Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I bought this book after reading Night Film, which I loved. This being her first novel, it is definitely apparent in the writing and story line. While I did enjoy it, the story is very slow moving and lengthy in detail. The momentum doesn't really pick up until at least half way through.

The story line ambles through a maze of metaphors and literary citations. The conclusion (or lack thereof) just dangled amid the myriad of words begging to be completed. Halfway through the book I started skimming pages determined to finish it. I was hoping the main characters would find some resolution. Unfortunately, they disappeared without a trace.

The protagonist describes a tumultuous year in high school with a remarkably unique voice. The plot has an unexpected twist at the end and is generally entertaining throughout. Ultimately, however, this book is a bit tedious and self-absorbed. Good, but not great.

Pessl's language is rich and provocative. Her use of simile and metaphor is stunning. The plot moves in compelling ways, and her plot development reminds me of other writers I admire: Neal Stephenson, Gary Shteyngart and Thomas Pynchon. Would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a tale told by a master wordsmith.

With this review I am probably shining a glaring spotlight on my woeful ignorance and many will probably twitter and giggle behind their hands commenting on my stupidity. I am willing to bear the brunt of scorn to tell others like me no matter how cheap this book is don't bother picking it up unless you suffer from insomnia.

The first thing you notice about this book is the Chapter titles. It is explained why it is set out like a summer reading list, but I won't go into that now. I suppose if you look deep enough (and have actually read the books in question) you can figure out why the author used each one as the title of that chapter as opposed to another, but having not read many of the titles it was lost on me and it is never explained.

The second thing I noticed, just having gone through a tutorial on MLA format in college writing, was that this lady is the poster child for citing your sources. In the beginning she sites everything, every quote, every observation, and even some things I thought didn't need to be cited. She talked about how someone looked or acted and the very next thing you would see (see such and such page blank of textbook A author John Doe 1976). Luckily for the reader by the middle of the book it seems she tires of this as well and these citations become few and far between.

This story drags on and on though. In the beginning she talks about the reasons for writing "her story" which leads you to believe that this incident that keeps her up at night is the climax of the story, but if it is it falls flatter than a pancake dropped on the floor. It is the very definition of anticlimactic. You get this whole build up to a life changing moment in this character's life, a moment that affects her years and years later only to have the barest of mentions of it as the story plods on. I admit I have not finished it. Maybe that moment was not the climax she led us to believe in the beginning it was going to be. Maybe the climax is still to come, but right now I am having a difficult time trying to get myself to read through the rest of it.

The critic reviews say, "Dazzling... (People critic choice)", "A whirling, glittering, multifaceted marvel. (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)", Hip, ambitious and imaginative (Los Angeles Times)". Again the critics have let me down. Come on criticize already, isn't that your job? This book is dry, uninteresting, full of it's own importance that is unwarranted. I feel like the author is like a lot of teenagers using lots of big words and obscure references that nobody but themselves understands to make themselves appear smarter than they are. It feels as if maybe I should be smarter having read so far through this, but I'm not. This book has the feel of a boring base college course that you wish wasn't required, but you drudge through because you have to. I know one thing, I won't be taking any follow up courses from this woman.

This book was fun and quirky. It cites various books, movies and plays throughout in order to show the protagonist's mindset and if one is well read (or watched) it makes it a fun adventure...like sharing a secret. There are also some quirky little linguistic things that she does (I won't give it away) that made me smile and relate as a writer to her tactics.

I bought the book for a book club read and ended up reading it really for me.

Quite enjoyable!

~stormy

Very clever writing style. From the point of view of a highly intelligent high school girl, there are citations throughout written in a play-on-academic-papers kind of way. The overall tone was at times energetic but there were numerous very melancholy moments.
Only thing I disliked was I felt the ending was a bit rushed, abrupt perhaps, but that could simply be that I got into so much that it felt like it flew by.

Review of: "Special Topics in Calamity Physics"

By Marisha Pessl

This is a murder mystery. We learn of the mysterious death of one of the main characters early in the book. The death might have been a murder or might have been suicide. As the story develops, we learn that the victim is one of a cast of extraordinary characters. We know from the start of the death. When it happens, the sequence of events is still surprising.

The main character is a precocious teen girl named Blue van Meer. She has extraordinary talents, exceptional perception and is a dynamic central character. The reader quickly builds up sympathy and concern for her welfare.

The gradual introduction of revolutionary cabals, conspiracies, hidden societies and secret identities keep the readers attention up to the astonishing ending. Other reviewers noted the overuse of illusion and metaphor. I felt that the literary illusions added to the story. Both Blue van Meer and her father, Gareth van Meer, are academics in a closed circle of literati. Their frequent references to literary scenes and characters, both real and fabricated, felt very natural in this setting. Even the fabricated literary references add to the tale.

I liked this book very much and I recommend it to others.

This novel was recommended to me by a friend. She told me to hurry and read it so we could talk about it. The author's writing style is unique and fast paced. Her characters are well developed and the plot is twisted, strange and at times unsettle in

On and on about a bunch of precocious, bratty high school seniors, most certainly heading for disaster, but after reading and mostly suffering through 40% of this pretentious novel, I threw in the towel, so I would never know except that Pessl tells you right at the beginning. Maybe if you are young, this would serve, but otherwise the world does not need one more of these. It's been done over and over and certainly better.

I loved this book. First I listened to an unabridged audio book, but felt I missed a lot because I was laughing, or the pace was too fast for me to appreciate the allusions and metaphors. Reading it gave me just as much pleasure, even though I knew how it ended.

This is a brilliant book, an exhausting, captivating, wild ride of a book. The reader reviews were helpful. One review not so much -- the one taking offense at the harsh way people were described. Those descriptions were part of the definition of Blue and her father.
I did do some skimming over references, and cases of extreme exposition. However, I'm in awe of this author and her research, and I would be on standby for her next book. Pessl is in a league with Donna Tartt.

how magically quirky and irresistible is blue van meer....I haven't read a book in a long thine that I wished would continue forever. if you love a story that is deliciously soaked in cleverness and carefully chosen yet effortless wordplay, you will enjoy pessl's mastery in this tale.

This book keeps changing into a different book as you read it. It has the capacity to surprise you over and over again. Parts of it are very funny and yet the dark secrets that are revealed at last are not funny at all.

The writing is wonderful most of the time and even when the author goes overboard now and then you don't really mind because it is still a pleasure to keep reading.

An amazing debut -- can't wait for her next book.

The writer is brilliant! Never seen so many authors and books quoted - and I'm just into the 4th chapter! Very unique writing style, but after you get in to it for a while it grows on you! It's a very busy read.

EM Forster asked in his now famous Aspects of the Novel: "Cannot fiction devise a framework that is not so logical yet more suitable to its genius." Marisha's refreshingly original and imaginative book-like-object is a start in the right direction for here we have a literary, coming of age, adventure, suspense-mystery with a fine plot and wonderful characters plus unique visual aids in the form of drawings made by Blue (I love you Blue), the unreliable, but likeable polymath narrator. Situation and story are well outlined in other reviews. I will not repeat. While I was reading, two men dressed in white shirts and black ties, came to the door. They announced that they were from the Church of the Latter Day Saints and that they had a special personal message for me from Jesus Christ. "Will you let us share it with you?" they asked. "No thanks. I'm too engrossed in Special Topics in Calamity Physics." I held up the book. They nodded. "We couldn't put it down either. Have a nice day." At last a book with a bit of rumba to it. Take a look for yourself. Enjoy.

One of the most difficult aspects of writing a novel is bringing things together at the end. In this sense the author fails completely. The structure of the novel is both engaging and irritating. When the story line is moved along, it is quite good. At other times, it plods. Trying to be too clever, the author has become stuck in her own honey.

This is the best English-language novel I have read since Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. The blurb by Franzen on the back is sort of ironic; she should be writing blurbs for him! The author is brilliant at creating memorable characters and situations, at building and pacing climaxes (she could probably get a night job designing roller coasters for a theme park), and at crafting memorable one-liners. The mystery left at the end is as fascinating as that in Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49.

I will say that the more you know about literature, the more you are likely to get out of this. I love her references to "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and Ada, but people who want me to identify the authors of these works will probably be less thrilled. (Wallace Stevens, Vladimir Nabokov)

Recommended for English majors and those who wish they had been.