A compelling premise undermined by a lack of imaginative language, by structural shortcomings, and by unfulfilled expectations. The gothic ideas put forth are exciting, and the author does not shrink from depictions of the grotesque, but I was hoping for more precise and lyrical language. There are outbursts of the kind of writing I expected from the novel, but their presence only highlights the absence of consistently good writing.Much of the best writing comes about 100 pages into the novel, in a particular section. This becomes the core of the novel, around which the rest has been hung like cheap tinsel. The first few times the story breaks from one point of view and begins anew from another, it is able to maintain both my interest and its own narrative momentum, but by the final shift, to the perspective of a flat character whose rational skepticism is meant to temper the questionable sanity of her companions, my interest in the story skids to a halt (much like this overlong sentence).This novel's ending is exquisite in a way, but it is not the ending set up by the preceding narrative. Gob is a man whose considerable charm and passionate belief in a patently absurd notion is enough to overwhelm both his own rational mind and the skepticism of the otherwise (mostly) sane people he meets. Whether he succeeds or fails is in many ways a secondary concern. But the manner in which he succeeds or fails (pardon my ambiguity, in consideration of those who may yet read the novel and wish to do so unspoiled) is unearned by the bounds of his quest. It's a pity; I would have liked to read the ending to this novel, and I would have liked to read the novel to which this ending should be attached.
How do we deal with lost? Mostly with remembrance we embrace those that are no longer with us. But what if that isn't enough? For George Washington Woodhull, Gob, loosing his twin brother in America's Civil War wasn't the defining moment of this life. Bringing him, and along with all the dead from all of time, back to life is. To master death is to master all things, for death is the master of all. Gob's plan is the channel all of his grief into the machine, that will bridge the living world with the dead world, so that death & life can no longer be told apart. Gob isn't alone in his mission. Along he brings: Walt Whitman, who's sensitivity and empathy to all the dead is so strong that he is to battery Gob's machine; William Fie who lost his older brother in the Civil War; and Maci Trufant, who is a strong skeptic in Gob's endeavor but who helps along anyway as she wishes to see her dead brother again. Gob's assistance all share a unique gift. They can communicate with the dead! A gift Gob envies but understands he cannot posses, because his gift is to reunite those spirits with the living world. Gob's machine is the novel's McGuffin. We're left wondering whether he will be successful or is his machine purely just a monument to Gob's grief; a demonstration on how far we're willing to be with those who no longer are. Beautiful imagery paint this fantastical novel. Seeing Walt Whitman skate in Central Park or go with Gob as he steals Abraham Lincoln's hat are just some of the pleasures I grabbed on to.
What do You think about Gob's Grief (2002)?
I really liked this book. It was written by an old friend of mine from the University of Florida (we haven't talked in 25 years, so our ancient friendship did not influence this review.) It's not a book I would normally have read based on the setting and back cover blurb, but it drew me in from the start with the lyrical writing and the way it made me feel like I was part of every scene going on. The author put a twist on historical events, introducing characters like Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman as well as fictional characters I loved, like Gob and Tomo and the whole cray-cray Woodhull family. I gave it four stars instead of five because I had an occasional uncomfortable feeling of being lost and flailing as it jumped around in history and introduced characters I didn't recognize, but that was more than counterbalanced by the wonderful moments that made me THINK.This was one of those books that made me feel profoundly human and made me ponder life, and choices, and chance, and love. When I got to the end I felt changed, which is one of the great gifts you can get from a book. Don't be scared away by my feeling of being lost...that is part of the magic of the book and it's really very readable. Just occasionally surprising and even shocking...but that's fun. Beautiful, thoughtful, well crafted. If you want a break from summer potboilers and you want a book that's fun to read but will still help you ponder life and death and the meaning of this big wide world, read this book. It will stay with you.
—Annabel Joseph
so it took me two tries to actually get into the swing of this book, and mostly i persevered because it's chris adrian. i found the first two sections much less compelling than the rest of the book, the first sort of prequel part, and whitman's part. whitman is just too much, i find him annoying and a little baffling, and while i realize things are being set up, it doesn't seem like we need that much for that long. however, once you get past whitman to gob everything picks up and is much more the chris adrian i expect from reading 'the children's hospital' and 'a better angel'. plus (and this floored me)! the books are actually all connected and i'm very happy i read this after CH because i don't know if i would have had quite the same revelatory throw-the-crown-in-the-bathtub moment if i had read them in the order they were written.
—Tatiana
Not nearly as wonderful as Children's Hospital, but still quite good. For awhile I thought this was going to be a five star book, but the bottom sort of dropped out of it towards the end, but not in too major of a way. This book really needs to have a new blurb written on it, and maybe the cover changed (especially on the paperback), since making this book seem like a Civil War novel is like saying that Gravity's Rainbow is about World War 2. Actually the Pynchon book is so much more about a war than this, and really is GR really about the war? Anyway, this isn't a war novel, even if the cover makes it look like it could be on the bookshelf comfortably next to something by Jeffery Shaaaaaara, or Newt Gingrich.
—Greg
