My Rating: 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars
This is one of those books that I found extremely difficult to rate, as there were many things I enjoyed about the book, yet at the same time, there were also moments where I struggled and thought about giving up on this one and moving on to other more productive reads. A few of the things I loved about this book: the writing, which was gorgeous and masterful and flowed so easily that I got swept up in it from the first page; the characters, all of whom were quirky yet endearing in their own ways – these were characters I fell for, cared about, and wanted to spend time with, which also meant that I was saddened to have to let them go when I reached the end of the book; the "intelligent humor" mentioned in the book's summary -- which took me by surprise at first given the undertones of sadness and wistfulness I seemed to sense in the story -- but then I quickly grew to love once I got to know the characters more and began to understand the dynamics of this small, close-knit Midwestern community; and finally, the storytelling, which felt both whimsical and smart – there were times where I felt I was reading a work of art rather than an actual book (if that makes any sense).
With all that said, the one thing I wasn't too keen on was the story itself – or more specifically, the lack of a cohesive plot. Not much happens in the story, which was extremely slow-going and there was not much there to really move the story along. In a way, this story was more a series of vignettes where we are provided glimpses into the daily lives of various characters and get to witness them doing the most ordinary of things – watching a movie, cleaning a theatre, flying a kite, etc. There were many moments while reading where I felt like I wanted more, though exactly more of what was hard to pinpoint at times. Perhaps I was expecting the story to be more engaging, or maybe it just wasn't the right time for me to read this book, as I already knew I wouldn't have large swathes of time to devote to reading right now due to work and things going on in my personal life – this is the type of book that requires quite a bit of patience and concentration and also needs to be read in one go rather than broken up between other tasks. I did the latter and ended up struggling through, to the point that there were times when I had to put the book down to attend to other things but then didn't feel like picking it back up afterwards. I think if I had read this one in fewer sittings, over a longer, more focused time period, it would have felt less scattered and most likely I would've felt differently about it. This is why I decided to round up to 4 stars on this one, as I feel that, under different circumstances, this would definitely have been a 4 star (or above) read for me (and the fact that there truly were quite a few things I liked about the book, of course).
Overall, I would definitely recommend this one, though with the caveat that you need to be in the right mood to read it and also be able to devote the time and focus to it that it deserves. At some point down the line, I do intend on reading some of this author's other works as well, since I've heard so many great things about a few of them. And if he decides to write another novel in the future, I would want to read that as well – hopefully we don't have to wait another 10 years for it though!
Received ARC from Grove Press via NetGalley
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