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dllh's reviews
679 reviews
Wellness: A novel by Nathan Hill
4.5
Wow, what a book! It took me about a month of on/off reading to finish, but it never disappointed (I was just busy). He writes in several different modes and is equally deft with explanatory and lyrical prose. There's honestly not really a likable character in the book, but I related pretty hard to some of the flaws the main characters exhibited. Hill writes seriously, humorously, satirically, and as noted above explanatorily.
Hill is sometimes compared to Franzen or DFW, and I don't think either comparison is quite right. He writes less conventionally than Franzen but not so much so as Wallace. He writes a realism not dissimilar from that found in Franzen's family novels but not nearly so preciously or pompously as I feel like Franzen does. I actually think a comparison to Meg Wolitzer (in particular The Interestings) and the lushness and detail with which she writes is more apt.
This one goes in the "may read again one day" pile.
Hill is sometimes compared to Franzen or DFW, and I don't think either comparison is quite right. He writes less conventionally than Franzen but not so much so as Wallace. He writes a realism not dissimilar from that found in Franzen's family novels but not nearly so preciously or pompously as I feel like Franzen does. I actually think a comparison to Meg Wolitzer (in particular The Interestings) and the lushness and detail with which she writes is more apt.
This one goes in the "may read again one day" pile.
The Carnivale of Curiosities by Amiee Gibbs
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
3.5
I was a little skeptical of this one, fearing it might be more fanciful or anachronistic in ways that would bug me, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. It was fast-paced, had a memorable cast of characters, and was a little dark. I gulped it down.
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
3.5
I false started this one and put it aside for a while but recently finished and liked it.
Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction by Zelda Knight, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Took me a while to finish this one, as often happens with anthologies, but I'm glad I read it. None of the stories knocked my socks off, but I enjoyed many of them, and it was pretty solid as athologies go.
The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
3.5
I expected color based on the cover but grayscale sort of fit. I liked it well enough.
Contact by Carl Sagan
adventurous
3.5
I hadn't read this in many years and remembered many things from the movie that were not in the book. It's a good book.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.0
I took my time with this one. It was very good but it felt pretty sluggish much of the time, and I often found myself preferring to do other things than to spend more time with Shevek.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
2.0
I wanted to like this, but it was terrible. The story was a neat idea, but Stephenson seems a lot more interested in showing off the things he knows than in writing a readable story. Characterization is god-awful, descriptions of fascinating-sounding devices and structures opaque, repetition frustrating. When it finally starts to get more interesting, it's suddenly over. Probably would make a pretty cool movie, though.
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
medium-paced
4.0
After The Bone Clocks, I was just about ready to write Mitchell off. This one was a good return to longer fiction, a well written story minus ham-handed thriller/fantasy elements that didn't work (I liked the thriller and fantasy bits in Cloud Atlas well enough. I was ok with the fantastical elements in this one too. Mitchell seems maybe to be back on the rails.