Poetry in the form of a Novella and 3 short stories
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| Random House always puts out great stuff |
A wonderful book...poetic and haunting..the kind of book that stays with you well past reading it...days..months...years..unforgettable. [book:Thirteen Ways of Looking|25229229] by Colum McCann is going right on my 'Most Faves" list...a beautiful and disturbing read.
Dysfunctional lives told in the most poetic way. I found myself so engrossed in a story...haunted by the tragedy...mouth agape...then it ends and I move right into another set of lives..more tragedy..more dysfunction. It got better and better each story...more gripping the feeling. In the first story, a novella, we are introduced to a lonely old retired judge that battles with the struggles, aches, pains and illnesses of a very long life. I love how we tap into one narrative describing a crime scene (or rather leading up to it and after) and all the logistics of that and then tap right back into the Judge's life and his perspective on the people around him mainly his care taker Sally and his pompous son Elliot that appears always too busy with career and affairs to deal with his father. A beautiful and tragic story...I am quite disturbed by it (and I mean that in the best of ways). The next story, we are placed right into the mind of a writer and his story idea of a female Marine in Afghanistan..the struggle..guarding a post and the phone call that is to be made to her loved ones back home. I've never read anything like it. It's simple, quick but quite good. In yet another read we are haunted with the tale of a woman...adopted a son at the age of six from the impoverished seedy world of Vladivostok. Now thirteen and as McCann so poetically puts it "and there was already a whole history written in him." Born deaf with rumor that he was exposed to mercury, radiation sickness and beatings...Tomas came with his struggles but nothing deterred Rebecca from loving him. A challenge to deal with, add that to her being divorced from Tomas's adopted father..she is a woman on her own and getting through it...then while on a Christmas holiday with her son off the coast of Ireland, Tomas goes missing. A gripping read..McCann captures everything a parent feels or would feel. And lastly, the story of a Nun who many years ago endured a disturbingly perverted and violent crime committed on her by a young man that now as an older woman (he an older man) has discovered he is alive and portraying himself to the world as being a good man of society having accomplished much. What she thinks..what she feels...and how she wants to handle the turmoil and scars of her ordeal...haunts me to say the least. McCann has a way of writing that is so poetic..so beautiful and disturbing at the same time...how is that possible??!!. I am in love with the way he writes!!
I don't know how it is that I have lived my life having not read anything by Colum McCann until this book. Time is a-wasting and I am on a mission to read more from him. If any of McCann's other works are anywhere close to the beauty that is Thirteen Ways of Looking then consider me sold now. (and if they are not I am still eager to read his other stuff) I am on a mission to read more by him and I would recommend to anyone that if you take the chance to read Thirteen Ways of Looking then you will certainly want to read more great writing by him.
A special thanks to the people at Random House and Colum McCann for making my opportunity of receiving this free book in exchange for an honest review possible...And honest review I have done happily. I will treasure this book and recommend it to anyone that is looking for a beautiful and genius read.
Dysfunctional lives told in the most poetic way. I found myself so engrossed in a story...haunted by the tragedy...mouth agape...then it ends and I move right into another set of lives..more tragedy..more dysfunction. It got better and better each story...more gripping the feeling. In the first story, a novella, we are introduced to a lonely old retired judge that battles with the struggles, aches, pains and illnesses of a very long life. I love how we tap into one narrative describing a crime scene (or rather leading up to it and after) and all the logistics of that and then tap right back into the Judge's life and his perspective on the people around him mainly his care taker Sally and his pompous son Elliot that appears always too busy with career and affairs to deal with his father. A beautiful and tragic story...I am quite disturbed by it (and I mean that in the best of ways). The next story, we are placed right into the mind of a writer and his story idea of a female Marine in Afghanistan..the struggle..guarding a post and the phone call that is to be made to her loved ones back home. I've never read anything like it. It's simple, quick but quite good. In yet another read we are haunted with the tale of a woman...adopted a son at the age of six from the impoverished seedy world of Vladivostok. Now thirteen and as McCann so poetically puts it "and there was already a whole history written in him." Born deaf with rumor that he was exposed to mercury, radiation sickness and beatings...Tomas came with his struggles but nothing deterred Rebecca from loving him. A challenge to deal with, add that to her being divorced from Tomas's adopted father..she is a woman on her own and getting through it...then while on a Christmas holiday with her son off the coast of Ireland, Tomas goes missing. A gripping read..McCann captures everything a parent feels or would feel. And lastly, the story of a Nun who many years ago endured a disturbingly perverted and violent crime committed on her by a young man that now as an older woman (he an older man) has discovered he is alive and portraying himself to the world as being a good man of society having accomplished much. What she thinks..what she feels...and how she wants to handle the turmoil and scars of her ordeal...haunts me to say the least. McCann has a way of writing that is so poetic..so beautiful and disturbing at the same time...how is that possible??!!. I am in love with the way he writes!!
I don't know how it is that I have lived my life having not read anything by Colum McCann until this book. Time is a-wasting and I am on a mission to read more from him. If any of McCann's other works are anywhere close to the beauty that is Thirteen Ways of Looking then consider me sold now. (and if they are not I am still eager to read his other stuff) I am on a mission to read more by him and I would recommend to anyone that if you take the chance to read Thirteen Ways of Looking then you will certainly want to read more great writing by him.
A special thanks to the people at Random House and Colum McCann for making my opportunity of receiving this free book in exchange for an honest review possible...And honest review I have done happily. I will treasure this book and recommend it to anyone that is looking for a beautiful and genius read.
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