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Chargement... Doxology (2019)par Nell Zink
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Loopy story about NYC punk rocker-programmer Pam and her daughter Flora, and their family and friends. When I was about halfway through I almost abandoned it - the book seemed like a meandering shaggy dog story. But it really kind of came together at the end. ( ) This is a book of several parts - firstly of 3 friends hanging out, making music, starting a family in New York. Then of 9/11 happening. Then of growing older/growing up and the difficulties of that. It's written in a laidback style which I liked and references a lot of music I love. I enjoyed the conjuring of the NY atmosphere of the 90s. The 9/11 bit is pretty intense. And then the aftermath of that is pretty tangled with tragedy and politics. I found the later bits lost me a bit - Flora is a bit tedious at times, and everything comes a little too easily to Pam and Daniel. But overall an enjoyable slacker family saga. I am totally in tune with sprawling works of fiction that cover many years and often multiple generations. I'm also very much into books set in New York City and Washington DC since those are the two places I have lived in my adult life. DOXOLOGY checked off both those boxes and it added in a lot of music references that resonate with me. All that being said, a book has to deliver when it plays in those areas with me because I have read a lot of these types of books and my bar is pretty high. As I was making my way through this novel I wasn't sure it was quite there but, as is so often true with sprawling narratives, it takes time to build momentum and it got better and better the further I got into it. The characters were given distinct voices and they were all given chances to flesh out their personalities. I loved how the plot moved along in ways I did not, and I would say, I could not predict. Getting lost in this type of novel is one of my truly happy places. And the bonus of having a real understanding of the settings (hey I went to shows at Wetlands in NYC in the early 90s...I know Adams Morgan...) made it that much better. I will also admit I loved the way it seemed to poke some fun at the youthful earnestness of some of our younger generation, but in a fairly gentle way. Such as "Her task was to embody certain principles and speak truth to the powerless." So not exactly fight the power. Funny, well-written and -read. Interesting characters. Of the three generations portrayed, my favorite was the second, the New York punk rockers, Pam and Daniel. The book ends sometime in the Trump presidency, and the 2016 campaign plays a significant part in the plot. It was also the least interesting part of the plot and I felt the novel sagged somewhere in the middle. But the start was excellent, funny and sharp, and the end reacquired some of the energy lost in the middle. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Distinctions
Two generations of an American family come of age - one before 9/11, one after - in this moving and original novel from the "intellectually restless, uniquely funny" (New York Times Book Review) mind of Nell Zink Pam, Daniel, and Joe might be the worst punk band on the Lower East Side. Struggling to scrape together enough cash and musical talent to make it, they are waylaid by surprising arrivals - a daughter for Pam and Daniel, a solo hit single for Joe. As the '90s wane, the three friends share in one another's successes, working together to elevate Joe's superstardom and raise baby Flora. On September 11, 2001, the city's unfathomable devastation coincides with a shattering personal loss for the trio. In the aftermath, Flora comes of age, navigating a charged political landscape and discovering a love of the natural world. Joining the ranks of those fighting for ecological conservation, Flora works to bridge the wide gap between powerful strategists and ordinary Americans, becoming entangled ever more intimately with her fellow activists along the way. And when the country faces an astonishing new threat, Flora's family will have no choice but to look to the past - both to examine wounds that have never healed, and to rediscover strengths they have long forgotten. At once an elegiac takedown of today's political climate and a touching invocation of humanity's goodness, Doxology offers daring revelations about America's past and possible future that could only come from Nell Zink, one of the sharpest novelists of our time. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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