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#FirstLineFridays

Because he had enjoyed almost every advantage since birth, one of the few privileges denied to Benjamin Rask was that of a heroic rise: his was not a story of resilience and perseverance or the tale of an unbreakable will forging a golden destiny for itself out of little more than dross.

Started this one last night. Anyone else read it? I was drawn in by “At once an immersive story and brilliant literary puzzle…” from the description. I‘ll see if it lives up to the hype. 🙂

Wow.
“I never heard the Stock Exchange bell ring.”
I wish I could tell you why that is such a powerful statement in this book about power. The problem with writing a review about this book is that it would be a spoiler to talk about its structure, which is the real star of the show. Let me just summarize by saying it is a masterpiece. It is a writer‘s novel. Pick.Pick.Pick.

Up next…..I‘m really trying to read through my TBR and not get distracted by all the new books.

A soft pick for me. Brilliant in its structure with the story of a tycoon and his wife told from 4 different perspectives. Just so…much…..finance.

Thanks for the tag @AnnR ! Gardening and watching Star Trek with my Dad. Baking with my mom. And traveling with both of the . I hope I‘m remembered for contributing to river and fisheries restoration efforts. Just started tagged yesterday….is it a take on the Sackler family? Intrigued. @Eggs #wondrouswednesday

The ending is very well done but it doesn‘t make up for the first 80% of the book which is just 😩🥱😶‍🌫️. It was such a struggle to get through and I‘m not sure the message is new nor unable to be conveyed in any more enjoyable or engaging way. It‘s written for authors, not readers.

Book 1/100
📚📚📚📚📚 I understand why this split the #pulitzerprize for 2023. It is an unconventional story structure focusing on a Wall Street tycoon in the year leading up to the 1929 crash and shortly after. Written in 4 parts with 4 different POV‘s sharing the story of this person. The first part did get slow about 1/2 through but the rest goes quickly and creates an entire picture of the character.

I read a review, after I read this, which described it as an experimental four part novel about American finance and wealth and, had I read that first, I may not have picked this up. In short, it was far too clever for me. Yet after not enjoying it for much of the book did it finally win me over? By part four - suddenly, suddenly I get it. Clever, enjoyable in parts, baffling and tedious in others.

The story of Andrew Bevel and his wife, Mildred Bevel, told from 4 different points of view.

Literary ✨ Fabrication ✨ Story Within a Story

I feel like I will be thinking about this one for quite some time. There is a lull about halfway through, if this happens to you I encourage you to push through it, I ended up very much enjoying the book!

#two4tuesday

1. Yes and a few other cryptocurrencies

2. Trust by Hernan Diaz (tagged)

Just finished Trust by Hernan Diaz. Highly recommend!

I wasn‘t sure how I felt about this until I finished it. I thought about it…then I thought some more. And I decided the structure and all the layers were really kind of brilliant (imho). Another winner from the #Tob2023longlist #Pulitzer

The audio of this is very good with a different narrator for each of the 4 sections. I was a bit lost during the second but it came back together for me after that. I thought the whole concept was fascinating, stories within stories and all different depending on POV. It is masterfully put together.

I really enjoyed this.

I LOVED the way the story was told from different perspectives. Not surprising that the husband diminished his wife‘s work (she did everything) and rewrote her history. Fascinating

This book was ingenious,yet I found it confusing.I had to google it and read various summaries to really grasp it.The summaries confirmed what I thought that I had just read. I can see why this book won a Pulitzer Prize.The end seemed a bit drawn out.I understand that Mildred was dying and that she was hallucinating in parts.I also realize that we learned valuable information in this section. But did it have to take close to 50 pages to go there?

This blurb hits home, especially with today‘s current political climate-
“A viscous cycle has taken hold of our able bodied men: They increasingly rely on the government to alleviate the misery created by that same government.”

“Most of us prefer to believe that we are the active subjects of our victories but only the passive objects of our defeats.”

This has an unusual format. It's a book about a woman. A fiction book. An autobiography from the husband. A sort of memoir from the typist who wrote the autobiography. And finally a journal from the woman herself. It fell flat as an audiobook imo. But it's actually quite good.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

📚5-13-23 || Starting this one today! The Pulitzer announcement bumped this one to the top of my TBR.

Interesting coincidence that I finished this book on the same day it won the Pulitzer. I really enjoyed the structure of this and the peeling away of the layers to get towards the truth, who gets a voice and who doesn‘t, and the use of wealth in the shaping of truth. Also, I have a backyard to read in again!

After being very impressed by Diaz' first book, of course I had to read the second novel as well. And once again I was caught in the author's narrative. How can he manage to switch between three such different techniques so easily? We dig deep into the mechanics of money making and learn about what it can do to you and the ones closest to you...

The structure of this book was so interesting, with the four related novellas. I have always loved books within a book. I think the audiobook added to my enjoyment of the four stories, and the writing was a pleasure. I see why it made so many best of 2022 lists. Five stars. I‘d like to read other books by Hernan Diaz. #52bookclub2023 #roaring20s I haven‘t posted & tagged in awhile…I hope I got everyone for #52bookclub2023

I like audiobooks. They keep me company in the car amongst other places.

@ozma.of.oz
#sundayfunday

Absolutely phenomenal novel consisting of four interlocked novellas, each one from a new perspective and relieving new elements of the story and the characters. Highly recommend!

Hooray!! I love the readathons. Goals….
📚 finish All The Light We Cannot See
📚 continue my buddy reads
📚 finish King Lear
📚 start the next Shakespeare play
📚 finish Leap
📚 start the next #lovebookstours book
Thanks for organizing @Andrew65

#nextup #neighborhoodbookclub

#twofortuesday @TheSpineView

1. I did some rereading in Feb so they were all five stars cause I was counting on them for that, but new books I read were tagged, love on the brain and Villette. Quite varied but all excellent!

2. My birthday is in March so lots of celebrating and also a new masters essay on Ann Radcliffe!

Pretty engaging historical fiction! I wasn‘t sure where it was gonna go, but the journey was enjoyable and the narrators did an excellent job.

This was so unique and fascinating. I‘ve never read a book quite like it before giving so many different perspectives on a single life. I loved how the story built up slowly but not chronologically. I loved having to solve things for myself rather than being told them. I couldn‘t have loved this more or recommend it more highly!

Trust is structurally unique. Each perspective is told in a complete story instead of interspersing each perspective throughout the novel. So it reads like four connected novellas. But all the details are evident only when the last story is complete. Each layer offers new questions and a refined sense of the “truth.”

Excellent as an audiobook!

Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2022

Innovative structure tends to be a hook for me and so, knowing this novel consists of four interconnected novellas, I had to give it a try. It‘s a slow burn, but by the time I was 2/3 of the way through, I didn‘t want to put it down. I don‘t care one bit about the world of finance, but the people in this novel are multifaceted (four viewpoints!) and fascinating.

Stocks, shares and all that garbage are just claims to future value. So if money is fiction, finance capital is the fiction of a fiction. That‘s what all those criminals trade in: fiction.

Diaz creates a wonderful structure to explore the truth of a financial power couple who went through the ‘29 crash. However it evokes the period beautifully and explores stereotypes of gender, power, class and intelligence expertly! Great reading start for 2023!

14 Dec-6 Jan 23 (audiobook)
#Bookerlonglist 7
A story of the marriage of a wealthy couple living in New York during the early 20th century. On first appearance he appears to be a Wall Street tycoon and she is an enthusiast of the arts and a philanthropist, but the structure of Diaz‘s text causes us to question what we can truly know of public figures. Not a wholly original proposition but well executed and a compelling story.

4. Trust, by Hernan Diaz -- I don't always love puzzle novels but this one really worked for me. An exploration of a woman's life from four different perspectives, in which the truth doesn't emerge until the last page.

ABBA had it right: Money, money, money/ It's a rich man's world.
Money, power, greed, and the lies we tell ourselves to justify our actions. The book is made up of several versions of the story of Benjamin and Helen Rask from various perspectives. While I've had my fill of egocentric rich dudes over the past few years IRL, this is an interesting take on the thought processes and emotional weirdness that surround money and power. #ToB2023 longlist

Themes of power, money, and society presented in a unique format. This one plays with the concept of history being shaped by who is telling the stories. Well written and thought provoking.

⭐️ That was such a long slog for so little payoff. A story within a story. I didn‘t care about the characters and wasn‘t interested in the first version and thought about ditching it then but kept going because of all of the acclaim. Surprise surprise, the rich guy had a different take on his story than the fiction author, and there were other nuances beyond that, but the characters and story still weren‘t interesting. Not worth the time to me.

Yay for Trust! Not my very favorite novel of the year (that would be Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait) but it's definitely top five.

https://lithub.com/here-are-the-winners-of-the-2022-kirkus-prize/

A carefully crafted oddity. A novel about a man who shorted the 1929 stock market crash becomes a novel within a novel. And the book moves on the other literary documents and scraps, each altering the perspective of everything before. An interesting look a capitalism too. But I‘m not entirely sure it will hang around. #booker2022

The first thing that struck me when I began reading Trust was how much it reminded me of Edith Wharton, and I loved that! It‘s rare to find a modern novel that emulates an older style so perfectly.

Then it becomes an entirely different beast. It‘s a demanding read but Diaz presents it so effortlessly. It‘s a surprisingly engaging book despite there not being a line of dialogue until well after the 200 page mark.

A very rewarding read.

#kindledailydeal
Some good reviews on here.

I‘ll start this tomorrow. #booker2022