Marian
Was really disappointed since I had high hopes for this book. Having grown up in Kansas just a few years prior to the author, I could relate to and see a lot of what she was getting at. But I felt this could have been shortened by 50% and also would have worked better as a series of essays. The timelines were hard to follow since she jumped all over the place in every single chapter. A lot of repetition. And the format of talking to her unborn child was not for me.
I usually love anything by Louise Erdrich, but I struggled with this one. It was like three separate stories that wouldn't come together (a dystopian novel about the harm we are doing to the earth; a second about the way we treat women's bodies; and third a story about the poor way Native American's have been treated and how they will possibly not only survive but thrive because of what we have done to the environment). Strangely, even though I didn't really care for it I wanted to know more at the end. Too much was left unsaid. And characters just disappeared without a second glance, which didn't seem to affect anyone greatly. It is appropriate for our time and I could see where she was going with a lot of her ideas, but I didn't think that it held together.
Slow start and I really did not like the main character. His lack of depth and self pity for a white privileged male (albeit gay) who is traveling the world was very off putting. I cannot believe that this won the Pulitzer Prize. The writing style was unique, but that was the only interesting thing.
I was so disappointed in this book since I loved The Martian. His female character was completely unbelievable and I was galled by the credit he gave to all of the women in the acknowledgements for helping develop the character. He really didn't get it. And the plot line was straight out of Star Wars with just a bunch of technical info thrown in. Don't bother with this one.
Full disclosure, I received a copy through the Goodreads giveaway.
This started out a little awkward for me and I wasn't sure I was going to get into this book. The first couple of chapters about Luz's life on the military base and her rambling, confused dialogue about the “quasis'” turned me off. I had to put it down for a little while, but then I came back to it and I'm glad I did. The story really started to pick up and I loved learning about the Okinawan history and the contrast to modern day. There were a few too many loose-ends that were too neatly tied up at the end for my taste, but still an intriguing story. Would definitely recommend this if you can get past the first 50 pages!
