Name: Etta and Otto and Russell and James
ISBN: 9780241003329

Emma Hooper

'Writing that easily equals that of the Booker-winning Richard Flanagan...[and] as readable and gripping as any thriller.' - The TimesI've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. I will try to remember to come back.Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 2, 000 miles to water. Meanwhile her husband Otto waits patiently at home, left only with his memories. Their neighbour Russell remembers too, but differently - and he still loves Etta as much as he did more than fifty years ago, before she married Otto.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James

Janice Hopper

What a strange little book this is. The story isn't told in chronological order. It unfolds slowly, with leaps backward and forward in time. Some of it is told in letters. There's a certain amount of ambiguity in what actually happens in the story.

All that aside, I liked this book quite a bit. As I get older, I tend to move more toward reading about older people who still have stories to tell, no matter how odd some of the younger people find their stories to be. Hey, I read lots of SF/F. I have a high tolerance for "unbelievable" things. :)

The word that kept floating up in my brain through the end of this book was "psychopomp." Etta's journey is also Otto's journey, in a strange way, even though they're apparently physically separated by thousands of kilometers. I actually thought the ending was pretty perfect for the book, even though it IS a bit ambiguous.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was very good. There's one point in the last quarter of the book where he really brought the excitement and immediacy of what was going on very much to life. OTOH, I got tired of the way he said "Okay." Go figure.

It's a good book. I liked it a lot. I kinda wish I had a book club to talk it over with.

Embarking on a walking journey from rural Canada to the East coast so that she can see the ocean for the first time in her life, an octogenarian woman has experiences that blur her perspectives between illusion, memory, and reality.

A Novel

Sarah Vaughan

I was going back and forth with myself about whether I should give this a 2- or 3-star rating. In the end, I went with 3, but keep in mind that it still had some problems for me. 

First, I just want to say that I'm not a literature professor or a genius. I am a journalist and freelance writer who understands the value of smoothly flowing, creative writing, but I'm not someone who can read the greatest classics and interpret them as the greatest literary critics of our time can, so you may want to take this review with a grain of salt. 

With that being said, one of the biggest problems I had with this book were things that I assumed the author meant to be used as symbols, which never really led anywhere. For example, there's a talking animal in this book, and the author makes it quite clear he is not imaginary because there are photos of them together, but they have conversations. The conversations do not seem to be imaginary either because his words tend to follow his actual actions. But what is the point I'm wondering? (The rest of the novel doesn't have any "fantasy" elements.) I thought I had it figured out because of the name she gives it, but now I'm not so sure. And I'm not sure it actually did anything for the book either. 

There were other things about this book that really annoyed me as well. There were snippets of dialogue that were just...how do I say this...pretentious? One moment the characters are not-so-intelligent people, and the next, they're speaking rhythmically, lyrically? Why? 

In fact, I think pretentious is a great word to describe the entire tone of this book. I am left here wondering why an entire half of this book existed. There was the potential for a great story in the fragments of narrative that take place in the past, but when we get to the present day, it made absolutely no sense to me. Tons and tons of possible symbols and things representing imagery that were never followed through or explained. And I don't mean unexplained in the "you should get it if you're intelligent" kind of way, but the "where is this going" and "what am I supposed to take from this" kind of way. 

I don't want to necessarily offend the author, because I know each person puts time and effort into their work and wants it to be valued and appreciated, but I'm honestly sitting here wondering why this manuscript was published. It just wasn't my cup of tea as they say.

b.andherbooks

I don't even know how to review this book. It is a unique sparky, poignant tale about Etta and Otto and Russell and James (oh James), both in their youth and their sunset years. Etta is my hero. The narrative structure is unique, bouncing between the POVs of the characters and in time. Lyrical writing just sinks you in and I unfortunately finished this way to fast. It will be worth a re-read. Highly recommend.

Frank Meeuwsen

After about 20% in the book I just got terribly bored by the story and the characters. I have no idea where the story is going and I found out I don't want to know either. Oh well, at least I tried.