first, I still loved it.

After reading and loving Tracks, I went out and tried to read all her other books. I'm not sure which I liked better;; Love Medicine is a collection of short stories about a lot of different characters, and Tracks focuses more tightly on a few characters. At any rate, I'm a big fan.

I just wish Good Reads had half stars; I would probably give this four and a half. I don't know. Maybe it's five. But I'm kind of wishy-washy and I don't want to overrate books. Whatever though, it was great. I'll bump it up to five BECAUSE I CAN.

original review: oh em gee.

ps i just re-read this since i re-read hp6. it felt right. i still thought it was good and i still cried a ton. OHHHH.

UM I thought this was going to be a new Series of Unfortunate Events book, so I was really excited about it. Instead it's like a coffeetable quote book. Granted, LS is very quoteable. But still, this is probably only worth it if you are kind of obsessive.