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Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

Started by holyzombiejesus, January 18, 2020, 12:49:11 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: buttgammon on January 17, 2020, 01:04:48 AM
The best book I read all last year was Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann. It's fucking huge, but totally worthwhile. One of those books that really feels like it may define our time for future generations.

Quote from: Inspector Norse on January 17, 2020, 08:14:55 AM
I'm interested in reading that one...

So am I. Is it really tough going? I read Solar Bones which was (kind of) one single sentence and struggled, partly due to the lack of anywhere to take a pause, and that was only a couple of hundred pages. I read that Ducks... was so big that they have to have it printed on special paper and lugging it around all day (I do most of my reading on the commute to and from work) seems like it could be a bit of a fucker.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

#1
Sort of tempted by that book. Got me thinking that I should give  re-read of " The Mezzanine" by Nicholson Baker, that book about a feller who buys himself a new pair of shoelaces. Good little book that, been 30 years since I read the fecker.

BlodwynPig


buttgammon

It is tough going, if only for the sheer length, but there's a real pace and flow to the writing that helps push things along. For what it's worth, a lot of critics seem to have got hung up on the one-sentence thing, but it is actually subdivided into (admittedly, quite long and breathless) chapters. I'm one of those people who has to stop reading at the end of a chapter, and it assuaged my fears about not being able to feed my compulsion. My biggest concern would be for your back, because both me and my girlfriend genuinely strained muscles from lugging it around. I read it over the summer and still get the odd twinge in my shoulder.

Ellmann is going to be at a conference I'll be attending in the summer, so if anyone has any questions I'll try and meet her.

Captain Crunch

I found this in Oxfam just before the shutdown and I'm about a third of the way through it now.  The style is quite nice after a while, almost like a life story through osmosis and very funny in places.  Slightly resigned to the fact that nothing's going to happen but I'm happy with that.   

Captain Crunch

Finished this morning.

If you don't like the first five pages you're not going to enjoy the next 995 so it's worth giving it a try and putting it back if you're not struck. 

I liked the style and you can puff yourself up by recognising all the quotes, everyone enjoys this I'm sure.  You'd get lots of bonus points of you like old films as well as American poetry. 

On the downside it feels like all the big events in the book are squashed up into the last fifth and – weirdly for such a long book – feel rushed.  Similarly the two threads of the book don't seem to blend well, I'm not even sure they need to link up to be effective. 

I tried to describe this book at book club and one of the group said "I wouldn't want to read it but I'm glad it exists". 

7 out of 10. 

thenoise

Yes I'm not sure what I was expecting but maybe for it all to tie neatly together at the end somehow. I'm not sure there was any chance of that, and I'm probably missing the point by suggesting it. I don't feel it quite justified its length, or 'experimental' structure, other than the fact that the experience of reading it was similar to having anxiety.

I really enjoyed it though. I'm a slow and easily distracted reader but found this absolutely gripping.

selectivememory

Sure I remember someone posting about this book recently, but I couldn't find it, but I did find this old thread.

Anyway, I had this book on my ereader, and it's quite possible I bought it in the first place because of this thread. Have finally got around to starting it recently. I'm only about a fifth of the way into the book, but after what felt a slow start, I'm really getting into the rhythms of the prose. What @Captain Crunch said in this thread about it being like a life story through osmosis is exactly how I'd put it.

Dunno, might post more the further I get into it, but yeah, I'm really liking this book so far.

selectivememory

Hey look, five months later and I've finally finished the fucker. In the end couldn't ever get really into it. I dipped in and out, and read other books in between, and there were probably a few times when I went several weeks without reading a page of it. Sometimes I found myself really enjoying it, other times I found it an infuriating experience.

I dunno. Love a long book, but you need some variation, and this is sooo repetitive. Ended up feeling it would have been a much better and more powerful book if it had been at most half the length it ended up being.

dontpaintyourteeth

Hmm yeah I think the key thing is locking into it and reading it consistently- I struggled with it too because I kept dipping in and out of it, but when I got into the rhythm of it I really enjoyed reading. An interesting experiment at the very least.

madhair60


13 schoolyards

Quote from: madhair60 on September 23, 2023, 12:07:05 AMDucks by Kate Beaton mind

Yeah I came here for the Beaton appreciation - Ducks (her book) is fantastic

madhair60

Quote from: 13 schoolyards on September 23, 2023, 06:46:07 AMYeah I came here for the Beaton appreciation - Ducks (her book) is fantastic

completely changed the way I think about women

Russ L

I ordered it from the publishers and it came it this absolutely gorgeous wrapped black paper arrangement.  I don't want to ruin that as much as I'm intimidated by the book.

falafel

The audiobook is brilliant. Washes over you like a true stream of consciousness. I listened while doing chores and cooking dinner and walking the dog and it practically made me feel like I had a split personality.

poodlefaker

I got through about 600 pages really quickly last year before having a break and not going back. I was enjoying it, it felt the interior monologue of an Anne Tyler protagonist, but I'm sure 300 pages of it would've been enough. Is it worth finishing? Is there any progression or development?

selectivememory

Quote from: poodlefaker on October 23, 2023, 02:12:08 PMIs it worth finishing? Is there any progression or development?

There are like maybe three significant plot points (her relationship with her teenaged daughter, her unease with the weirdo neighbour who delivers chicken feed, and the wildcat on the loose looking for her cubs) which develop, and one in particular comes to quite a dramatic climax (which I wasn't expecting actually, given how the book was written).