I’m undecided about how I feel. I definitely didn’t enjoy it to four stars (I’m not even sure if I enjoyed it at all), but I admire it’s gutsy experimentalism and innovate use of the form, so I think it deserves the four. To fully understand it, or to even understand it at all, I think I need to read it through again: it was just so so confusing, but nonetheless impressive. Many scenes were also graphic and very jarring to read, adding to how difficult it was to read. I really don’t know what to make of it, but I’m still thinking about it, so I suppose that’s something.

It was kind of confusing to read at first, and I'm still not entirely sure I knew what was going on most of the time. But, the writing was beautiful.

“and I invest the stars now with great significance, because you don’t really see them in the city and they have for so long been a symbol of romantic love.”

Some awesome quotes, but the last one that resonated was “memory is my only possession, but it resists ownership”

A strangely structured book, with stories set in a kind of episodic form. The two main characters in this book are Martin and John and both different people in each episode. An intriguing book but it's easy to be lost and confused as each new episode, which shares nothing with the one preceding it except the main characters, begins. It took some time to get used to the flow of the book but once one appreciates the stories within the story individually and as part of the book interconnected by the protagonists, then the tale becomes quite interesting in its multiplicity. There is a lot of abuse against children described here, a warning for those affected by such depictions. All stories have the children with strained and/or damaged relationships with their parents and guardians.

There is a particular part that involved such wonderfully described intimacy between the two characters that I loved. The gestures, the tenderness, it was so brilliant. I liked this book.

This is a very difficult book for me to review. My impressions were all over the place as I was reading it. I can't say I quite "enjoyed" it but I can certainly say I appreciated it. The prevailing tone of this book is quite somber and sordid, though there are some glimpses of beauty, and the sex is often a bit graphic for my admittedly middle-aged taste. The writing, however, is stellar from start to finish. I was having trouble grasping how all of the stories fit together, but in the final chapter it all gelled and made sense and was really very brilliant. On its literary merits this book probably deserves 5 stars, but I am settling on 4 stars as the most accurate reflection of my personal reading experience.

I confess, I only picked this book up because Jim Lewis wrote the introduction, and I love me some Jim Lewis. The format of the book threw me off slightly, but story each has it's own merit. Honestly, I think the stories would stand better on their own, theming them together pushed emotions a little over the top. Overall, the stories are sad and insightful.