The Effect Of Living Backwards

Rating:
Summary: Smart, Original Thriller
Review:
I LOVED this book! And I'm not even into the "thrill" genre.
But this smart, sassy novel was so much more. Terrorists, on Flight 919 from Casablanca to Melilla. Alice and her sister Edith, who was enroute to get married, got on board, along with some other passengers who tell the reader, in first person, their "Shame Stories". The "Shame Stories" actually come from Alice and Edith but are SO connected in every way.
The actual mystery begins with the terrorists themselves. Were they terrorists or just old fashioned hi-jackers? Was one of them really blind? What were their demands? There was a sense of unreality about it, even as you turn the pages to see if the whole weird trip was a hi-jacking or role playing or a dream or a metaphor. Wonderfully Smart Book. A Pleasure To Read

Rating:
Summary: Good Ideas that Don't Take Off
Review: An ambitious book that ultimately bites off more then it can chew. Could the author be too much of a brainiac? There are lovely moments of texture and real insight, and then long insufferable passages where the author's strain is evident. A series of vignettes meant to expose the shameful secrets of the main characters fail because the secrets aren't, well, that shameful. The rivalry between the two sisters ends up repeating the same note over and over, squabbling leading to more squabbling. Nonetheless, the cumulative effect of the novel somehow does manage to land. The author does seem to have caught a side ways glace of much of what ails us, and the feeling you are left with at the end (an uneasy and ephemeral melancholy) may or may not be worth the read - it depends on your patience.

Rating:
Summary: drool-worthy writing, keenly powerful brain
Review: Few books in recent memory can rival this novel's breathtaking, acrobatically adept use of language. On the sentence-for-sentence level, TEOLB reminded me a lot of Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude -- a book that made me want to stop and savor each paragraph as poetic work of art.

I agree with other reviewers here, though, that this book's storyline is ultimately too obtuse. As a result, my interest in the book waned, and I found myself guiltily skimming through certain sections. Those of you who were simultaneously amazed and a little bored by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest will likely have the same experience here: It's that feeling of marveling at an author's inventiveness and linguistic dexterity, while at the same time wishing they had provided more straightforward story to sink your teeth into.

I'm putting my money on her third book being a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: weird, weird, so very weird.
Review: I can definitely understand the 1 or 2 star ratings being given this book by other amazon.com reviewers; I have very mixed feelings about it myself. There were parts I enjoyed: the interplay between the two sisters, the interesting post-Sept.11 theorizing, the fact that the confusing plot did draw me in and didn't want to let go. What I didn't enjoy was that the reader can never distinguish what is real and what is not, who is "good" and who is "bad," whether the whole hijacking was set up as a study on how passengers react to certain aspects of terrorism or whether the whole BOOK was set up to see how readers react to certain aspects of bizarre and overzealous writing.

I liked the terrorist attacks on the US being referred to as "The Big Terrible" (which Julavits credits to Thomas Freidman in her acknowledgements) rather than the ubiqutous "9-11," and I also liked the creative hijacking story of a rugby team overpowering their captors and crashing the plane when it wasn't necessary (resulting in stickers posted in all airplanes saying WHEN TO OVERPOWER YOUR HIJACKERS). However, much of the writing about the terrorism school seemed contrived, as though Julavits was trying a little too hard, and the battle between the two factions there didn't make a lot of sense to me.

_The Effect of Living Backwards_ certainly held my interest, and in all I'd say that it was a good read. At times the writing was just a little hard to wade through... and I'm still trying to decide if the effort was worth it.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful writing, eh story
Review: I was very excited as I began this book-- there's no question that Julavits can turn a phrase in a way that many writers, including myself, will envy! One description of sleeping huddled in a school cot under a blanket that hovered several inches above her "like a benificent mold" really got my attention... sounded like every institutional (camp, school) bed I'd ever been in.

However, after awhile the cleverness overhwhelmed the plot. I liked the narrator, but the hijacking memory goes on so long, and the conditions are so bleak/gross, that it's like being trapped there yourself (a description of some particularly awful food was sort of like cruelty to the reader). Ultimately this kind of quirky, clever plotting became too tiresome and I lost the thread of the meaning and the larger significance.

Should Julavits try something a little more conventional though I'd be there in a heartbeat. Definitely a writer to watch!

Rating:
Summary: What Was The Point?
Review: This is the worst book I've ever read. Rather, tried to read. I didn't even get past the first two chapters. I skimmed through the rest of the book then I threw it out. I didn't feel it was even worth passing onto someone else. The book was just full of garbage writing to put it simply and I couldn't make sense of anything. I do not recommend this book unless you enjoy wasting money.

Rating:
Summary: Good Ideas that Don't Take Off
Review: This novel is very different. The story premise is unusual, timely and interesting. It is a black comedy describing a pair of sisters involved in an airline hijacking experience. You never know if the hijacking is real, staged or something in between.

I really wanted to love this book. There is so much promise in this writer. Her prose is amazing; she seems to understand and utilize words that sound almost musical in her sentences. I found myself looking to the dictionary on multiple occasions, fascinated with the vocabulary and syntax. Unfortunately, the plot and story development, do not demonstrate the same level of maturity.

Author Heidi Julavits' shows she has extraordinary potential, having a remarkable ability to piece together interesting phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. If the plot of this novel was more substantial, or the two sister's characters were better developed, this would be a very good work. Instead, we are left with an interesting book, that leaves you puzzled about what you read when you reach the finish.

I generously rate this book at 2.75 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 3.00, for beautiful use of language, creativity in subject matter and a nice job in approaching the story. However, it rambles on in its linguistic beauty instead of really delivering a strong plot or climax. If this writer learns to finish as well as she starts, I believe we will see many other interesting works to come.

Rating:
Summary: ** Great Language, OK Characters, But Where's the Plot? **
Review: This novel is very different. The story premise is unusual, timely and interesting. It is a black comedy describing a pair of sisters involved in an airline hijacking experience. You never know if the hijacking is real, staged or something in between. The critical elements of the book concern the relationship between the sisters, rather than the interplay around the hijacking. (...)

Author Heidi Julavits shows she has extraordinary potential, having a remarkable ability to piece together interesting phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. If the plot of this novel was more substantial, or if the two sister's characters were better developed, this would be a very good work. Instead, we are left with an interesting book, that leaves you puzzled about what you read when you reach the finish.

I generously rate this book at 2.85 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 3.00, for beautiful use of language, creativity in subject matter and a nice job in approaching the story. However, it rambles on in its linguistic beauty instead of really delivering a strong plot or climax. If this writer learns to finish as well as she starts, I believe we will see many other interesting works to come.

Rating:
Summary: (...)
Review: what a messy, mess, mess this book is!

there's a/are terrorist(s) on board a plane- but the reader is let in on the beginning that the terrorism isn't real- in fact there's some strange school where people are trained to act out fake terrorist attacks-- for what purpose? who knows.

oh, the narrator hints at this & that- the author lets us into the other passenger's minds briefly in these small interjected chapters- why? once again, who knows?

you really never know what the heck is going on- people die- but do they really? relationships take on a joking manner that only the author seems privvy to. oh my gosh! the only reason i finished the darn thing was due to a (wrong) belief that all of the confused nonsense would work itself out in the end.

do yourself a favor & don't bother with this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Cover Art Is Pretty
Review: Whereas Gravity's Rainbow is purely postmodern and a grand masterpiece, The effect of Living Backwards is very superfically postmodern, and attempts to be, but has so little depth, and seems so constructed in a vain attempt to be, that the reader comes away with the notion of a book advertising postmodernism rather than a truly postmodern book. Sort of like a giant billboard for postmodernism.

If we extrapolate Heidi Julavits career, it may be one of imitating masters. And to imitate is to fail. Always. She tried a Faulknerian book with The Mineral Palace, and now Pynchon or Rushdie, so don't be suprised if this white blonde jumps to going after Toni Morrison.