Zell

What a fantastic conclusion to an already wonderful series! This ties everything up so beautifully.

This book was weird and surreal and utterly entrancing. It drew me in and held me. I'm a fast reader, but this made me slow down to read every word and really take it in. I would have loved a little more character development but I understand why it played out the way it did.

This book was a really strong relating of a difficult childhood, and the way Walls told the stories was vivid and riveting. However, I felt that there was a lot of storytelling and less “memoir” type content, and I would have loved more present day insights or reflections of feelings.

This book perfectly blended anecdotal experience and research. I found it extremely enlightening and insightful into our culture, and grief as a concept. As someone who has not experienced this kind of loss, it feels like a good book to read to understand what other people are going through, and what I will likely experience one day.

Although these stories make me deeply melancholy in a way I can't quite describe, I feel like that's probably the point, and they do it so well. Carver's style of prose is so clear and precise, and can say so much with so few words.