Still Here
Registered by eowyn-unquendor of Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on 6/20/2016
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by eowyn-unquendor from Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Monday, June 20, 2016
Amazon Review
Alix Rebick is the heroine of Linda Grant's Still Here, and at the age of 49 is still feisty, lustful, and larger than life--all the things that "real women" shouldn't be, according to Joseph Shields. She's also single, and hating it. "What do I want? Rapture. When do I want it? Now...You can't kill it in me...There is no point in looking for consolation in gardening, knitting, good works, pets, travel, cookery, country walks..."
Alix is back in Liverpool watching over her dying mother; Joseph is an American architect, building a hotel as part of Liverpool's regeneration. They meet: she wants him; he admires her, but longs to reunite with his wife Erica back in Chicago. The alternating first-person chapters each ruminate about the past, speculate about the future, and only occasionally refer to the other, despite their involvement--or lack of it--being presented as the novel's pivotal axis.
Linda Grant is brilliant at creating setting, historical and contemporary, and her affectionate rendering of Liverpool--warts and all. This observation and precise detail is what brings Still Here to life: the turn-of-the-century Jewish diaspora longing for the United States and having to make do with Liverpool; the 1960’s city of Alix's youth; her mother's Dresden childhood; her father as saviour-doctor to the Irish poor; early Beatles; and, of course, the weight of the Holocaust. Joseph's rebellion against his rabbinical father, his refusal to recall his fighting in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Berkeley and early marriage are also recounted in his sometimes priggish, sometimes uptight and uncomprehending way.
Grant is good on ageing and its effects on body and mind, and at the way the past tunnels into the present. But for a novel with sexual desire--and crucially women's desire--as one of its themes, the momentum keeps getting stalled over the issue of will they, or won't they? A sort of coitus interruptus instead of any real dynamic between Alix and Joseph frustrates Grant's otherwise very readable novel.--Ruth Petrie --
Nice an accurate review of this book from Amazon; a lot more trusty than the text on the back of the book. Because though I kept reading this book to learn if they will 'get each other', this book is all about two Jewish people. The story line about Dresden actually seems to play a minor part.
Alix Rebick is the heroine of Linda Grant's Still Here, and at the age of 49 is still feisty, lustful, and larger than life--all the things that "real women" shouldn't be, according to Joseph Shields. She's also single, and hating it. "What do I want? Rapture. When do I want it? Now...You can't kill it in me...There is no point in looking for consolation in gardening, knitting, good works, pets, travel, cookery, country walks..."
Alix is back in Liverpool watching over her dying mother; Joseph is an American architect, building a hotel as part of Liverpool's regeneration. They meet: she wants him; he admires her, but longs to reunite with his wife Erica back in Chicago. The alternating first-person chapters each ruminate about the past, speculate about the future, and only occasionally refer to the other, despite their involvement--or lack of it--being presented as the novel's pivotal axis.
Linda Grant is brilliant at creating setting, historical and contemporary, and her affectionate rendering of Liverpool--warts and all. This observation and precise detail is what brings Still Here to life: the turn-of-the-century Jewish diaspora longing for the United States and having to make do with Liverpool; the 1960’s city of Alix's youth; her mother's Dresden childhood; her father as saviour-doctor to the Irish poor; early Beatles; and, of course, the weight of the Holocaust. Joseph's rebellion against his rabbinical father, his refusal to recall his fighting in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Berkeley and early marriage are also recounted in his sometimes priggish, sometimes uptight and uncomprehending way.
Grant is good on ageing and its effects on body and mind, and at the way the past tunnels into the present. But for a novel with sexual desire--and crucially women's desire--as one of its themes, the momentum keeps getting stalled over the issue of will they, or won't they? A sort of coitus interruptus instead of any real dynamic between Alix and Joseph frustrates Grant's otherwise very readable novel.--Ruth Petrie --
Nice an accurate review of this book from Amazon; a lot more trusty than the text on the back of the book. Because though I kept reading this book to learn if they will 'get each other', this book is all about two Jewish people. The story line about Dresden actually seems to play a minor part.
Journal Entry 2 by eowyn-unquendor at Forum gebouw in Wageningen, Gelderland Netherlands on Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Released 5 yrs ago (9/19/2018 UTC) at Forum gebouw in Wageningen, Gelderland Netherlands
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Gefeliciteerd, je hebt dit boek gevangen! Ik hoop dat je ervan zult genieten.
Wil je, als je het uit hebt, hier vertellen wat je ervan vond? Daarna zou het leuk zijn als je het verder laat reizen. Je kan het aan een kennis geven om te lezen of zomaar in het wild ergens achterlaten zodat iemand anders het kan vinden, bijvoorbeeld in een restaurant, school, buiten, of ergens anders waarvan jij denkt dat er mensen komen die dit boek zouden willen lezen.
Het zou nog leuker zijn als je lid wordt van BookCrossing. Dat is gratis en veilig, je emailadres wordt niet doorgegeven. Je kunt dan zelf zien waar het boek na jou naar toe gaat. Je kan ook andere boeken registeren en loslaten, kijk maar eens op http://www.bookcrossing.nl of klink links in de index van deze site. Als je lid wordt, zou ik het leuk vinden als je mij, eowyn-unquendor, als verwijzer ("referrer") opgeeft.
Wil je, als je het uit hebt, hier vertellen wat je ervan vond? Daarna zou het leuk zijn als je het verder laat reizen. Je kan het aan een kennis geven om te lezen of zomaar in het wild ergens achterlaten zodat iemand anders het kan vinden, bijvoorbeeld in een restaurant, school, buiten, of ergens anders waarvan jij denkt dat er mensen komen die dit boek zouden willen lezen.
Het zou nog leuker zijn als je lid wordt van BookCrossing. Dat is gratis en veilig, je emailadres wordt niet doorgegeven. Je kunt dan zelf zien waar het boek na jou naar toe gaat. Je kan ook andere boeken registeren en loslaten, kijk maar eens op http://www.bookcrossing.nl of klink links in de index van deze site. Als je lid wordt, zou ik het leuk vinden als je mij, eowyn-unquendor, als verwijzer ("referrer") opgeeft.
