Welcome to Litsy!

6-21-22: My 61st finished book of 2022! I loved Michael Cunningham‘s book-The Hours. This did not live up to that. Barrett and Tyler are brothers. Barrett, going through a breakup, sees a beautiful unexplainable light hovering over Central Park and is overcome with the question of its meaning. Meanwhile, Tyler is caring for his dying wife while trying to write her a wedding song and failing to kick a drug habit. ⭐️⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣6️⃣1️⃣

I loved everything about this book. I loved the descriptive NYC scenes and the overarching themes of death, quest for happiness, addiction, and love. I felt both the fantastical emotions of new beginnings and opportunity as well as the muted tones of every day routine and dreams you realize you will never accomplish. Masterful writing.

As much as I wanted to love this book I just couldn't connect with the characters or the story itself. Their "search for transcendence" proved to be a bit much self-indulgent introspection for me to enjoy

Nope. Just couldn't do it. I made it two hours into this audiobook and thought if I had to listen to any more indulgent bitching from the two main characters, then I might just drive off an interstate overpass. Introspection gone wrong...just too much. #enough

I'm getting ready to start a new 2017 reading challenge, and one of the challenges is an audio book. I've always struggled with being read to, so I'm trying to change that a little bit. I have come to the conclusion that Michael Cunningham should always be read aloud, however, the prose is beautiful!

I'm bailing - this is making my brain hurt right now. Plus, the brother is a drug addict which is all sorts of bad triggers for me because of a history of abuse in my family. The one redeeming quality - I really love Claire Danes reading for the audiobook 😀This book overall just isn't for me

#Bitsy says: "I hear a pretentious narrator - turn it off..."

Not giving up on Michael Cunningham, but this one didn't do much for me. Too much introspective navel-gazing, especially at the beginning, and not enough story. Took me until the second part to really get a feel of the characters. Cunningham is deft and empathetic with human nature, but the voices were kind of in a void for awhile. I liked the spiritual elements, not so much how Beth's illness fit in. She was kind of the plot, such as it was.

I don't even think I got through one chapter of the audiobook. ☃