Item: Impossible Views Of The World
Rating: 3.00
Author: purplemoonmyst

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"--

Well...that was a letdown. I had such high hopes for this book also. I loved the synopsis of it on NetGalley and couldn't wait to dive into it. The book was pretty good I kept waiting for THE BIG THING to happen and I clicked on my Kindle and.THE END.

I at first thought maybe my copy was missing a few pages, but a quick check on GoodReads and nope that was truly the end of the book. O.K

I now can't decide if I liked it or if I am pissed cause it didn't end the way I felt it should. I mean I am not the author, so I dont have any say in how it ends, but I did feel that the secret that was revealed was..lackluster. I wanted SCANDALS and ACTION and all of that. Instead, all I got was a divorce and an affair.

Looking back I realize that this is more of how the main protagonist grows. It is a character story more than it is a plot driven story. I dont have a problem with that, but I went into this with an expectation of something more so that makes me somewhat grumpy that I did not get it.

As a character study though it was excellent. We see how Stella grows and changes throughout the novel. The book goes deep into her psyche, so we are in her head the whole time. There were times I thought she was dumb but we have all been in her shoes including myself. She was perfectly flawed as we all are. I found that I could relate to her. I have never been through a divorce but I HAVE been on the losing side of unrequited love, and I found myself nodding my head and going I am glad it wasn't just me that was so blind even though it was only a fictional person that I was relating to. It is amazing how stories even fictional ones can make us feel less alone.

Again there was nothing I did not NOT like about the book I was just expecting more from it as the synopsis made it seem that more would happen and it did not. I think if I had lower expectations or knew that this was more of a character study then I may have finished it with different feelings.

This review was originally posted on Adventures in Never Never Land

Impossible Views Of The World

by Lucy Ives

Reviewed by Hillary on Sep 7, 2017

Reading updates