Be Specific About Books To Want Not
| Original Title: | Want Not |
| Edition Language: | English |
Jonathan Miles
Kindle Edition | Pages: 403 pages Rating: 3.68 | 2720 Users | 438 Reviews
Rendition In Favor Of Books Want Not
A compulsively readable, deeply human novel that examines our most basic and unquenchable emotion: want. With his critically acclaimed first novel Dear American Airlines, Jonathan Miles was widely praised as a comic genius “after something bigger” (David Ulin, Los Angeles Times) whose fiction was “not just philosophically but emotionally rewarding” (Richard Russo, New York Times Book Review, front cover).Now, in his much anticipated second novel, Want Not, Miles takes a giant leap forward with this highly inventive and corrosively funny story of our times, a three-pronged tale of human excess that sifts through the detritus of several disparate lives—lost loves, blown chances, countless words and deeds misdirected or misunderstood—all conjoined in their come-hell-or-high-water search for fulfillment.
As the novel opens on Thanksgiving Day, readers are telescoped into three different worlds in various states of disrepair—a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, sacked at midlife by the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s losing battle with Alzheimer’s; and a self-made debt-collecting magnate, whose brute talent for squeezing money out of unlikely places has yielded him a royal existence, trophy wife included.
Want and desire propel these characters forward toward something, anything, more, until their worlds collide, briefly, randomly, yet irrevocably, in a shattering ending that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned.
With a satirist’s eye and a romantic’s heart, Miles captures the morass and comedy of contemporary life in all its excess. Bold, unblinking, unforgettable in its irony and pathos, Want Not is a wicked, bighearted literary novel that confirms the arrival of a major voice in American fiction.
Details About Books Want Not
| Title | : | Want Not |
| Author | : | Jonathan Miles |
| Book Format | : | Kindle Edition |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 403 pages |
| Published | : | November 5th 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Humor |
Rating About Books Want Not
Ratings: 3.68 From 2720 Users | 438 ReviewsEvaluate About Books Want Not
Astoundingly brilliant, this novel takes a sharply satirical and remarkably perceptive look at a seemingly disconnected group of people, connected mostly through the theme of waste and recycling. We being with Micah and Talmadge, two freegans who pride themselves on living off the waste of others, dumpster diving for food and squatting in an abandoned apartment building. When Talmadge's skeptical friend Matty joins them, however, his perspective and opportunistic attitude shifts their lifestyle
Miles does a great job of presenting the same thesis through three very different worlds. As always happens in these sorts of stories, eventually the three worlds collide in a somewhat unnecessary fashion to provide closure. I agree with Miless politics and I enjoyed the MANY examples of over wanting that he presented. At times, I thought it might be a bit repetitive and preachy, but in general it was a decent read.Miles manages to nestle an important argument within a decent story. The three
I really enjoyed the topic of this book (using "waste" as a motif throughout). In particular, I liked the characters of Talmage and Micah, who lived as squatters and "freegans" by only consuming food that had been thrown out. As someone who is especially fascinated with the waste our society produces, this was a fun book, as it brings the concepts of waste to life, and poses questions about our relationship to waste and what we can do about it or with it. I thought it would have been stronger
Another book that defies a star rating. 5 stars for writing. That said I think Jonathan Miles did a really good job building and making us see his characters and I liked the way he brought the three separate stories together in the end. I believe there are things to discuss here and do look forward to meeting the author at Booktopia Boulder. I can't rate it 5 stars (it was amazing) though as in the end I felt "Yes this was interesting" and now I'm on to the next read. I liked it. I'm not certain
Halfway through and really cannot force myself to finish this book. There is not a single character whom I can care about. Every character in the book is miserable. I dont mean just miserable by my standards; they are all miserable within their own.This author conjures up so many revolting visual images that I can only hope will eventually be flushed out of my memory...and truly with no redeeming reason or value behind it.If you want to wallow in hideous misery with people you wouldnt want to
Between 2 and 3 stars. I respected where the author was trying to go, but didn't think this came together in a cohesive or satisfying way. Any story told from multiple perspectives runs the risk of some characters being less interesting than others, and that was definitely the case here, where I was completely bored by at least one of the storylines for the entire book. Most of all, though, I had a real issue with the inauthenticity/underdeveloped female characters in this book and the way the
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