How to Read the Air Audiobook

" Pure, deep poetry. How to Read the Air was my first taste of Mengestu's writing; can't wait for the full course. "

" I think it is clear that Dinaw Mengestu is brilliant and has important things to say about the American experience. But I wonder what expectations were put on him after his stunning debut, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. Because at all points, this book felt forced. The central story was interesting, but this novel felt like a short story or, at most, novella that had been stretched and tortured into a 350 page novel. That does not make for a pleasant reading experience, and destroys any interest that the central narrative holds. I felt as though there was some force behind Mengestu saying, "you turn such a beautiful phrase, don't stop at one, give me ten!" This magnification of the narrative only served to highlight its issues, so instead of bonding with our narrator over shared feelings of marginalization, I began to pity him his self induced isolation. Instead of sympathizing with the myriad slights of missed social interactions, I sucked my teeth at his continued incompetence. Instead of feeling understanding for the struggles of his mother and father, I resented all of the guesswork and speculation that seemed to just bloat the air that our narrator engaged in while trying to reconstruct their journey. Rendered differently, I think this could have been quite an affecting read. And I remain sure that I will read more from Mengestu, should he supply us with it. But I remain disappointed in this effort. "

" Jonas reflects on the end of his marriage as he retraces the honeymoon trip his parents made that ended theirs. "

" Disappointing. Bleak and depressing story of two marriages. So unlike his first book in every way. "

" I didn't like this as much as I liked The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. But it was still pretty good. Read it immediately after Open City and it was interesting to do that. I like this one better. "

" This book made me want to stop reading books by authors with MFAs in creative writing. "

" Everyone in this book was miserable the entire time. "

" If I could give it 2 1/2 I would. The book just left me wanting it to be better, richer, fuller. It had it's moments but I found it somewhat dry. "

" I can see that this book is well-written, but it is one of those books that is all about silences between people: silences between the narrator's parents, and silences between the narrator and his wife. And, as you might imagine, all the silence makes for a pretty stultifying read. "

" Could not relate to any of the characters, probably because I saw none of them as characters with any integrity. They were constantly changing, lying, shifting. "

" Like Gilles Peterson asked mulatu astatke: "how is it possible anyone can not like this?" "

" Beautiful prose but the story didn't really grab me. I'd give the writing 4 stars but the story only 2 stars, so I'm averaging it out to 3 stars. "

" I enjoyed this book, but not nearly as much as Mengestu's first novel. Despite not caring about the characters much, I did want to finish the book and I'm glad I did. The writing is eloquent and beautiful at times and that is what saved this book! "

" A sad story with some good tales included in the writing. "

" I have not been reading much lately, so I was happy to just to read a book again. This was a good story. "

" I must have missed something here. Heard so many good things about this book but it just didn't catch me and I couldn't care about the characters. Disappointing. "

" This book is quirky. Very well written, but perhaps a little too autobiographical and consequently, a little too narcissistic. Jonas delves into his own head too often for my liking. Nothing that crazy happens, yet he turns out to be a complete nut. Maybe I just couldn't identify with him. "

" This is a beautifully written/crafted book. "

" This book was interesting in the beginning an then became increasingly more difficult to read. It is a book about nothing in particular and it seems like the writer went off on tangents that were inconsistent with the stoy line. "

" Slow reading, a lot of back and forth and time and no real resolution. Not bad, but not stunning, especially with the air of the untrustworthy narrator. "

" As much as I loved his first book, "The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears", I was very disappointed in this book. Couldn't care much about the main characters' travails and let down by the ending. "

" Themes and images in this novel are like layers of phyllo dough: thin, fragile, delicious. "

" I much preferred Mengestu's first book, "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears." Although this book is beautifully written and I could "see" everything he wrote about, I was never engaged with either the story or the characters. "

" All the ingredients of a compelling story, and yet... cold, unemotional, distant. Ho-hum. "

" Very well written but ultimately disappointing story. It seemed the writer didn't know in which era to base the tale. "

" Wow. The plot is ok, but the prose is another matter, which, to me, glitters like something I haven't seen before. "

" This book is well-written, but I just didn't love the story. It lyrical but also very slow. "