Book Review {Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives}

>>Happy Fall, Y'all! Can you even believe that the summer is over?? As happy as I am that it is offically all of our favorite season, I am a little bummed that I didn't complete my Summer Reading Recommendation List, but here I am with the third to last Review! So bear with me as I bring the last two into the Autumnal season! They will be in fabulous, cozy company!

So let's venture back in time to May 31st when I wrote the following: "Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives (Penguin Press, Fiction,  on sale August 1)
This debut novel of Literary Fiction is set in a New York City museum: Done and done, two of my most favorite things! We have a divorce, a disappearance, a map, and a whirlwind quest for truth and understanding. Bring it on!" And I gotta say, that really does sum it up! I did not fall head-over-heels like I was hoping to have, though! The author is very wordy, in a psuedo-intellectual way, which I 100% believe to be purposeful, but I also and equally 100% believe that it hurt the overall asthetic of the narration, and if you aren't personally a fan of valley girl snark, then your eyes may get stuck in the back of your head from rolling them so much,

From the Blurb:
"Stella Krakus, a curator at Manhattan's renowned Central Museum of Art, is having the roughest week in approximately ever. Her soon-to-be ex-husband (the perfectly awful Whit Ghiscolmbe) is stalking her, a workplace romance with "a fascinating, hyper-rational narcissist" is in freefall, and a beloved colleague, Paul, has gone missing. Strange things are afoot: CeMArt's current exhibit is sponsored by a Belgian multinational that wants to take over the world's water supply, she unwittingly stars in a viral video that's making the rounds, and her mother--the imperious, impossibly glamorous Caro--wants to have lunch. It's almost more than she can overanalyze.But the appearance of a mysterious map, depicting a 19th-century utopian settlement, sends Stella--a dogged expert in American graphics and fluidomanie (don't ask)--on an all-consuming research mission. As she teases out the links between a haunting poem, several unusual novels, a counterfeiting scheme, and one of the museum's colorful early benefactors, she discovers the unbearable secret that Paul's been keeping, and charts a course out of the chaos of her own life. Pulsing with neurotic humor and dagger-sharp prose, Impossible Views of the World is a dazzling debut novel about how to make it through your early thirties with your brain and heart intact." 

Honestly, you just read the entire novel right there. If you look it up on Goodreads, you wil find that a lot of people either abandonded it all together, or gave a super low rating. Like I am talking over 200 people have rated it, and it is under a 3 star average, Yikes. 

I gave this three and half stars on Goodreads, because I don't mind my characters to have a bit of a Cher Horowitz vibe, especially when set in NYC. I do see where some would jump ship, as it does get a bit whiney, and some have said: obnoxious. But, it has redeeming quirks and humor, that did keep me coming back. I will read her next work, out of sheer intrigue, as I would love to see her growth as a writer, She is certainly funny and brainy, two things I love in an individual! 

Happy Reading!
AMG