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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Book Club discussion begins September 15
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#27318 - 02/13/07 09:45 AM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics
AlchemyGirl
Ching Shih


Registered: 04/10/05
Posts: 175

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I just wonder how OK Blue seemed to be when her father abandoning her and all.
That bugged me too, graceless. Yes, there was cash in the cookie jar, but I'd love to see a cookie jar big enough to hold the money for four years at Harvard. Or did I miss the explanation about how Blue was going to support herself at school? I don't buy that she applied for financial aid ... if her dad's on the run wouldn't he avoid providing his SSN for those kinds of forms?

I feel shallow and nitpicky for wondering about those kinds of logistics, but I think it's a symptom that the book's solution didn't quite work.

So why did it get such great reviews when we Chickliterati seem appreciative but not blown away? Here's my theory: book reviewers for the NY Times and other publications probably see a lot of similar stuff crossing their desks, i.e. hundreds of attempts to write the Great American Novel. When this mystery, with quirky chapter titles and illustrations and an intellectual bent came to their attention, they were too excited by its unique qualities to question whether it had deficiencies.

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#27319 - 02/13/07 11:30 AM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics
alizarin
Ching Shih


Registered: 01/17/02
Posts: 425
Loc: Boston, MA

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I read this right after it came out, and right after I'd read The Thirteenth Tale which probably didn't help, since I loved that book to pieces.

I liked it a lot at the beginning, though like anchorsandkeys I found Blue annoying. It reminded me, in tone and subject matter, a lot of The Basic Eight which I love, but in the end, that book is a lot more clever (and shorter.) I think the fact that in the end the group of snotty friends wasn't even all that important to the plot was confusing, especially given the phone call from what's her name (it says something that I can't remember her name, doesn't it? Jade?) at the beginning. I guess I really expected it to be much more about that group, rather than all of them just being snotty plot devices.

The end drove me nuts, too. I hate when a potentially interesting plot dissolves into pages upon pages of explaination about how it was done. It got all "Dumbledore explains it all for you" and I found that really disappointing.

I think in the end it's a mediocre book cleverly disguised as a great one. I'd be interested to see what else Pessl writes, though.

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#82914 - 05/01/07 03:29 PM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics [Re: alizarin]
AlchemyGirl
Ching Shih


Registered: 04/10/05
Posts: 175

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*bumping for AnneY*
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#83437 - 06/15/07 01:27 PM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics [Re: AlchemyGirl]
Peppermint
Ching Shih


Registered: 07/03/03
Posts: 100
Loc: Philadelphia

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Not sure if I need to spoiler this, but to be on the safe side: spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space spoiler space

I'm reading this now (about 200 pages in), and I have to say that the writing style is definitely a drawback for me. Some reviews in the front praise the author for her gymnastics with the language, but to me it's more like sound and fury, signifying nothing. Some of the sentences go on for so long that it's hard not to lose the thread, and please---can't there be one likable character in the book? Just one? Though I appreciate that the author has written an innovative novel, it's not destined to become one of my favorites. I need at least one character in there I can relate to.

And yet, despite these gripes, I'm still interested in seeing what happens next. No small feat for a writer! So I'll stop complaining now.

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#84895 - 11/16/07 03:20 PM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics [Re: Peppermint]
Sixtieslibber
Gráinne ni Mhaille


Registered: 05/24/02
Posts: 21

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"I think in the end it's a mediocre book cleverly disguised as a great one."

alizarin, this is a perfect summary of this book!

I found Blue more clueless than annoying -- like a very smart girl who's been isolated by being homeschooled.

I've finished the book and I wonder if others found it a bit implausible?
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#89789 - 07/06/10 04:27 PM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics [Re: Sixtieslibber]
LaSalleUGirl
Ching Shih


Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 1578
Loc: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Online
I am feeling so much better now that I can finally read this thread and learn that the rest of you were as underwhelmed with this book as I was. I completely agree with alizarin's assessment that "it's a mediocre book cleverly disguised as a great one."

I hadn't read the NYTimes review until this morning (off a tip from essay in another thread), and my mind just boggles at the over-the-top praise being leveled at Pessl and the book. I don't get it, although I think AlchemyGirl may be on to something.
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#89794 - 07/06/10 09:45 PM Re: Special Topics in Calamity Physics [Re: LaSalleUGirl]
essay
Ching Shih


Registered: 08/18/01
Posts: 1505

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Oddly, though, this thread is making me feel compelled to read it, just to see what it was all about.
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