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Endless Cycle
A book about love and friendship. A book about the power of television and the magic of music. A book about how things fall apart, indicting the current generation. Mainly though, it's a book about bombs.
134 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2010
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11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 20, 2013
I hate to say it, but I really disliked this story. It's a pity really, because I was hyped with the desire to read it.
Following is the blurb:
A book about love and friendship. A book about the power of television and the magic of music. A book about how things fall apart, indicting the current generation. Mainly though, it's a book about bombs.
I should have read into this. But I didn't as my desire to read it was more than my potential desire to judge this blurb.
Firstly this blurb does nothing to tell you anything about the actual story. NOW, I see why.
Why? Because there WAS NO STORY!
This book was a compressed series of aimless thoughts. Incoherent, confusing and with no chronological order or cognition.
Not that every book need to be chronological per say, but there should be some sort of “flow” if you will in its progression or regression. The reader should have the ability to follow the happenstances.
Now, I can go on and on, but I'm going to do my best to break it down in some sort of list.
The very first thing I noticed was that it seemed to jump from one disconnected thought to another. I noticed this right off of the bat, in Chapter 1. It starts off with the main character (James) being some sort of antiques collector.
1st) He's in a bar thinking about his lost love. Abrupt cut of scene.
2nd) It instantly jumps to something to do about his father. Abrupt cut of scene.
3rd) He's having sex. Abrupt cut of scene.
4th) He encounters a long lost friend. Abrupt cut of scene.
Please understand that it's not what happens in the chapter, it's the flow in which it's executed that throws the reader for a loop.
2. There is a total of 6 Chapters in a book of about 140 pages. Alright, so this may not seem like it's too bad at first note, until you realize that the 4th Chapter is over half of the book.
That's not the worst part. The worst part is that, once again, there was no temporal integrity. That, is what makes it bad. There was just one impetuous scene after another.
Following is an example:
“I wanted nothing to do with this piece, probably bin it first chance that comes my way. 'Sure. But they were crazy, our fight, the one you began, never forget that, is righteous.' ~scene break here~ The empty bottle of Jack Daniels explodes with the delight of summer fireworks.”
Forgive me for being blunt, but this made no sense whatsoever. This was a continuous problem throughout the entire story.
I saw many chances that the author could have had to divide those scene breaks into chapters, which may have:
1st) Given the reader a chance to absorb the prior chapter's events, and...
2nd) Given the story in and of itself a more lucid order
3rd) The constant ramblings of the main character, most of the time, felt as though they had no meaning. Then whenever you got to a part where you'd think to yourself, “Oh, I think I get it.” Suddenly, you don't! Now, I must say that in a way (kind of, sort of) I somewhat understood why the main characters mind functioned in that way. He was tortured after all. But still I feel as though there could have been a more rational way to demonstrate his inner turmoil. It could have been presented in a way that doesn't completely confuse the reader.
NOTE: The torturing of the main character is a large part of the story, but the description therein seems perplexing and senseless. I think that the depiction of the act should have been more concise and better narrated.
4th) Also, there was the matter of Bree (his lost love). There was no indication at any point (that I noticed) where it told the reader what happened to her. Now, if it did, I certainly didn't see it. Probably because I was so puzzled throughout the entire book.
5th) In the very last chapter. Chapter 6. That chapter could have REALLY used some serious editing. The ENTIRE chapter (beginning to end—a total of 7 pages) was ONE LONG SENTENCE. I kid you not. There WAS NO punctuation, no separation, no indication where one thought ended and another started whatsoever. Not at all. It was EXHAUSTING!
All in all, as much as I would've wanted to enjoy this story, I simply couldn't.
Because of these factors, I rated Endless Cycle with 2 stars.
Following is the blurb:
A book about love and friendship. A book about the power of television and the magic of music. A book about how things fall apart, indicting the current generation. Mainly though, it's a book about bombs.
I should have read into this. But I didn't as my desire to read it was more than my potential desire to judge this blurb.
Firstly this blurb does nothing to tell you anything about the actual story. NOW, I see why.
Why? Because there WAS NO STORY!
This book was a compressed series of aimless thoughts. Incoherent, confusing and with no chronological order or cognition.
Not that every book need to be chronological per say, but there should be some sort of “flow” if you will in its progression or regression. The reader should have the ability to follow the happenstances.
Now, I can go on and on, but I'm going to do my best to break it down in some sort of list.
The very first thing I noticed was that it seemed to jump from one disconnected thought to another. I noticed this right off of the bat, in Chapter 1. It starts off with the main character (James) being some sort of antiques collector.
1st) He's in a bar thinking about his lost love. Abrupt cut of scene.
2nd) It instantly jumps to something to do about his father. Abrupt cut of scene.
3rd) He's having sex. Abrupt cut of scene.
4th) He encounters a long lost friend. Abrupt cut of scene.
Please understand that it's not what happens in the chapter, it's the flow in which it's executed that throws the reader for a loop.
2. There is a total of 6 Chapters in a book of about 140 pages. Alright, so this may not seem like it's too bad at first note, until you realize that the 4th Chapter is over half of the book.
That's not the worst part. The worst part is that, once again, there was no temporal integrity. That, is what makes it bad. There was just one impetuous scene after another.
Following is an example:
“I wanted nothing to do with this piece, probably bin it first chance that comes my way. 'Sure. But they were crazy, our fight, the one you began, never forget that, is righteous.' ~scene break here~ The empty bottle of Jack Daniels explodes with the delight of summer fireworks.”
Forgive me for being blunt, but this made no sense whatsoever. This was a continuous problem throughout the entire story.
I saw many chances that the author could have had to divide those scene breaks into chapters, which may have:
1st) Given the reader a chance to absorb the prior chapter's events, and...
2nd) Given the story in and of itself a more lucid order
3rd) The constant ramblings of the main character, most of the time, felt as though they had no meaning. Then whenever you got to a part where you'd think to yourself, “Oh, I think I get it.” Suddenly, you don't! Now, I must say that in a way (kind of, sort of) I somewhat understood why the main characters mind functioned in that way. He was tortured after all. But still I feel as though there could have been a more rational way to demonstrate his inner turmoil. It could have been presented in a way that doesn't completely confuse the reader.
NOTE: The torturing of the main character is a large part of the story, but the description therein seems perplexing and senseless. I think that the depiction of the act should have been more concise and better narrated.
4th) Also, there was the matter of Bree (his lost love). There was no indication at any point (that I noticed) where it told the reader what happened to her. Now, if it did, I certainly didn't see it. Probably because I was so puzzled throughout the entire book.
5th) In the very last chapter. Chapter 6. That chapter could have REALLY used some serious editing. The ENTIRE chapter (beginning to end—a total of 7 pages) was ONE LONG SENTENCE. I kid you not. There WAS NO punctuation, no separation, no indication where one thought ended and another started whatsoever. Not at all. It was EXHAUSTING!
All in all, as much as I would've wanted to enjoy this story, I simply couldn't.
Because of these factors, I rated Endless Cycle with 2 stars.
November 20, 2013
Before TRB proceeds with this review, a few things:
1. This title was obtained after Y's Read and Review Group merged with The Review Board.
2. This title was reviewed by two people. Y will post her thoughts on her own Goodreads page. This showcases the abbreviated thoughts of the other reviewer.
3. The extended review of this title can be found at The Review Board.
James is to meet with a man (per his father’s request/instruction/demand) about some confiscated handwritten notations of a failed novelist. The Gespato (as James knows him, OR has some odd fixation on that title) whose seems to be a Nazi named Josef, has left James dangling for six weeks in regards to settling this scenario. However, he was greeted by another person when he went to the residence (after demanding the location from the Gespato during a phone conversation) for which he sought answers and the notations.
Honestly, I was not entertained by this story as a whole. I was hoping that it would have improved as the story went along, yet it did not. Then the story took several tangents and simply left me dazed, confused, and utterly lost. The last paragraph was written, and then it just stopped in mid-sentence, ONLY TO HAVE THE READER START OVER AT PAGE ONE!!
“Endless Cycle” was a difficult read for me, due to the severe lack of flow and consistency. Even with a clever premise of cycling the story, it was not enough to give it a better rating.This story needed more TLC than a little bit in the proofreading and structure departments. It would greatly help the overall flow of the story, making it much more bearable.
Bottom line: Leave this story alone.
1. This title was obtained after Y's Read and Review Group merged with The Review Board.
2. This title was reviewed by two people. Y will post her thoughts on her own Goodreads page. This showcases the abbreviated thoughts of the other reviewer.
3. The extended review of this title can be found at The Review Board.
James is to meet with a man (per his father’s request/instruction/demand) about some confiscated handwritten notations of a failed novelist. The Gespato (as James knows him, OR has some odd fixation on that title) whose seems to be a Nazi named Josef, has left James dangling for six weeks in regards to settling this scenario. However, he was greeted by another person when he went to the residence (after demanding the location from the Gespato during a phone conversation) for which he sought answers and the notations.
Honestly, I was not entertained by this story as a whole. I was hoping that it would have improved as the story went along, yet it did not. Then the story took several tangents and simply left me dazed, confused, and utterly lost. The last paragraph was written, and then it just stopped in mid-sentence, ONLY TO HAVE THE READER START OVER AT PAGE ONE!!
“Endless Cycle” was a difficult read for me, due to the severe lack of flow and consistency. Even with a clever premise of cycling the story, it was not enough to give it a better rating.This story needed more TLC than a little bit in the proofreading and structure departments. It would greatly help the overall flow of the story, making it much more bearable.
Bottom line: Leave this story alone.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews