Helpful Score: 2
WE ARE WATER was the March 2014 pick in my online book club, The Reading Cove.
I wasn't really looking forward to this book, because I'd previously tried I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE but had chucked it out of total boredom after 100 or so pages. I'm happy to say that I found WE ARE WATER more readable and interesting than that one...BUT. I'm still not a fan of Wally Lamb's writing style.
OMG ~ the characters ramble and ramble and RAMBLE about everything! Including the kitchen sink! Pages and pages of snail's pace meandering. And nothing really happens until you're over halfway through the 560 page book! Then, in the middle of a scene, with about 50 pages left to go, the snail suddenly gets in a big hurry (after 500 pages of crawling!) and jumps 3 years with the turn of a single page!
So the pacing was remarkably uneven, to say the least.
Granted, this is by no means a plot-driven story, it's definitely a character study, but do we really need to have the dots placed soclose together? It's written as if for a middle-school grade level; spoon-feeding the reader to death, and being excessively repetitive by revisiting the same things from each family member's perspective, but without really adding anything new. But of course, the subject matter makes it clearly a book for adult readers.
It's also chock full of tedious and superfluous scenes, such as a character in his car, looking for a house with the GPS directions being quoted, word-for-word! Seriously?? The directions had nothing whatsoever to do with the story, why not just cut to the guy arriving at the house instead of wasting time in the car with lines and lines of what the GPS is saying??
Any wonder the book clocks in at 560 pages?
So, I definitely feel the book could've easily been 200 pages shorter. And what's more, there were also several chapters where you're placed very firmly into the mind of a child molester. And of course, we all need that at least once in our lives, right?
NOT.
Don't get me wrong, I do think the perspective is an interesting one to explore, but I felt some of the hand-to-body details were definitely gratuitous. It just wasn't necessary to be quite so graphic with such disturbing behavior: a grown man sexually molesting little girls. It's just unnecessary for commercial reading. After all, we're not psychologists researching pedophiles, are we?! We don't need to read that! I actually felt I needed to bathe after reading those scenes. :((
Beyond these issues, the Oh family was an interesting one, and I was able to skim through a lot of the unnecessary ramblings and enjoy the story overall for book club discussion, but I think I'm pretty much done with Wally Lamb. His style of writing is just not for me. C+
★
(¯`·.·´¯) (¯`·.·´¯)
`·.¸(¯`·.·´¯)¸ .·
×°× ` ·.¸.·´ ×°×
I wasn't really looking forward to this book, because I'd previously tried I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE but had chucked it out of total boredom after 100 or so pages. I'm happy to say that I found WE ARE WATER more readable and interesting than that one...BUT. I'm still not a fan of Wally Lamb's writing style.
OMG ~ the characters ramble and ramble and RAMBLE about everything! Including the kitchen sink! Pages and pages of snail's pace meandering. And nothing really happens until you're over halfway through the 560 page book! Then, in the middle of a scene, with about 50 pages left to go, the snail suddenly gets in a big hurry (after 500 pages of crawling!) and jumps 3 years with the turn of a single page!
So the pacing was remarkably uneven, to say the least.
Granted, this is by no means a plot-driven story, it's definitely a character study, but do we really need to have the dots placed soclose together? It's written as if for a middle-school grade level; spoon-feeding the reader to death, and being excessively repetitive by revisiting the same things from each family member's perspective, but without really adding anything new. But of course, the subject matter makes it clearly a book for adult readers.
It's also chock full of tedious and superfluous scenes, such as a character in his car, looking for a house with the GPS directions being quoted, word-for-word! Seriously?? The directions had nothing whatsoever to do with the story, why not just cut to the guy arriving at the house instead of wasting time in the car with lines and lines of what the GPS is saying??
Any wonder the book clocks in at 560 pages?
So, I definitely feel the book could've easily been 200 pages shorter. And what's more, there were also several chapters where you're placed very firmly into the mind of a child molester. And of course, we all need that at least once in our lives, right?
NOT.
Don't get me wrong, I do think the perspective is an interesting one to explore, but I felt some of the hand-to-body details were definitely gratuitous. It just wasn't necessary to be quite so graphic with such disturbing behavior: a grown man sexually molesting little girls. It's just unnecessary for commercial reading. After all, we're not psychologists researching pedophiles, are we?! We don't need to read that! I actually felt I needed to bathe after reading those scenes. :((
Beyond these issues, the Oh family was an interesting one, and I was able to skim through a lot of the unnecessary ramblings and enjoy the story overall for book club discussion, but I think I'm pretty much done with Wally Lamb. His style of writing is just not for me. C+
★
(¯`·.·´¯) (¯`·.·´¯)
`·.¸(¯`·.·´¯)¸ .·
×°× ` ·.¸.·´ ×°×
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
A family saga that takes you into the past of each character to explain why they are who they are and how they got to the place they are whether it be in a good place or a bad place. The central couple is Anna and Orion Oh and although they are now going in separate directions, it was still worth it to hear how they got together and the ups and downs of their marriage.
Wally Lamb is known for writing some very powerful books. It is sad to admit this was my first of his books that I have read, although I do own three others. I wasn't quite prepared for the saga that it was, but I immediately fell into it and wanted to know more and more about this immediate family and the outside characters that would influence them. This book was all about the characters and thankfully Lamb made a great family that I easily grew attached to.
A family saga that takes you into the past of each character to explain why they are who they are and how they got to the place they are whether it be in a good place or a bad place. The central couple is Anna and Orion Oh and although they are now going in separate directions, it was still worth it to hear how they got together and the ups and downs of their marriage.
Wally Lamb is known for writing some very powerful books. It is sad to admit this was my first of his books that I have read, although I do own three others. I wasn't quite prepared for the saga that it was, but I immediately fell into it and wanted to know more and more about this immediate family and the outside characters that would influence them. This book was all about the characters and thankfully Lamb made a great family that I easily grew attached to.
I have to admit that in the beginning, I had a hard time getting into this book. I found one of the main characters to be a bit whiny in the first chapter. After that, it became easier and the characters grew on me. I like the way Mr. Lamb brought the history of characters to the present day. Abuse is the "gift" that keeps on giving. This book included some current controversial issues which made it even more interesting. Wally hit it out of the ballpark. Good read!
I liked this book but I didn't love it. This is the first of the author's novels I've felt this way about. I thought this book was good, beautifully written but I didn't necessarily enjoy it. The pedophilia stuff was a bit too graphic for me. If that's a sensitive issue for you or you're squeamish, I'd skip this book. I understand how it was important to the plot but it was still difficult for me to push through. I didn't find the characters likable and couldn't really find anyone to "root for". If you like Wally Lamb's other novels, I'd recommend this one. If you like a tragic story, this is for you.
Artfully written. Sometimes you need to keep a secret, other times you can reveal it.
The only reason I finished this book was because someone gave it to me. Disturbing, disjointed and the author tried to tie everything up in a nice little ribbon in the last section.
My sister read this book and di not like nearly as well as his first novel. WE have very similar tastes in books, so I did not read.
