Impossible Views of the World

by Lucy Ives

A witty, urbane, and sometimes shocking debut novel, set in a hallowed New York museum, in which a co-worker's disappearance and a mysterious map change a life forever.

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.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Art, Adult Fiction, Mystery Thriller

296 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2017

About the author

Lucy Ives is the author of several books of poetry and short prose, including The Hermit and the novella nineties. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, Lapham’s Quarterly, and at newyorker.com. For five years she was an editor with the online magazine Triple Canopy. A graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from New York University. She teaches at the Pratt Institute and is currently editing a collection of writings by the artist Madeline Gins.

Reviews

[Jill McGill]

DNF...

I couldn't finish this book... The writing style was not for me. The story seemed to wander and was hard to follow.

[Lisa Aiello]

DNF at 13%. I consider myself a relatively intelligent person, but I had such a hard time with the writing in this book. It was pretentious, overly verbose, and I would have to read and re-read entire sentences and paragraphs several times to figure out just what the heck was being said. I thought I knew a lot of big words and had a pretty wide knowledge of vocabulary - apparently I'm wrong, because I needed a dictionary by my side. I can't comment about the storyline, as I never made it far enough in to figure out what this was about. Not every book is for everybody I guess!

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed everything about Lucy Ives's Impossible Views of the World. It's delightful from beginning to end. It's a literary, art, and historical mystery. It's also a romcom and a relationship/family drama. And at its heart, it's about a woman's quest for agency. Ives's writing is inventive and original, and I applaud her for it.

Stella Krakus is a curator at the Central Museum of Art in Manhattan. She works in the American Objects department and her specialty is American graphics. When her co-worker Paul goes missing, it's the start of a very rough week. On top of picking up Paul's slack, her soon-to-be ex-husband is stalking her and things are awkward between her and a colleague she's romantically embroiled with. Stella comes across a beautiful and mysterious map that was in Paul's possession. To uncover the story behind the map and the whereabouts of Paul, Stella begins sleuthing. Along the way, she discovers secrets about the museum's history and her own illustrious family's past.

Ives is doing something with her writing style that is different from any other novelist out there. Stella's narration is very strong in voice. She manages to use elevated language and a meandering style while still being conversational and packing a big punch when needed. There's a great balance in tone. I enjoyed the sometimes unusual vocab. Ives does humorous things with language. She's great at wordplay, taking familiar phrases and flipping something or skewing it slightly. There are double entendres galore. I love what she does with language! Impossible Views of the World is a very funny book; it had me laughing out loud continuously. Ives has a poet's flair with prose. It's fun to read an author who's trying something new and taking risks.

I loved the mystery of the map and the description of said map. I loved the literary mysteries that featured in this novel too. There are lots of writings featured throughout the book: excerpts of novels, articles, letters, a great poem. Ives does a great job of writing in the different voices and styles. I loved the funny Victorian writing style of one of the novels Stella reads. Impossible Views of the World is very witty. There are great metaphors and great extended metaphors. Ives has an uncanny knack for describing dreams and capturing their irreality and dream logic.

Besides being sometimes wacky and having an exciting premise, the book also deals excellently with the real, everyday things in Stella's life. Stella's fraught relationship with her imperious mother Caro is excellently handled. And in Stella's love affair with her coworker, Ives really captures unrequited love, being strung along, and the sting of rejection. Some passages really tugged at my heartstrings and made me sigh with recognition.

Impossible Views of the World, with its very specialized jargon and subject matter, would appeal to fans of Special Topics in Calamity Physics and Be My Wolff. It also reminded me a bit of the TV show Girls. I could see it as an indie movie starring Greta Gerwig or Lena Dunham. Impossible Views of the World is the book for you if you want something unusual and quirky, refreshing and bracing. Lucy Ives has written a bold novel that bold personalities will appreciate.

[Lacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Books, and Lucy Ives for a free copy of this book before the publication date in exchange for an honest review.

Stella is a curator with a week from hell. To top it all off, her co-worker, Paul, goes missing. Finding a map makes her question everything about anything she knows. She deals with everything on her plate, while also finding out things about her co-worker Paul.

This book was not for me. I really, really struggled to get through this book. Even though it was a relatively short book, it took me some time to actually finish it. I wanted to like this book. The cover is beautiful and the synopsis definitely intrigued me. However, that’s about how far it got for me.

First, the writing style was too much for me. I can tell that Lucy Ives has the writing style of a poet. There were times where I had to reread because things were confusing for me. I never read poetry, therefore, it might be hard for another reader who is like me and never reads that kind of writing style.

Next, I felt like some of the writing was pretentious. It seemed like the character seemed like she was all high and mighty. I’m still trying to figure out if it was the narration, writing style, or the character, Stella, herself.

This book was classified as a mystery, and I agree that there were some parts that had mysterious accents, but not many. There were a few parts around 30% that grabbed my attention, but I felt like that might have been the only time. There were a few descriptions that this book had that wasn’t fulfilled.

I really wanted and tried to like this book. Unfortunately, the writing style made it hard for me to follow, along with the narration used. Towards the end, I was just reading to get to the end. Overall, I just couldn’t get into it. I wish I had liked it better, but it just wasn’t for me.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be pretentious. It was not an enjoyable read. I hung in there for the whole thing, but I wish that I had quit much earlier. I kept hoping that something would occur to draw me in, but it just never happened. The language was unnecessarily showy, the characters were obnoxious and immature, and there was little plot to speak of.

* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks to Penguin's first to read program for an ecopy of this book in exchange for a review.

DNF - 15% (but it felt like so much more)

I tried really hard to get into this book. It portrayed itself as a mystery when a museum employee goes missing. I love museum mysteries ever since reading The Art Forger. But the writing in this book was heavy and flat. With every word I felt like I was suffocating. The narrator tried to hard to be funny at times and failed dramatically. Throwing around the word "fuck" doesn't make you funny. Using a thesaurus for every word, doesn't make you a clever writer.

But besides that, I was just really disappointed that for at least the beginning, the mystery of the missing employee wasn't even touched upon. He's mentioned on page one and in passing on one other page before I called it quits. Instead, I got to read about the narrator's mother and exhusband. An important part of a book calling itself a mystery is the mystery.

I wanted to enjoy this one so bad, but it just wasn't in the cards for me.

[nikkia neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Edewiss for this ARC.

We all have to grow up; this is a great awesome book about a woman finds her own power and worth.

[Jean Paulhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this novel and was blown away. Could not put it down. Will be buying the hardcover for my collection :)

[Dena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would probably give this a 2.5 but since no half stars are allowed here I rounded to 3. I WANTED to like this book. I TRIED to like this book. I made every excuse in FAVOR of this book, but alas it was not for me. The premise of the book sounded fantastic and the summary was just what I wanted, but the actual story fell a little short for me. I think the biggest problem I had with it was the writing style that bogged me down. I had to read and re-read most sentences to get the meaning of it, or to simply make it flow. It was just a bit awkward (for me). Maybe it was just me, as the other reviews seem to be pretty high, but I just couldn't get into the groove of it. Most of the sentences were filled with interjections, and/or explanations, within the sentence. For example: "I would have just made my way to the department, but Marco Jensen, who worked the central desk, was already present, stocking pamphlets, from which labor he rescued himself in order to wave me vividly over." Also, there were many words that I had to look up, which slowed me down. Now, I am a college educated individual. I read a lot. And I actually enjoy running into new words, because I feel like I am 'learning'. But when I come across 5 words I have never even heard of in the first 60 pages, I start to feel stupid. And I don't like that feeling. So, while I think the story was ok, I didn't actually enjoy reading it. It was a chore for me, not a pleasure. Now, as I stated above, this book gets great reviews from others, so maybe this was just not for me. Maybe I don't "get" poetry (as the author is apparently a poet, and other reviewers seem to enjoy the poetic prose).
I almost didn't write my review (because I don't like giving bad reviews), but I was reminded by some of my book-loving friends, that readers like to know what they are in for, the good and the bad. So I hope I have given enough reasons and/or examples as to why this book wasn't for me. And I just wanted to give a heads-up that the writing style is a bit unique.

[Jillian Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stylish and witty, revolving around a self described sophisticated misanthrope.

Stella's had quite the overwhelming week! From her unwavering career focus as the city's art curator, dealing with her self-important and almost ex-husband Wit, her eccentric famous meddling mother, her missing friend and colleague Paul, and appeasing her lover Frank and all of his airs.
Yet the most compulsive intrigue surrounds the mysteriously discovered map that has curious roots in her art museum.
The kaleidoscope of her life is not only a relatable adventure, but a smart, scandalous literary read with an unexpected yet fitting ending.

[Alexandra WhimsyPages · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF after about 50 pages.

Written in a very pretentious way, sometimes I wondered if what I was reading passed through the hands of an editor at all.

I could have pretended and spoken about the intelligence, wittiness and poetic style, but frankly when you put too much sugar in the cake it no longer brings you pleasure, just as a book with metaphor on top of metaphor, figurative speech on top of weirdly constructed sentences.

It was difficult to get into the story when I had to detangle each word in every sentence.

[Liesl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. I wanted to like this book given its stunning cover and intriguing summary, but found it to be a challenging slog despite the brief length. Ives' writing is far too pretentious to be enjoyable; I constantly had to reread sentences to fully comprehend what was happening. None of the characters are particularly compelling and a mere wisp of plot is present, which led me to wonder about the overall point of the story. One positive is that the tale allows for a peek behind the curtain at the world of art and curators, but that is not enough for me to recommend it.

Thanks to the First to Read program for providing me with an ARC of this title.

[The Lit Bitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Person disappears in a museum? A museum mystery? With maps? Yes, yes and yes! Is what went through my mind when this one came up for review.

The summary promised lots of tantalizing elements which is what drew me in for a review.

Sure the summary sounded wordy and excessive but this book is meant to be a mystery for the high brow readers I think. There’s a lot of large words and pomp just in the summary alone, but I was intrigued and thought a mystery in a museum sounded entertaining.

This was a dense read for me. The language that highjacked the summary carried over into the story itself. There was a ton of grandiose and pretentious language that bog this book way way down. I just felt like the language was forces and trying to hard. This book could have been amazing but the style just took over and made it difficult to read and digest. This book wasn’t that long but it took me a while to get through, not to mention to get in to. I could tell that the author was more of a poet than a novelist so in some ways I felt like the book was trying to be something that it wasn’t based on the approach linguistically. So right off that bat that bothered me.

But I continued….why? Well there was part of me that felt determined to read this book and hoped that I would eventually love it. The summary sounds so great and the cover is enchanting. I kept hoping against hope that I could get through the language and it would eventually become less heavy but it didn’t. By the time I accepted that it wasn’t going to get any less dense, I just felt like I owed it to the book to keep going.

So clearly I didn’t love this book, but it had its moments where I was thinking to myself ‘this could be a great book without all the language’. For instance the way the author used history and art together along with the map was excellent. I kept reading mostly because I liked how the map worked within the story.

I also felt like Stella was relatable to the target audience. Stella is 30 and struggling to find her purpose in life and I know that when I turned 30 all I could think of was ‘man I can’t screw things up too bad anymore and blame it on age because now I’m an adult’. So I think having her be in this kind of limo was great and I enjoyed that more than I expected.

On the whole I wanted to love this book and I tried to look for areas where I could justify a fair rating but I just couldn’t love this one. This book is written for a certain type of person and that person just isn’t me. Perhaps there are others who will enjoy this book, but for me the language just bogged it down too much to enjoy.

See my full review here

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I didn't think this was as pretentious as other readers seemed to believe, there were maybe five pages of dialogue throughout the entire novel and lines-long sentences full of overwrought similes. Hers was a long, bunchy name, like a bag of knots. and the like.

Sadly, the mystery and museum-esque quality that initially drew me in was hidden beneath chapter after chapter of Stella alternating between hating-slash-avoiding her soon-to-be ex-husband and pining after a fellow coworker with whom she had a fling. Yawn.

For the full review and more, head over to The Pretty Good Gatsby!

[Karen Mace · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb was intriguing so that's what drew me into reading this book. And for the most part it was mildly interesting - there was a great attention to detail in the writing style and that made sense for a book set around a museum and those who worked there. But I also felt this went against the story as it just felt 'overdone' - there was little about the characters that felt endearing so the story fell a little flat.

The mystery of the map was the bright light in the story and did keep me fascinated but then even that seemed to get caught up in itself and just become too over elaborate and took away from what could have been an interesting study of some different characters and the solving of a mystery.

The writing style did take some getting used to and did distract at times from the plot.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the copy in return for a fair and honest review

[Jess · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't make it to the end of this but I made it far enough (over halfway) to know that it wasn't going to get any better.

The beautiful cover, title, and intriguing plot summary pulled me in. Unfortunately that's all I really liked about this book, which I found inexplicable in so many ways.

I imagine some people might enjoy Ives' writing, but I found the forceful attempt to be quirky and clever incredibly grating, more so with every passing page. Not only that, but at times the writing was just straight up confusing, and I found myself finishing sentences and going, "wait...what?" It wasn't that the language was too difficult - it was just very, very odd, in a bad way, rather than a refreshing or smart way.

Perhaps this wouldn't have been a death knell if the book had great characters and a great plot. Alas, the characters all seemed like caricatures to me, and I didn't find the protagonist likable or interesting. The dialogue felt very forced and strange, not at all resembling the way real human beings would talk to one another, and conversations would always cut off at very confusing moments, leaving me kind of just laughing nervously to myself as if I were missing out on a joke or something. And the story as a whole meandered for ages, running circles around a plot that had potential but came across as rather lifeless.

This book seemed really great from far away, but up close basically everything about the execution just didn't work all that well. As much as I hate to write authors off entirely, I think Lucy Ives' storytelling may just not be for me.

[Kiely · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It showed you something that the art historian seldom has a chance, and probably does not want to discuss, i.e., the fact that the history of art, or the history of the production of aesthetic objects, is not merely a narrative of progress and increasing skill in the relation of realist detail, or just the invention of new ways to convey politics to an in-group. There is also branching and backtracking. And there is isolation, and there is miracle. And there is something people call "charm", which is what happens when nothing works in a given painting. But what you get when nothing works is everything."

And with that, Lucy Ives captured me spellbound for the rest of this stunning novel. I just finished this book and, oh my, is it good. But, it’s also likely only interesting to a niche group of people. This book is hilarious and realistic and ironic but that doesn’t change the fact that this book is, basically, entirely about a woman doing archival research while trying to deal with her crazy bosses and soon-to-be-ex-husband. That being said, I truly got caught up in Stella Krakus's trials and tribulations in her research, so much so that I could not put it down. This book actually reminded me a lot of Elif Batuman’s “The Idiot”, another one of my favorite books from this year (if you’ve read it you know what I mean; if not, go read it!), making me want Lucy Ives to write a sequel. But if this is the last we hear of Stella Krakus, I’ll still be happy knowing that she ended up okay, no matter the challenges and questions set before this confusing but still likable character. Anyway, thank you, Lucy Ives, for writing a book that I connected with and that spoke to me!! I'll be sure to read anything you decide to write next.

(Rating: 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. This book is absolutely not everyone's cup of tea; the heightened vocabulary and unorthodox sentence structure took some getting used to, but once I was past the first chapter I flew through this book very quickly. If you don't like it after the first few chapters, it likely isn't for you; however, if you like art and art history and aesthetics and museums, I'm pretty sure that this is just the book you've been looking for.)

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably could have kept reading this book forever even if the story never went anywhere, just because I loved the way Lucy Ives' words felt rolling across my consciousness.

I suppose I liked this book for precisely the same reasons as so many other reviewers seemed to dislike it - the dreaded "pedantic writing" accusation. Perhaps this makes me an aspiring pedant or admirer of pedants, or perhaps much of the readership confused connoisseurship of language with snobbish pedantry. Either way, I don't much care because I loved it, wanted to roll around in it, wear it, and possibly physically absorb it.

The plot is far from structurally perfect and includes many mysteries solved by lightbulb moments perpetuated by the kind of unsubstantiated symbolic attributions that drove me to sneering, frustrated misery in my Art History grad program.

But, unusual though it may be for a novel, I don't think the plot was really the point here. What mattered was Ives' incredible writing. She has an incredible ability to manipulate language, both when penning a beautifully earnest sentence or a snidely hilarious one.

Come for the poignant and almost uncomfortably honest portrayals of the fascinating and strangely realistic characters (yep, we all know a Caro, a Whit, a Fred who frustrate our own inner Stella), stay for the hilarious and deadly accurate rendering of the traumatic experience of using a micro fiche machine.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would like those 296 pages worth of time in my life back, please. Truly, the most pretentious and overly wordy writing I've read since I was forced to read Proust in a college French class. I kept reading, hoping that some dramatic reveal in the story would change my mind and outweigh the frustration of reading sentence after sentence that had been jammed through a thesaurus machine, but that relief never came. By the time I hit 80%, I realized it never would and I started reading as fast as possible so that I could stop thinking about how annoyed and epically bored I was. I give this book 1 star, only because it mentions Rochester, and it's cool and rare to see my hometown mentioned in print. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

WAY too much unneeded description of everything. I could only stand 15% before closing this book. I won't be going back to it. Reading a book should be entertaining, not agony.

I really wanted to like this book, but it was just impossible for me.

Thanks to Penguin Group and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stella Krakus is having a rough week and is in the midst of an existential crisis (personal & professional). Her soon to be ex-husband, Whit, is being difficult, she's also at a confusing crossroads with her occasional hook up and colleague Fred. Her mother is adding to the pile by simply being herself and then there's the small matter of Paul, a colleague who was as much a work friend as Stella has, that's gone missing though no one at CeMArt seems much to care or at least, tepidly worry. There's also a foreboding looming encroachment of the corporatization & conglomeratization of the museum by WANSEE.

It is this mystery of what's happened to Paul (and then what he'd been doing before his end) that most pulled me through this story. I loved following Stella's trail of research (obscure books are connected to an obscure map and that map figures into a larger situation at the museum that has roots a good bit in the past and more obscure works). Add to that Stella's very clear voice, wry wit in the telling and tangential observations, I quite enjoyed this story. I found many passages that were highlight worthy and am a little sorry that I can't quote them here but it's worth mentioning just the same. The author definitely has a talent for lyrical prose and I appreciated that. The only thing I didn't find terribly compelling was Fred and I never quite understood Stella's fascination or attraction unless it was that he was purposely unattainable & emotionally unavailable to her, but it was good to see her get past him. I very much liked that without knowing it, Stella needed the journey of tracing Paul's trail to work out her own stuff and by the end she's in a better place than she began. Well done.

This read like a love letter to archivists and curators everywhere (cartographers, microcalligraphers, logophiles and those who love puzzles and puns, this is for you too). If that happens to be your thing (it's my thing) then go forth and enjoy. Also, I'd recommend this to literary fiction fans that also enjoy a bit of mystery.

I received a review copy of this book in exchange for my views. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag for me. I was attracted by the beautiful cover (what's new) and a blurb I'd seen marketing it as "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler for adults." That's a great sell.

But then, once I started reading...

Immediately I had a hard time with the prose. It was very choppy with an emphasis on both slang and figurative language that made for difficult going. Getting used to it was like reading an old book with very antiquated language. Odd cadences, funky asides or references. BUT - every once in awhile there were gems so witty or interesting that I immediately found myself highlighting. (Really - something super funny or just well-written. More of this please!) I wish a little more time had been spent smoothing the prose out.

The characterization and plot felt as choppy as the prose. I had a hard time connecting with the main character, Stella. Her character had misanthropic old man tendencies mixed with young twenties impulsiveness. She didn't make sense or feel real to me.

The connections between characters felt odd, too. Stella and Paul. Stella and Frank. Stella and Caro. It was like watching humans interact - except if you didn't know anything about how real humans experienced emotions. Like a mix of Devil Wears Prada and Night at the Museum and that Barbara Pym book about clueless anthropologists, Less than Angels. Social strivers in museums who aren't behaving like humans but are very intent on their specific needs. What can I say. It's a specific mix.

Finally, I guess I expected more out of the plot, but what plot was there was hard to follow. It's sort of a mystery, but the reveal is a little flat. The ending is abrupt. Altogether, a book that had promise, but for me didn't add up to very much.

Thanks to First to Read for supplying me with an advance copy for review.

[Angie Reisetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An uneven book, with awkward narration and a disorganized, inconsistent voice, but some truly breathtaking imagery popping out here and there. The overall construction of the story was intricate and impressive -- I don't know that I've ever read a book quite like it. The use of history and art was great. The use of character a little less impressive. There are also some glaring issues with understanding quite what Stella's job is, what her goals are, why she does things from one hour to the next. I feel like I have spent time in her head and don't know her well. But I finished and the overwhelming feeling was that this story was just so darn interesting -- I'm still interested. Wait, stick around and finish your story! I have so many questions!

There's a useful timeline in the back of the book that might help sort some things out as you read. And even though I have mixed feelings about how well it's written, I recommend it to folks looking for a good museum mystery. There's some good stuff in here.

I got a free copy to review from First to Read.

[Kalyne · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Received an ARC from Random House, this book has a beautiful cover but unfortunately the writing wasn't my taste. I gave it 50 pages but it just wasn't for me.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy convoluted sentence structures, batman! It's hard to parse out what is actually happening sometimes, the meandering descriptions and pretentiousness get in the way. I'm not sure if Ives is trying to impress with her knowledge of privilege in New York, or if she thinks it adds anything to the story, but I found it off putting. The actual plot is interesting. The setting is fabulous. I feel like I really could have liked this book, if there had been better editing; prune out the unnecessary and distracting verbosity, concentrate on the mystery and the characters more. Meh.

[Nada · Rating 1 out of 5]

Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives was an impossibly frustrating reading experience. The language and narration of this book gets in the way of the story; it seem to be used not for the story but rather for the sake of language itself. The writing style and word choice gives the entire book a pretentious feel and leaves me as a reader disengaged from the story.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017...

Reviewed for NetGalley

[Jesaca · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is clearly a poet because the writing is like nothing I've read before. Lyrical, playful, and mesmerizing. The plot is relatable. I would probably read it again in the future.

[Alysa H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me just say straight off that I loved this book. I thought the writing was excellent -- very technically precise, which not only appeals to me but is also perfect for the main character, Stella, a sort of neurotic academic type working in a fictional NYC art museum. I also found a great many hysterical, laugh-out-loud moments. The humor here won't be for everyone, but it certainly felt Made For Me.

Stella is complex. Sympathetic but in no way perfect. She's going through a tough time, and much of it is of her own making. Like a real person! But even the secondary characters are so rich, so well-drawn. I feel like I've met all of these people. By that I mean both that they're realistic and seem culled from real life, and also that Ives writes so well that her characters leap out.

I can't quite give it 5 stars, mainly because I had problems with some elements around the vague "bibliomystery" that ostensibly drives the story (nota bene: it's actually the characters and relationships that drive the story). I didn't buy most of Stella's leaps of logic, presented almost as intellectual instinct, that had her interested in and/or tracking down various books and documents and whatnot, ultimately to "solve" a research mystery that was parallel to, and somewhat symbolic of, though not related to her own life. So, readers more invested in those elements will be disappointed.

But me? I literally did not want this book to end.

**I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley**

[Jeannette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Also available on the WondrousBooks blog.

This was the first book I received from Penguin Books on NetGalley and I was very happy about it. Add to that the interesting premise of a museum and a mysterious map of a magical settlement, as well as the beautiful cover, which reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel movie cover, and I was hooked.

Unfortunately, the book is anything but exciting. For starters, the main character was a strange, self-contradictory woman, who was as hard to like for me, as she was for all the rest of the characters. She seemed to possess mainly negative qualities, and most of all, she was rude and judgmental to the other characters, yet extremely gullible when it came to the museum heartthrob who managed to get her interest, despite being a very obvious sleazebag.

Also, story-wise, there were two separate stories which had nothing to do with each other, aside from being connected to the main character, Stella, and they kept pulling the main story in different directions, making it scattered and unbalanced.

The map story was very naive, childish and not really interesting to follow, and the story of Stella's private life was just so out of place in terms of the book, that while finding it somewhat more interesting, I felt awkward reading about it, because it so obviously did not belong in the book, at all.

The writing itself was not to my liking either. To some it might have been clever, but to me it seemed very pretentious. There's nothing bad about using a rich vocabulary, but it just seemed very forced and ostentatious, like a teenager trying to sound smart at a college party.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know whether it's because I am around the same age as the protagonist, but I identified with Stella as a character from the first chapter. While not all her situations were familiar to me, I could relate to enough that I really felt for and understood her as she tried to puzzle out the drama surrounding her. Alongside the memorable characters and intriguing plot, I also fell in love with Ives' prose. So often these days, writers are told to dumb-down their text, omitting certain punctuation. It was, therefore, a breath of fresh air to read more complex, thoughtful sentences, with diverse grammar and phrasing. That alone was enough to make me fall in love with this book! Impossible Views of the World kept me invested in the characters and the action from start to finish and it was a thrill to pick it up each night and continue with the tale. For lovers of intellectually stimulating and thoughtful literary fiction, this book is a must read!

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley.