J. L. Andrist

Not enough insights

Revisado: 05-13-24

First off, good for Tim Blake Nelson on turning what could have been a mediocre memoir into a mediocre novel. Props, seriously, it proves his intelligence. Unfortunately there's not enough outside the cliche to make anything about this book memorable. I really gave it a go and it just kept boring me at every turn. It made me wish I had been spending my time with the books his character David Leavitt loves referencing. Plato, Cicero ... hell, I think I would've had more fun attending a Latin class, the details of which Nelson tries to explain early on but with not enough detail to be compelling and not enough practice as a writer to know which stuff to cut out. Maybe if Nelson had condensed this to a novella it mighta moved a pace but it's far too long winded for what it actually has to say. Making movies is about making money. Thanks Tim.

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Simon Vance performance excellent

Revisado: 10-31-22

I've, more often than not, been a content person. I care what is actually being said. Yet for the texture created in this story Vance does a heroic effort. Playing characters - even the timing of dialogue sounds exceptional, like you were at the movies. Both writer and performer really impressed me.

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Don't Normally make it my business to review

Revisado: 10-01-22

But this book was exceptionally disappointing. Not only does Bair lack any true depth of self reflection, she often is so entitled she somehow becomes convinced that the listener (reader) is going to be fascinated with petty academic squabbles. There is so little of the portraiture of either SBs, what most of us came for, that I would literally qualify the title as a lie.

She casually brings up her subjects for the biographies but only of their existence as props in her harried frenetic life where people are always trying to keep her down. This was nominated for a Pulitzer - my trust in accolades for anyone coming out of academia continues to drop exponentially.

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Better than the text

Revisado: 09-27-14

Recently at a book store I picked up an (I can only assume) differently translated version of Solaris. The text was beyond dull. Perhaps built for a new American audience it contained only plot and none of the deviations into "Solaristics" the history and ideas of the planet Solaris. This bothered me, knowing how much I enjoyed the audiobook.

I will inevitably have to look into this, but for now know, this is the best version of Solaris that I've come across.

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