Not my favorite. It’s very plot-heavy, and I’m a character-development lover. I love the descriptions of Berlin and I wish I’d had a map to trace where he was at every move. That said, he knew far too much of Berlin far too well. The city is much bigger than Kanon makes it out to be. I do like the way in which he tackles guilt, remorse, and Vergangenheitsbewaltigung.

One of the main characters is a sex-obsessed lonely old man and I really couldn’t take the descriptions of young girls and masturbating, etc. I tried, but I just couldn’t do it. No more Houellebecq for me.

I read Wolff’s This Boys Life many years ago. I enjoyed it at the time and have never forgotten it.

I bought a collection of his short stories when they were on the sale shelf at the front of Books Inc once. It then sat on my shelf for about a year. I wish I’d picked it up sooner.

Typically I don’t like short stories, but not only did I enjoy these, I added Tobias Wolff to my favorite authors list, bringing the total to two (Kazuo Ishiguro has been a long standing member). I need to get more Tobias Wolff works and read them over and over again.

My complaint about short stories is typically that I don’t get enough of what I love: character development. However, in 10-20 pages, Wolff manages to create honest, compelling, complete characters.

Stephen Dubner mentioned this book on the Freakonomics blog as one of his favorite father-son stories. He mentioned Geoffrey is the brother of Tobias, who sits on my favorite authors list (only 2 authors long). I had Books Inc specially order it for me, since it doesn’t seem to be for sale anywhere.

Fantastic! I read This Boys’ Life a number of years ago. For those that don’t know, Toby and Geoff are about 10 years apart and each was raised by one parent after the parents divorced. Each book is phenomonal as a standalone, but together, it is incredibly interesting to see the makeup of the two halves of this family.

I enjoyed History of Love from beginning to end. I have to compare it to Jonathan Safran Foer’s works as much as I’d like to recognize it on its own.

I picked it up at Books Inc because it had a little recommendation note that mentioned Nicole Krauss is Foer’s wife. I thought, why not?

I’m a big fan of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but I think her work, though similar to his in many ways, was more thoughtful, more believable, and had more depth.

With multiple protagonists whose lives are intertwined who help each other, unknowingly, to discover themselves, the story is rich with character development and alive with feeling.

I typically don’t like short stories. I love character development, but most short stories just don’t provide enough to satisfy me. These stores, however, read like entire novels. By the end of each I felt I’d gotten a thorough look at the main character. Wolff has taken a place next to Ishiguro as my favorite author.

A perfect dose of imagination for a realist. I typically don’t like books that are too heavy on the make-believe and this book features characters who have to come to terms with believing the unbelievable. Thornton successfully had this disbeliever intrigued all the way through.

completed July, 2006.

Living with two Indian-Kenyan roommates inspired me to pick this up at the bookstore. The story is compelling and the bits of Kenyan history are much appreciated. I knew nothing about Kenyan independence before and after reading this book and discussing it with Jamie, I am familiar with bits of it. I was a little disappointed in what seemed to be soap-opera character removal, but other than that, it was excellent.

completed Aug 5, 2006.

(completed 6/25/06) Laura Mo loves this book and Christina passed on that information. At first I was a little underwhelmed by the writing style and the implausability of these San Franciscans visiting so much of the Bay Area so frequently. Since when were Marin, Hillsborough, and Nob Hill so intertwined? Well, I had to admit, maybe they were in the 70s and maybe they still are in circles in which I do not travel. However, despite that, the soap opera-ness of this book really intrigued me. So many characters and what a web of affairs!

I bought this a year ago at the SF Public Library book sale (there were tons of copies of it!) and it was worth well more than the $1 I paid for it. Solzhenitsyn kept me interested as he followed Ivan Denisovich through every move of the day. Great book. (completed 6/16/06)