Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Andrew's Brain by E.L. Doctorow

This brilliant new novel by an American master, the author of Ragtime, The Book of Daniel, Billy Bathgate, and The March, takes us on a radical trip into the mind of a man who, more than once in his life, has been an inadvertent agent of disaster.

Speaking from an unknown place and to an unknown interlocutor, Andrew is thinking, Andrew is talking, Andrew is telling the story of his life, his loves, and the tragedies that have led him to this place and point in time. And as he confesses, peeling back the layers of his strange story, we are led to question what we know about truth and memory, brain and mind, personality and fate, about one another and ourselves.






I read the story summary on the back cover and was a little disappointed that it didn’t say much; I am used to most books giving a very lengthy summary about the story. While it didn’t say much, I was instantly intrigued about what the story would be about and how it would turn out.

 As I started this novel; I was excited to see if this story was as good as I was thinking it would be but at the same time I was nervous because I was wondering if I would even like the story and if I would like the characters in the book. I was afraid I had hyped it up too much in my mind and that I would end up disappointed altogether by this book. But Mr. Doctorow once again did a wonderful job of building up this novel ‘til the very end; I did not finish the book wondering what would have happened next. I loved how simple the character was. 

Some stories have more than one main character and some stories have no main characters, but Andrew’s Brain only had one main character and I really liked that because I didn’t have to remember exactly how each character related to the story. I have only read one of Mr. Doctorow’s other books and I really enjoyed that story as well. I think the author is a wonderful and very imaginative writer and I hope to see some more novels come out with his name on them. Overall I give this novel and this author an “A+.”


 
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Tiffany 

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your review; I have not read the book but may consider doing so. Reading blurbs on the backs of books can be a bit risky if you do not want to find out too much about the plot in advance; however, on the other hand, it can be a vital factor as to whether or not you would be interested enough to read the book.

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  2. My biggest complaint about publisher's book summaries on the flap is that they say too much. I think they can spoil the story. I would never complain that they don't say enough.

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The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.

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