Customer Reviews

Nobody's Girl: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I pretty much read anything by Antonya Nelson--and with great pleasure. She's one of this century's strongest, funniest and most original auhtors of family relations, and always a pleasure. Plus, her writing keeps getting better.

This earlier novel, however, doesn't do her justice. The main character is hard to like, the prose meanders, and Nelson's point gets lost beneath her striving to make such a point.

Ever since reading Antonya Nelson's short story 'Control Group', which was once a finalist in the O'Henry Awards, I've realized she's so perceptive when it comes to developing the personalities of her characters that it's scary. I've read many of her short stories and had to read one of her novels. I wasn't bored, for not once did she lose touch with that human pulse that brings the people in her stories so close to the surface they seem breathe back at you from the pages!
Chrissy K. McVay
author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, Ido find that the central character, Birdy Stone, is not always sympathetic, or even likable. This makes the book interesting, but it also makes some of Birdy's thought processes unappealing. However, despite her rampant insecurities, Birdy is not altogether unlovable. She is funny and irreverent. Jesus, too, is amusing, witty. Luziana, perhaps my favorite character, seems wise beyond her years, yet youthful as well. All around, the book is a worthwhile read. Its humor and its unique views of life in a small southwestern town make it enjoyable. Nelson's attention to detail, such as Mr. John's ever present khaki coveralls offer an authenticity that more than make up for Birdy's small shortcomings.

Pinetop, New Mexico, slopes toward the future, and Birdy Stone, high school English teacher, slips on its desperate incline. At the novel's beginning, Birdy engages to tutor the mother of a student, Mark. The mother is inventing an account of how Mark's father and sister died. Birdy sets about to uncover the truth about those deaths. Meanwhile, she seduces Mark, who eagerly falls into lust, and tries sometimes to get a footing in her life. A existential current flows under the twine of stories. Humor gusts through the prose. Luziana, a pregnant student who knows what she wants, and Mr. John, a retarded janitor who appears to have the keys to every puzzle, and Jesus Morales, fellow teacher who travels to Albuquerque for his gay freedom, crowd into Birdy's mobile home or she into their lives. At the end, a reader is not sure where he or she has gone but, like a passenger on a amusement park ride, has enjoyed the sensation of arriving there.

The way the review read, I thought this book would be interesting. It's strange, I know, but I find seduction combining older and younger parties intriguing (may I reccommend PURE by rebbecca ray of INNOCENTS by cathy coote for those of you in the same boat). However, this book was incredibly boring.
I'm not trying to be harsh, but from the very start I knew I didn't like Birdy Stone. The scene the book opens on is where Birdy is explaining to her students that depressing literature is much more meaningful and lasting than happy lit. And almost as if it were forshadowing, the whole book was...depressing.
Perhaps a good read for those in the mood for an emotional sponge, but deffinitely not a book for those looking for breathtakingly magnificent prose. It certainly wasn't MY book anyway. I just wouldn't reccomend it.

Nelson is a great writer: her insights are always wry and surprising, her characters always people who are both flawed and appealing. Really rewarding--completely worth reading.

Antonya Nelson is an excellent writer, but perhaps her skills are more suited to the short story. This novel has the same epiphany moment structure of a short story, although there are several epiphanies. We find out what the main character learns as she untangles the relationships in a small town family. The writing is fresh and interesting, the characters appealing and the setting carefully created. The book came together in the end as a cohesive whole without there having to be a "happy" ending. I liked that. I'd recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed Oprah's book selections, and wish that Oprah would choose this one, too.

Antonya Nelson is a talented writer. Her words illicit emotional responses. Unfortunately by the end of this book my overall emotional response was "who cares?" A failing for me was Birdie's character arch - basically that there was none. Birdie is an unsympathetic character at the beginning of the book and even less sympathetic by the end. The actual murder mystery woven into the plot is anticlimatic. Either plot device (Birdie's "growth" or the murder's solution) needed to make a stronger impression. In general the book was great dissappointment.

Ms Nelson writes about a high school teacher but seems to want to avoid taking us into the classroom.Her writing is sometimes slightly abrasive, quirky, the main character unsympathetic, but the ideas are fun and inviting. Excellent plot, narrative thread.

The way the review read, I thought this book would be interesting. It's strange, I know, but I find seduction combining older and younger parties intriguing (may I reccommend PURE by rebbecca ray of INNOCENTS by cathy coote for those of you in the same boat). However, this book was incredibly boring.
I'm not trying to be harsh, but from the very start I knew I didn't like Birdy Stone. The scene the book opens on is where Birdy is explaining to her students that depressing literature is much more meaningful and lasting than happy lit. And almost as if it were forshadowing, the whole book was...depressing.
Perhaps a good read for those in the mood for an emotional sponge, but deffinitely not a book for those looking for breathtakingly magnificent prose. It certainly wasn't MY book anyway. I just wouldn't reccomend it.