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Us Fools
A tragicomic, intimate American story of two precocious sisters coming of age during the Midwestern farm crisis of the 1980s.
Joanne and Bernadette Fareown are raised on their family farm in rural Illinois, keenly affected by their parents’ volatile relationship and mounting financial debt, haunted by the cursed history of the women in their family. Largely left to their own devices, the sisters educate themselves on Greek mythology, feminism, and Virginia Woolf, realizing they must find unique ways to cope in these antagonistic conditions, questioning the American Dream as the rest of the country abandons their community in crisis.
As Jo and Bernie’s imaginative solutions for escape come up short against their parents’ realities, the family leaves their farm for Chicago, where Joanne—free-spirited, reckless, and unable to tame her inner violence—rebels in increasingly desperate ways. After her worst breakdown yet, Jo goes into exile in Deadhorse, Alaska, and it is up to Bernadette to use all she’s learned from her sister to revive a sense of hope against the backdrop of a failing world.
With her debut novel, Nora Lange has crafted a rambunctious, ambitious, and heart-rending portrait of two idiosyncratic sisters, determined to persevere despite the worst that capitalism and their circumstances has to throw at them.
Joanne and Bernadette Fareown are raised on their family farm in rural Illinois, keenly affected by their parents’ volatile relationship and mounting financial debt, haunted by the cursed history of the women in their family. Largely left to their own devices, the sisters educate themselves on Greek mythology, feminism, and Virginia Woolf, realizing they must find unique ways to cope in these antagonistic conditions, questioning the American Dream as the rest of the country abandons their community in crisis.
As Jo and Bernie’s imaginative solutions for escape come up short against their parents’ realities, the family leaves their farm for Chicago, where Joanne—free-spirited, reckless, and unable to tame her inner violence—rebels in increasingly desperate ways. After her worst breakdown yet, Jo goes into exile in Deadhorse, Alaska, and it is up to Bernadette to use all she’s learned from her sister to revive a sense of hope against the backdrop of a failing world.
With her debut novel, Nora Lange has crafted a rambunctious, ambitious, and heart-rending portrait of two idiosyncratic sisters, determined to persevere despite the worst that capitalism and their circumstances has to throw at them.
340 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 193 reviews
October 12, 2024
Why did I finish this??! This was such a chore to read…. Lots of nonsensical ramblings, fillers, repetitious musings, etc… All the characters are completely messed up. Skip this one. Honestly.
August 19, 2025
beautiful and exhausting. I loved it and hated it in equal measure
November 22, 2024
I thought about stopping this book halfway through, but I persevered and now I wish I hadn’t. This was so egregiously bad. 70% of it made absolutely no sense at all, and whoever edited this should be ashamed of themselves. It was also entirely unbelievable. I’m sorry, but no 12yr old is going on detailed rants about capitalism. This read like the author just decided to go on a bunch of entirely unrelated tangents and call it a book
December 3, 2024
An exercise in patience for the reader.
September 11, 2024
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Brilliance Audio for providing me with the ALC of ‘Us Fools’ narrated by Emily Lawrence and out September 17th!
Say Chrysler Lebaron one more time! No, but every time this car was mentioned “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake played in my head. I’m not mad, it just felt very appropriate to the times.
But let’s get serious…
It’s easy to want to attach my younger sister to the character of Bernie (our narrator and main character) but she is no more Bernadette than I am, ironically, the older sister Jo. But the way these two girls become women, shaped by their own translation of their connected upbringing, and the shifting world they’re in is familiar and real. I think in an alternate universe anyone could become either of these women, despite some of the extremes, because the world is unkind to those already struggling and for that you must survive it — and surviving isn’t always pretty.
The novel takes place over the course of the late 1970s-early 2000s with a focus on their childhood in rural poverty during the 80s. Bernadette gives us her interpretation of the events of their lives in an often snarky voice, her sharpness becoming tender as she navigates empathy and frustration with her hyper-sexual parents, and violently rebellious and attention seeking older sister. There is a line of mental illness on they mothers side and it lives in the sisters and their mother in unique ways. Set during the farm crisis of the 1980s it provides insight into that time and the ways it impacted communities. I love a book that centers poverty, specifically this type, because if is very unique and I suppose (having lived it) I feel a sense of pride for having taken such wisdom and magic from it.
Nora Lange does an impeccable job portraying the complexities of this experience through unique, uncomfortable, characters that like or dislike you can sympathize with. And Emily Lawrence brings Bernadette to life with her audiobook narration. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to fans of coming age novels, stories of women navigating poverty and mental illness, and sister stories. Pick it up soon!!
Say Chrysler Lebaron one more time! No, but every time this car was mentioned “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake played in my head. I’m not mad, it just felt very appropriate to the times.
But let’s get serious…
It’s easy to want to attach my younger sister to the character of Bernie (our narrator and main character) but she is no more Bernadette than I am, ironically, the older sister Jo. But the way these two girls become women, shaped by their own translation of their connected upbringing, and the shifting world they’re in is familiar and real. I think in an alternate universe anyone could become either of these women, despite some of the extremes, because the world is unkind to those already struggling and for that you must survive it — and surviving isn’t always pretty.
The novel takes place over the course of the late 1970s-early 2000s with a focus on their childhood in rural poverty during the 80s. Bernadette gives us her interpretation of the events of their lives in an often snarky voice, her sharpness becoming tender as she navigates empathy and frustration with her hyper-sexual parents, and violently rebellious and attention seeking older sister. There is a line of mental illness on they mothers side and it lives in the sisters and their mother in unique ways. Set during the farm crisis of the 1980s it provides insight into that time and the ways it impacted communities. I love a book that centers poverty, specifically this type, because if is very unique and I suppose (having lived it) I feel a sense of pride for having taken such wisdom and magic from it.
Nora Lange does an impeccable job portraying the complexities of this experience through unique, uncomfortable, characters that like or dislike you can sympathize with. And Emily Lawrence brings Bernadette to life with her audiobook narration. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to fans of coming age novels, stories of women navigating poverty and mental illness, and sister stories. Pick it up soon!!
February 5, 2025
I’ll never do a review for this book justice but I MUST write something:
This novel is a gorgeous illustration of what it means to grow up poor in America and the ways in which we think this will “write” or “paint” our destiny. Bernie’s intrinsic calling to stay a lost cause but also make something of herself made me feel so seen. The decision to leave your roots behind and replant them in a place you feel has always abandoned you is a feeling Lange was able to capture so well—most especially the way this decision isn’t necessarily something we’re thinking about, but just something that we act upon without knowing. It’s scary to think what building a new life for yourself really means—especially when it means leaving everything and everyone behind.
Bernie and Jo’s relationship with each other changing throughout their lives, and the way their differences shape their decision making and belief systems also hit hard. At the end, both girls see a future for the first time. They’ve uprooted in a way that didn’t force them to leave themselves behind completely but there is still a feeling of loss in the way they both chose different paths. I think this has a huge impact on their relationships with each other and themselves.
When we’re living in poverty and having adverse childhood experiences, we don’t think about the impact it has on our mindset/self-esteem. But damn is it leaving an impact! I think at the end Bernie is in a lucky enough position to recognize this as well as recognize that she is her only support system. In seeing this, she sees herself and life as something that hold worth.
Also—I only want to write about the Midwest now.
This novel is a gorgeous illustration of what it means to grow up poor in America and the ways in which we think this will “write” or “paint” our destiny. Bernie’s intrinsic calling to stay a lost cause but also make something of herself made me feel so seen. The decision to leave your roots behind and replant them in a place you feel has always abandoned you is a feeling Lange was able to capture so well—most especially the way this decision isn’t necessarily something we’re thinking about, but just something that we act upon without knowing. It’s scary to think what building a new life for yourself really means—especially when it means leaving everything and everyone behind.
Bernie and Jo’s relationship with each other changing throughout their lives, and the way their differences shape their decision making and belief systems also hit hard. At the end, both girls see a future for the first time. They’ve uprooted in a way that didn’t force them to leave themselves behind completely but there is still a feeling of loss in the way they both chose different paths. I think this has a huge impact on their relationships with each other and themselves.
When we’re living in poverty and having adverse childhood experiences, we don’t think about the impact it has on our mindset/self-esteem. But damn is it leaving an impact! I think at the end Bernie is in a lucky enough position to recognize this as well as recognize that she is her only support system. In seeing this, she sees herself and life as something that hold worth.
Also—I only want to write about the Midwest now.
July 26, 2024
Really enjoyed this book about growing up in the Midwestern especially as a Midwest girl myself. Nora Lange is a great writer and I thought the character development was very interesting. Some parts felt a little slow but overall it was a successful read!
Thank you to Two Dollar Radio for this copy!
Thank you to Two Dollar Radio for this copy!
January 9, 2025
me fool :(
November 11, 2025
This was well written, but dark, and I don’t think any of the characters made sense or were likable. It was also genuinely way too long. However I agree with the author about America (bad but seductive) and the role of family under capitalism (critical/essential and either life bringing or soul sucking). Ultimately a solid read but I don’t really recommend it to you
January 21, 2025
Really hated this
May 18, 2025
Guys… I DNFed for the first time in forever. I have less than 100 pages left but I CAN’T DO IT ANYMORE. This book put me into such a reading slump it’s not even funny. So much time wasted when I could’ve been reading a GOOD book. Reading this was like pulling teeth. Your writing being confusing doesn’t make you a good author but your overuse of the phrase “which is to mean” ABSOLUTELY makes you a bad author. Like SHUT UP! Manic pixie dream girl final bosses in this book, good God.
October 29, 2024
i am so bravely DNFing this halfway through. the circular, repetitive writing is making me think about dementia too much. the author is funny and now that this book is out of her system i would actually try reading whatever comes next if it is a lot shorter
March 22, 2025
EDIT: I listened to the author speak about this book, the writing, process, thoughts on the story, recently. I also spoke very briefly to her after. I have to say she is so nice and pleasant that I felt bad for how negative my review is. She clearly put a lot of care and love into this book, and others that I've spoken to are responding really well to it. So, I want to put a big asterisks on my review and say maybe I was just not in the right place for this book. Maybe the humor didn't quite get to me, and that changed it significantly. Or, maybe despite everything, this book (or it's second half more specifically) isn't speaking to me at this point in my life. All of that is okay. I felt strongly enough about this to come back and edit this to say that these are my thoughts and you may love this book. I would suggest that if you're curious, you read a bit of it and assess your interest on that, not necessarily my review.
I read this for my small press book club. I am not sure why I stuck with it. On page 11, we have this sentence:
I know it is snobby of me to take issue with the writing, and I know there are better things I could do with my time than critique a published author. But, really, where was the editor? My emphasis in the above highlights just one problem, a strange repetition that doesn't make sense. There is also too much going on in the sentence. 39 words! That's 15% of the Gettysburg Address! Too long. I also think it's trite. The same-word-in-one-sentence problem didn't recur often enough for me to notice, but overlong sentences full of overdone triteness became the standard.
At times it felt stream of consciousness, but the consciousness is a tremendous bummer. My friends know that I like reading sad things, frustrating things, whatever, but this felt like 350 pages of a person complaining about their world and taking not a single action of consequence in their life. The protagonist feels utterly passive and so, so, deeply boring.
Frequently, sentences with concepts and 'points' came out of nowhere in the middle of the story. Though, there is not much story. In general we follow the protagonist through their childhood to the present moment and bounce around time a little. We're mostly concerned with their insufferable sister and the character's total unwillingness to cut off their family. The first part of the book features a lot about the farm crisis in the 80s which was interesting! But this falls away and the book becomes solidly about the sisters and that was not interesting, even a little.
I did not like the writing style, I think that's clear. Another thing that occasionally happened is the author throwing in tweet-sized social commentary. One or two sentences on a variety of topics that feel like doomsaying, read as quasi-edgy or depressed, and sound so hollow and unoriginal. The farm crisis chapters do a really good job of showing the impact of decisions and policies and systems of the world on real people. This is what social commentary can and should look like. One or two sentences out of the blue in an unrelated paragraph is not good writing.
There are a few sentences that repeat almost word for word once or twice. I meant to go and track these down, but I disliked the book so much I didn't feel like it'd earned that time from me. The one I remember is about a boy being like a newt, or something like that. It shows up early and then again about 200 pages later. This feels like an artifact of a stylistic choice, something about cycles or repetition. But it seems half-baked to the extent that I can't tell if it's an intentional choice or the writer just forgetting that sentence is somewhere else already.
The dialogue is... bizarre. I have never heard anyone talk like this. That's because people do not speak like this. I could buy a weird sentence every once and a while, but these characters consistently speak like made up people without a shred of truth. I would sort of love to know why the author writes dialogue like this. Does it sound true to them?
And this is the biggest thing. I am from rural Illinois. I also fled to Chicago. I also eventually went to the University of Chicago. There is in fact so much in the protagonist and their story that I can either fully or partially connect to in a way that is beyond typical empathy that I really, really wanted to like this. I wanted to understand it. But these characters don't speak like the people from Illinois that I know -- be it southern, central, or northern. I'm a huge bummer and often sad, and yet I find the bummer sad protagonist really annoying. What gives?
Super disappointed. Also I hate the cover art (the picture has nothing at all even vaguely to do with the story so I don't get it at all).
I read this for my small press book club. I am not sure why I stuck with it. On page 11, we have this sentence:
Sylvia, our mother, reminded Henry daily, such was the routine of marriage, about fixing the ladder daily and went about partitioning the attic space, figuring if they were to have children, they would need a place to store them.
I know it is snobby of me to take issue with the writing, and I know there are better things I could do with my time than critique a published author. But, really, where was the editor? My emphasis in the above highlights just one problem, a strange repetition that doesn't make sense. There is also too much going on in the sentence. 39 words! That's 15% of the Gettysburg Address! Too long. I also think it's trite. The same-word-in-one-sentence problem didn't recur often enough for me to notice, but overlong sentences full of overdone triteness became the standard.
At times it felt stream of consciousness, but the consciousness is a tremendous bummer. My friends know that I like reading sad things, frustrating things, whatever, but this felt like 350 pages of a person complaining about their world and taking not a single action of consequence in their life. The protagonist feels utterly passive and so, so, deeply boring.
Frequently, sentences with concepts and 'points' came out of nowhere in the middle of the story. Though, there is not much story. In general we follow the protagonist through their childhood to the present moment and bounce around time a little. We're mostly concerned with their insufferable sister and the character's total unwillingness to cut off their family. The first part of the book features a lot about the farm crisis in the 80s which was interesting! But this falls away and the book becomes solidly about the sisters and that was not interesting, even a little.
I did not like the writing style, I think that's clear. Another thing that occasionally happened is the author throwing in tweet-sized social commentary. One or two sentences on a variety of topics that feel like doomsaying, read as quasi-edgy or depressed, and sound so hollow and unoriginal. The farm crisis chapters do a really good job of showing the impact of decisions and policies and systems of the world on real people. This is what social commentary can and should look like. One or two sentences out of the blue in an unrelated paragraph is not good writing.
There are a few sentences that repeat almost word for word once or twice. I meant to go and track these down, but I disliked the book so much I didn't feel like it'd earned that time from me. The one I remember is about a boy being like a newt, or something like that. It shows up early and then again about 200 pages later. This feels like an artifact of a stylistic choice, something about cycles or repetition. But it seems half-baked to the extent that I can't tell if it's an intentional choice or the writer just forgetting that sentence is somewhere else already.
The dialogue is... bizarre. I have never heard anyone talk like this. That's because people do not speak like this. I could buy a weird sentence every once and a while, but these characters consistently speak like made up people without a shred of truth. I would sort of love to know why the author writes dialogue like this. Does it sound true to them?
And this is the biggest thing. I am from rural Illinois. I also fled to Chicago. I also eventually went to the University of Chicago. There is in fact so much in the protagonist and their story that I can either fully or partially connect to in a way that is beyond typical empathy that I really, really wanted to like this. I wanted to understand it. But these characters don't speak like the people from Illinois that I know -- be it southern, central, or northern. I'm a huge bummer and often sad, and yet I find the bummer sad protagonist really annoying. What gives?
Super disappointed. Also I hate the cover art (the picture has nothing at all even vaguely to do with the story so I don't get it at all).
December 14, 2024
Before I say what I don’t like, I do think this is a creatively written novel with a lot going for it. The sisters at the center are interesting and real-feeling; I believed that their relationship was as special as they thought it was. That’s the most important thing here and it succeeds at it, which is obviously great.
However, it could be difficult to follow one train of thought to another. Sometimes it felt like there were dozens of non-sequiters per page. This contributes to the overall affect of the book, which is a little bit schizo (in a fun way) and conspiratorial, but it also makes some of the points being made a bit opaque and less compelling than they’d be said plainly. It also often felt like Lange had a lot of references she wanted to fit in, be it to other novels, to philosophic or feminist writers, or just to American history in general, which meant the characters just had to like…. know who Simone de Beauvoir is. I don’t think anyone living on a farm who doesn’t even go to public school would know this, sorry! I’m not buying it!
I’m glad I read it but I don’t think I would necessarily recommend. It’s as flawed as the characters within, though sometimes this works to make it feel more charming. If that sounds fun to you, go ahead. If not, there are plenty of other books in the sea!
However, it could be difficult to follow one train of thought to another. Sometimes it felt like there were dozens of non-sequiters per page. This contributes to the overall affect of the book, which is a little bit schizo (in a fun way) and conspiratorial, but it also makes some of the points being made a bit opaque and less compelling than they’d be said plainly. It also often felt like Lange had a lot of references she wanted to fit in, be it to other novels, to philosophic or feminist writers, or just to American history in general, which meant the characters just had to like…. know who Simone de Beauvoir is. I don’t think anyone living on a farm who doesn’t even go to public school would know this, sorry! I’m not buying it!
I’m glad I read it but I don’t think I would necessarily recommend. It’s as flawed as the characters within, though sometimes this works to make it feel more charming. If that sounds fun to you, go ahead. If not, there are plenty of other books in the sea!
September 17, 2024
What a fantastic 90’s inspired cover! Unfortunately, that is the only memorable thing about this book. I really wanted to like it. Being a Midwest Girl myself, I enjoyed the aspects that were mentioned about growing up in Illinois. Set in the 1970’s to the early 2000’s, Lange focused on Bernie and her older sister, Jo. I usually enjoy reading coming of age stories, but this one felt slow too much of the time. I did enjoy reading about the mental illness that occurred in their family and their fight to keep their farm alive. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was OK. Not great, not bad. Her voice kind of made me want to go to sleep every time I listened.
October 19, 2024
Technically didn’t finish this. I quit a little more than halfway through. I was so incredibly bored, and life is short. Reading another 120ish pages seemed like it would be a torture.
March 16, 2025
Never read a book that illustrates the place I am from more than this one. Bernie laments about begging her parents to take her anywhere, even on a trip to the Quad Cities, which was literally me almost every day of my childhood. A poor, rural Illinois childhood was perfectly depicted here. Bernie's reflections on her life and how poverty and her family are so rooted in who she is and how she sees herself, even into adulthood and once she moves to Chicago, were so true and real to read. I loved that this felt like a memoir despite being fiction! I learned so much about the farming crisis in the 80s that I didn't know before, despite being from a family of Illinois farmers.
This was a depiction of America that I understand and felt more true than any others I've read. The middle of the book dropped my rating a star; I think I just wanted more from the characters, particularly the relationship between the sisters. Last chapter and last line, perfection, so I bumped it up a star, lol. I couldn't have felt so seen by something and not give it the 5. I want to reread this soon for sure. I love the Midwest!
This was a depiction of America that I understand and felt more true than any others I've read. The middle of the book dropped my rating a star; I think I just wanted more from the characters, particularly the relationship between the sisters. Last chapter and last line, perfection, so I bumped it up a star, lol. I couldn't have felt so seen by something and not give it the 5. I want to reread this soon for sure. I love the Midwest!
June 2, 2025
Me fool…. Spent 200 danish krones on this boring never ending rant… did you also use to complain about capitalism when you were 10? Then it will be a very relatable reading experience. Otherwise… don’t repeat my mistakes…At least the cover is amazing and the book smells great
February 4, 2025
a series of loosely connected ramblings with more tangents than i could keep track of. this was truly a lesson in patience to get thru, and i honestly wish i had dnf'd.
March 28, 2025
Someone in book club said these characters have the literary equivalent of iPhone face and that pretty much sums up my feelings towards this one.
No matter how many times the author told us the year was 1980, I just couldn’t buy into it because of the way Bernadette and Jo spoke.
For example:
“The connection between land workers and their struggle with isolation was identified as early as the 1900s when agricultural reformers believed these feelings to be the primary social problem in rural life. Jo blamed the impoverished feeling on what she called the ‘capitalist consumption popsicle,’ which included American idealism. She blamed the early 40s for making socialization within the nuclear family the primary source of interaction.” — like really? You’re 10 years old?
Just read A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley instead. It’s a retelling of King Lear set on a family farm in Iowa during the farming crisis of the 1980s. It does what this novel is trying to do but much more successfully in my opinion.
No matter how many times the author told us the year was 1980, I just couldn’t buy into it because of the way Bernadette and Jo spoke.
For example:
“The connection between land workers and their struggle with isolation was identified as early as the 1900s when agricultural reformers believed these feelings to be the primary social problem in rural life. Jo blamed the impoverished feeling on what she called the ‘capitalist consumption popsicle,’ which included American idealism. She blamed the early 40s for making socialization within the nuclear family the primary source of interaction.” — like really? You’re 10 years old?
Just read A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley instead. It’s a retelling of King Lear set on a family farm in Iowa during the farming crisis of the 1980s. It does what this novel is trying to do but much more successfully in my opinion.
December 21, 2024
God we need more books like this. In topic and scope and form and ambition. This was a challenging read due go Lance’s amazing ability to reinvent the novel at every turn, but her sentences kept me spellbound. Honestly, why isn’t this the Great American Novel of our time? I read Lange say in an interview something like this is about consuming and being consumed in America and that’s exactly right. Lange is only a tick older than me and so much of the historical references here resonated. I finally feel like the women of my generation are coming of age and writing outstanding fiction that I can see myself in. This is in many ways about the Farm Crisis in the Midwest in the 1980s. The other main locales are Chicago and Deadhorse, Alaska. Very different to the landscapes of my personal history. But I still felt in theme and feeling so much of this resonated and made sense. A tremendously rewarding book.
March 4, 2025
guys, i tried SO HARD to get into this & enjoy it, but it was just painful to read. i should have dnfed, but i am stubborn, and in the end i really didn’t get much out of finishing it. i mostly picked this up because of the gorgeous cover & interesting blurb, but holy fuck i need to research my books more carefully.
the sisters were not believable characters (10 year olds ranting about capitalism & philosophy???) and the zig zag structure of the plot was hard to read & even harder to understand. the amount of facts shoehorned into the novel made it feel super disjointed. overall, i really hated this whole experience. i love debuts that take a chance, but not when they read like a ketamine fueled 3am draft with 0 editing. i hate to leave such a bad review, i have no beef with this author, but maybe try another career path!
the sisters were not believable characters (10 year olds ranting about capitalism & philosophy???) and the zig zag structure of the plot was hard to read & even harder to understand. the amount of facts shoehorned into the novel made it feel super disjointed. overall, i really hated this whole experience. i love debuts that take a chance, but not when they read like a ketamine fueled 3am draft with 0 editing. i hate to leave such a bad review, i have no beef with this author, but maybe try another career path!
December 29, 2024
SPOILER // ALTERNATIVE PLOT THEORY..... Did anyone else think Jo and Bernie might be the same person? In a Fight Club style twist? There is a moment in the trailer in Alaska where Jo says "you've been talking to yourself this whole time you know". I really thought this was where it was going. Bernie seemed to lose reality more and more the older she got, the narration became more disassociated. Anyone else think this?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 27, 2024
DNF. I hate to not finish a book. I read to 50%. I found the history of our farm subsidies and the lure to farmers to take on debt very interesting, but the story just dragged on and I decided to make an executive decision and return it to the library.
May 31, 2025
Us Fools by Nora Lange just wasn’t for me! I was drawn in by the cute cover and I thought this would be a fun nostalgic read but it was a very long, boring, slow moving story. It’s about Bernadette and her older sister Joanne and it’s set in the late 80s. It’s all centered around their relationship and growing up and then their romantic relationships and the backstory of their parents but the characters weren’t engaging. The audiobook narrator Emily Lawrence was fine.
Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for my ALC!
Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for my ALC!
May 18, 2025
I’m not finishing this book, it’s bad. Like… really bad. The children talk like the worst person you’ve ever met who’s doing an economics phd. There are ten year old waxing poetic about capitalism and feminism?? Topics I famously love to wax poetic about, but NO ONE speaks like that! The dialogue is craaaazy.
The writing is also odd and circular. I don’t care about lack of plot normally but this takes it to a whole other level and doesn’t make up for it with character development or interesting writing. I wanted to like it but it’s borderline unreadable. Well, actually not borderline…
The writing is also odd and circular. I don’t care about lack of plot normally but this takes it to a whole other level and doesn’t make up for it with character development or interesting writing. I wanted to like it but it’s borderline unreadable. Well, actually not borderline…
June 21, 2025
respectfully, oof
July 13, 2025
2.5 stars
Admittedly, I didn't know much about this book going into it, but Us Fools was not my cup of tea. Grotesque, meandering, inconclusive... I think it did everything it set out to do well, but none of it resonated with me. Unfortunate.
Admittedly, I didn't know much about this book going into it, but Us Fools was not my cup of tea. Grotesque, meandering, inconclusive... I think it did everything it set out to do well, but none of it resonated with me. Unfortunate.
June 16, 2025
A significant contribution to the field of not being able to sustain Amy Hempel's voice across a novel-length work while not being Amy Hempel.
October 20, 2025
DNF. Lyrical prose, but would have benefited from the editing scissors.
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