It's funny, I just looked back at my review for [b:Drop City|24724|Drop City|T.C. Boyle|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327936131s/24724.jpg|3159281], and somehow I want to write almost an identical review for this book even though the story is totally different. For me, reading Boyle is really not so much about the quality of the story he tells, but rather the way he tells it like no one else. His prose reminds me of a powerful waterfall . . .it's just water flowing over a cliff right, but somehow it evokes a certain feeling of awe in you when you look at it. Even though water alone or a cliff alone doesn't do the same. That's how Boyle's writing hits me. It starts off a little slow, but builds this momentum to where I can't stop thinking about the story and don't want to stop reading it. His work is populated with creative, not terribly likable characters, but he comes up with all sorts of fresh situations for them.

This book is almost like a saga with generations of the same families being described in the 17th century and the 20th century. The big picture theme is how the characters can't seem to escape the destiny outlined for them in the 17th century no matter how hard they try. Arguably, some don't try very hard. It's hard to really describe what Boyle does with these folks, but in one family line the characters keep being stricken with a desire to eat everything in sight. Another character eats dirt from his cellar when he is stressed. These quirks and foibles are throughout the book and add so much interest. Motivations are revealed, but more slowly so you have a chance to bring your own opinion to the table only to find out you are wrong.

Really well written book that deserves its spot on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. ( )

The story is centered on the Hudson River Valley from the late 17th century to about late 1960s, and covers different generations of the same families. It’s not an easy to read book (requires focus), but once I realized it, I was able to slow down and just settle into it. Also, keeping track of everyone was a full time job (didn’t help there are three characters with the same name in different time frames….ahhhh….so someone like me that struggles with this aspect – names - of Russian lit may find this maddening!LOL). However, thankfully, the author provided a character legend/list in the beginning of the book. Yay!
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There’s no way I could do this book justice, so no formal review!lol Not that I’ve been very formal, considering I always skip a synopsis (that’s what Goodreads is for!LOL)

So many themes and topics: The everlasting questions of moving forward or staying stuck, of being a product or our past, our family history, our genes (and how this can impair our functioning) or can we break free from all of it and redefine ourselves? The sins of our father’s catching up to us. Can we be held accountable when we may already be doomed or ill-fated to repeat the same story? Are we destined to continue making the same mistakes? What rights do we have to inherit this earth and plunder it and keep it and not share it and fight over it and pass it on when it may not have really belonged to us at all? — There is so much to unpack in this saga and just when you think that maybe, just maybe, someone will break free, you find out that you were wrong and end up not knowing how to feel about it.

There is something about the way he tells a story…the fast moving prose that almost hypnotizes me …that evokes certain feelings or leaves me with more questions or pondering the character’s choices. All of his books have left me feeling this way. I remember I had quasi-nightmares (and I rarely remember my dreams) when I read “Tortilla Curtain” - I also remember feeling unsettled when I read “Drop City.” And “When the Killing’s Done” left me questioning “who’s side am I on?”

There were sections that felt a little drawn out but I didn’t get the sense they were superfluous…but I do have a full time job and some nights I’m just beat and don’t care about the descriptions!LOL Also…it’s a depressive read, but I tend to like them. And the structure may be difficult for some.
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As usual, I will need some time to full absorb and figure out how I feel about the ending. My immediate sensation was disappointment, then surprise, and now…not sure! I feel like a young kid at Uni yelling “Don’t make me think! Just explain it to me.” lol But I love that his books leave me feeling this way and this one did not disappoint!

words I had to look up (for my own notes)

· Onoeric: relating to dreams or dreaming

· Dropsical: affected with or characteristic of dropsy; edematous – had to look up “edema” and then it made sense!LOL

· Anchorite: a religious recluse

· Incarnadined: I guessed this one right: color (something) a bright crimson or pinkish-red

· Lucubrated: write or study, especially by night; produce scholarly written material.

· Adumbrate: indicate faintly; foreshadow or symbolize; overshadow

· Sybaritic: fond of sensuous luxury or pleasure; self-indulgent

· Eponym: a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named.

· Caliginous: misty, dim; obscure, dark.
· Hieratic: of or concerning priests; of or concerning Egyptian or Greek styles of art adhering to early methods as laid down by religious tradition

· Micturition: the action of urinating (guessed this one right…but was thinking urinating incontinence)

· Troglodyte: a person who lived in a cave; a hermit; a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.

BOTM, Nov 2017. Story of generations of Dutch that settled the New York area. A family saga (two families actually) and it goes back and forth from early settlement (1600s to to the 1960-70s). I really enjoyed learning about the Dutch and the early years of the New York area. I thought the author did a great job of putting the history into his characters. Rating: 4.375. ( )

This novel jumps back ad forth through time from 17th century colonial Dutch/English New York, and then to the same area (and the descendants of the original colonists and natives) in the early 20th century and the mid 20th century.

As might be expected, but largely unknown to the characters, the descendants have personalities/character flaws similar to their ancestors'. The wealthy patroons (and then landlords) stay well off, rude, and rather arrogant. The stubborn (Jeremias and Wouter) produce progeny that are also stubborn to their own detriment, just like their ancestors. The oddballs, the Cranes, though mocked throughout the generations, manage to carve out their own niche within the community. The natives, meanwhile, do not give up the old ways, even in the 20th century, and the many Jeremy Mohonks continue to pass down their stories and histories and make their way between their own culture and Dutch/English/American culture. And the last Jeremy Mohonk gets the best revenge--though it will likely remain unknown--against those patroons.

This book is 30 years old, and DNA testing at home was not a thing when Boyle wrote this. It is entirely possible that Jeremy Mohonk's revenge would actually become known in this day and age! I wonder what Boyle would say. ( )

I downgraded this a bit after a reread. It's too long, for one thing. Boyle engages in a metaphor/simile onslaught that ended up annoying me. Rather than leave it at one or two for a given situation (the insatiable hunger section, for instance), he piles it on.

The hippie characters tend to be too stereotypical to be believable, whereas the establishment figures are more three dimensional. I have only reread Budding Prospects and Water Music, and those two hold up better than this one. ( )