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Aby will ihre Mutter zurückholen, die die Familie vor langer Zeit verlassen hat. Doch Aby ist keine normale junge Frau: ihre Haut schimmert grün, und es gelingt ihr nicht immer, die Kiemen an ihrem Hals zu verdecken. Sie gehört dem Volk der Aquatics an, sie möchte nicht, dass ihre Mutter als »entwässertes« Landwesen, weitab von der Heimat stirbt. Und auf ihrem beschwerlichen Weg von der Unterwasserstadt in die kanadische Prärie wirbelt Aby das Leben der Leute, denen sie begegnet, gehörig durcheinander ...
288 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2010
26 people are currently reading
1018 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Kaufman
23books470followersANDREW KAUFMAN's critically acclaimed first book, All My Friends Are Superheroes, was a cult hit and has been translated into six languages. Kaufman is also an accomplished screenwriter, film-maker and radio producer and has completed a Director's Residency at the Canadian Film Centre. He lives in Toronto with his wife and their two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
August 16, 2022
Сравнително странна книга се оказва „Аквианскат� библия�. Имах очаквания за някакво чудато и любопитно фентъзи четиво, но фентъзито съвсем не играе централна роля в сюжета тук, макар да присъства в не малка част от него.
Героите около, които протича действието, са няколко � Ребека, Луис, Стюарт и водното същество Абериствит � накратко Аби, което напуска своя подводен свят в търсене на майка си, която преди години е решила да избяга сред хората в света на сушата.
Събитията и случките около героите не ми бяха кой знае колко интересни и вълнуващи, а и откъм изграждането на персонажите не останах много доволен. Често имаше връщане към миналото на героите, което убиваше динамиката на действието в настоящето.
Частите със света на аквианците и тяхната трактовка на „Библията� определено ми бяха най-интересни от цялата книга, но и през тях беше минато много бегло, без да се навлиза в дълбоки детайли, а определено авторът има интересни идеи, които за мен не е разгърнал и развил в пълния им потенциал.
Книгата не е толкова главозамайващо фентъзи, колкото е една история за търсенето на правилния път в живота на няколко объркани и блуждаещи хора, които са споходени от странни случки и събития, докато успеят да се съберат и преоткрият наново.
Оценка: 3.45 �
Ето и няколко момента с цитати, които ми се откроиха по един или друг начин.
Стр. 71 � Ревностните аквианци, каквато със сигурност бе тя, вярваха, че да загубиш ключовете си, не само предсказва, но и предизвиква умствено заболяване. Да си изгубиш ключовете, бе равносилно на това да си изгубиш разсъдъка. 😱 🤷♂�
Стр. 127/128 � Според аквианската Библия единствените свещени предмети в безводния свят са облаците. За това има три причини: първата е, че облаците никога не докосват земята; втората � че облаците са източник на всичката вода; а третата и най-важната е, че когато някой хлидафгод умре, неговата уппилифа, или душа се разтваря и се понася във вид на пара към облаците. � � 🌪
Стр. 169 � Когато започна училището, те започнаха да учат как да станат артисти. Тъй като не можеха да са сигурни дали са такива по душа или не, те подражаваха на тези, които бяха. Пиеха. Пушеха постоянно. Мотаеха се из долнопробни барове. Малко след коледната ваканция започнаха да спят с различни хора. 🤔 🤨
И ето този, който ми е най-любим от цялата книга.
Стр. 251 � Това продължило три дни, докато луната не погледнала надолу и не видяла жената. Съжалила я и я превърнала в раковина. Раковината се изплъзнала от ръцете на братята и паднала под повърхността. Тъга обзела и двамата. За пръв път те били наистина братя и споделяли една мъка. Прегърнали се, навели глави и всеки се върнал от своята страна на океана. И сега шивачът прекарва нощта, повдигайки своята страна на океана в търсене на раковината, докато дърводелецът спи. А когато слънцето изгрее, дърводелецът повдига своята страна на океана, за да търси раковината, докато шивачът спи. Това предизвиква приливите.
🌗 🌬 🐚 🌊
Героите около, които протича действието, са няколко � Ребека, Луис, Стюарт и водното същество Абериствит � накратко Аби, което напуска своя подводен свят в търсене на майка си, която преди години е решила да избяга сред хората в света на сушата.
Събитията и случките около героите не ми бяха кой знае колко интересни и вълнуващи, а и откъм изграждането на персонажите не останах много доволен. Често имаше връщане към миналото на героите, което убиваше динамиката на действието в настоящето.
Частите със света на аквианците и тяхната трактовка на „Библията� определено ми бяха най-интересни от цялата книга, но и през тях беше минато много бегло, без да се навлиза в дълбоки детайли, а определено авторът има интересни идеи, които за мен не е разгърнал и развил в пълния им потенциал.
Книгата не е толкова главозамайващо фентъзи, колкото е една история за търсенето на правилния път в живота на няколко объркани и блуждаещи хора, които са споходени от странни случки и събития, докато успеят да се съберат и преоткрият наново.
Оценка: 3.45 �
Ето и няколко момента с цитати, които ми се откроиха по един или друг начин.
Стр. 71 � Ревностните аквианци, каквато със сигурност бе тя, вярваха, че да загубиш ключовете си, не само предсказва, но и предизвиква умствено заболяване. Да си изгубиш ключовете, бе равносилно на това да си изгубиш разсъдъка. 😱 🤷♂�
Стр. 127/128 � Според аквианската Библия единствените свещени предмети в безводния свят са облаците. За това има три причини: първата е, че облаците никога не докосват земята; втората � че облаците са източник на всичката вода; а третата и най-важната е, че когато някой хлидафгод умре, неговата уппилифа, или душа се разтваря и се понася във вид на пара към облаците. � � 🌪
Стр. 169 � Когато започна училището, те започнаха да учат как да станат артисти. Тъй като не можеха да са сигурни дали са такива по душа или не, те подражаваха на тези, които бяха. Пиеха. Пушеха постоянно. Мотаеха се из долнопробни барове. Малко след коледната ваканция започнаха да спят с различни хора. 🤔 🤨
И ето този, който ми е най-любим от цялата книга.
Стр. 251 � Това продължило три дни, докато луната не погледнала надолу и не видяла жената. Съжалила я и я превърнала в раковина. Раковината се изплъзнала от ръцете на братята и паднала под повърхността. Тъга обзела и двамата. За пръв път те били наистина братя и споделяли една мъка. Прегърнали се, навели глави и всеки се върнал от своята страна на океана. И сега шивачът прекарва нощта, повдигайки своята страна на океана в търсене на раковината, докато дърводелецът спи. А когато слънцето изгрее, дърводелецът повдига своята страна на океана, за да търси раковината, докато шивачът спи. Това предизвиква приливите.
🌗 🌬 🐚 🌊
December 18, 2018
This is the third Andrew Kaufman book I've read, and the only one that really didn't thrill me. It felt as though the author had ideas for three terrific short stories:
- A woman whose emotions are so strong that everyone around her knows what she's feeling.
- Two feuding rainmakers - a father and son who haven't spoken in years - get hired for the same job.
- A water-dwelling humanoid creature hopes to find her AWOL mother, and coax her back to an aquatic lifestyle.
And, then he decided to chuck them all in a story together . . . for no discernible reason. Most of the characters pursue their own separate storylines, barely interacting, though like a butterfly flapping its wings, some of their actions impact others. I think. I was mostly just waiting for the ending, which turned out to be a message about acceptance.
I guess.
I didn't like this one, but for pure imagination and chutzpah, Kaufman deserves at least three stars.
- A woman whose emotions are so strong that everyone around her knows what she's feeling.
- Two feuding rainmakers - a father and son who haven't spoken in years - get hired for the same job.
- A water-dwelling humanoid creature hopes to find her AWOL mother, and coax her back to an aquatic lifestyle.
And, then he decided to chuck them all in a story together . . . for no discernible reason. Most of the characters pursue their own separate storylines, barely interacting, though like a butterfly flapping its wings, some of their actions impact others. I think. I was mostly just waiting for the ending, which turned out to be a message about acceptance.
I guess.
I didn't like this one, but for pure imagination and chutzpah, Kaufman deserves at least three stars.
May 23, 2024
Andrew Kaufman appears to delight in the uniquely weird and wonderful, with characters in The Waterproof Bible ranging from an Amphibian aquatic cult member to a woman who cannot help but convey her every emotion onto those around her, and the man who left her to build a boat. While the ideas are certainly original, I found at times that this read more like three seperate novellas rolled into one mismatched book. None of the stories really gel all that well together, and although they're interesting, don't feel fleshed out enough to stand alone. I would have loved a full length novel about any of these characters - but especially Rebecca and the exploration of her grief and powers.
December 28, 2016
Lost'un finalinden beri bu kadar cevaplanmamış sorularla dolu bir şey görmemiştim. Kitabı okumak keyifliydi ama bitirdiğinde insan kendini ister istemez Jon Snow gibi hissediyor.
March 6, 2010
Kaufman has a true taste for the metaphorical. The pages of his Bible are suffused with totems, and religions, and floods, and sudden blindness. What it all means is entirely up to the reader, and there will doubtless be a few who find The Waterproof Bible not to their liking. The tale is just barely linear, and most of the outlandish events that occur are left unexplained. I would argue that when the trek is this much damned fun, it doesn't matter if you're left a little bewildered at journey's end. Why should you be any better off than Kaufman's characters? Part of life is to enjoy the mysteries, to embrace the unexplainable, and the one's who can't accept that not all is knowable are the ones who lead lives of utter misery. As Margaret thinks of the dangers of living by a rigid dogma, such beliefs remind her"of the Christians she knew who were scared of their genitals, or the scientists who could accept only a rational explanation as the right one."
February 27, 2014
Oh-so-weird and oh-so-wonderful...but isn't that what Andrew Kaufman does best? All My Friends are Superheroes still holds the top spot for me, but I enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed Born Weird, which is to say I enjoyed it very much. While I initially was drawn in by Rebecca's story (filling up shoeboxes with her emotions -- brilliant), it was Aby who turned out to be my favourite in the end -- her out-of-water journey was just spectacular.
February 24, 2010
Oh Boy-I love Andrew Kaufman's writing. His first, All My Friends are Superheroes was a perfect little book, and this, his 2nd is also truly wondrous. Funny, smart, magic realism meets Canadian landscape meets tight writing...
July 13, 2010
It was definately an interesting read. The book was very strange, and I'm still not sure it went anywhere, but I could hardly put the stupid thing down. I'd recommend it if you're feeling philosophical or want to be confused.
December 20, 2012
A surreal and wonderful tale. The story includes a woman who broadcasts her feelings to everyone around her unless she traps them in an object and stores it in a box; underwater cities so much like our own they have skyscrapers and insurance clerks and fundamentalist religion; and an inhabitant of one of those cities, a green-skinned, gilled woman named Aberystwyth, driving to Canada in a Honda Civic to save the soul of her mother.
I'm sure it's meant to be allegorical, but I love this kind of quirky stuff in its own right, and this book just gets better as it goes along. In the end all the fantastical parts of the story fit together like some elaborate but perfectly cut puzzle to produce a beautiful and satisfying resolution.
I'm sure it's meant to be allegorical, but I love this kind of quirky stuff in its own right, and this book just gets better as it goes along. In the end all the fantastical parts of the story fit together like some elaborate but perfectly cut puzzle to produce a beautiful and satisfying resolution.
Read
April 28, 2010A woman tries to stop projecting her emotions into the minds of those around her by instead channeling her feelings into possessions, which she hides in a storage facility. A man builds a sailboat in the middle of the Prairies, despite there being no water nearby � until father and son rainmakers make a catastrophic appearance. A woman from an aquatic civilization searches for her mother, who has hidden herself among the land dwellers and is running an abandoned hotel. A musician has an uneasy relationship with a woman who may or may not be God. What do these characters have in common? Exactly the sort of weirdness CanLit needs.
June 26, 2013
This is such a great read. I love the characters Kaufmann creates. They are so average and out of the ordinary at the same time, it is just amazing.
November 23, 2012
Lewis - "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
God - "Because it makes a good story."
Andrew Kaufman has succeeded in creating a literary classic with this one. Magic realism at its very best, The Waterproof Bible is a quirky, whimsical story dealing with the oddest mix of characters you will ever read about, who all intersect each others' lives in one way or another over the course of a few days.
You have Rebecca, an extraordinarily ordinary woman who involuntarily broadcasts her emotions onto others. When she's happy, everyone can feel her happiness, when she's sad, everyone can feel her sadness, and when she's scared, everyone can feel her fear - however, she's found a way to trap and store her emotions in personal objects and storing them at Unit 207, E.Z. Self-Storage, which left her capable of lying to people about her real feelings and hiding them from everyone, including those who actually cared. An incident with a tap left on flooded some of her boxes (premonition of the larger flood that will occur later in the book?), forcing her to throw them out and with them her emotional attachment to the people concerned with these objects.
There's Lewis, Rebecca's brother-in-law, who has just lost his wife and decided to flee the city rather than cope with the situation, but ended up meeting a woman who claims to be God.
Then there's Aby, a frog humanoid who left the water in search of her estranged mother on dry land. One important fact about Aby is that she's an Aquatic - Aquatics are those who believe and follow the Aquaticism religion - (don't worry, Kaufman goes into great depth explaining the basics of the religion to us). There's also Margaret, Aby's mother and she owns (sort of) a hotel and does not want to go back to Aquaticism.
Finally, there's Stewart, Rebecca's husband, who left her three years prior and is now building a boat while he waits for his wife to make the final call.
Each one of these characters have one thing in common - they are all waiting for that one moment when lightning strikes, so their feeling of loss diminishes. Rebecca loses her emotions when her sister dies, Lewis loses his senses when his wife dies, Stewart loses his wife as their relationship dies, Margaret loses her family and home as her religion dies, and Aby loses her mother as her beliefs die. In one intersecting moment, they all meet and miracles happen.
This book, or shall I say 'bible', is full of visuals, metaphors, allegory and all other forms of imagery. It is satiric, yet biblical - at the same time it is a love story that is cliché-free. From floods, to moments of enlightenment, to a meeting with God, to blindness, to thunderstorms and saving lives, this book will take you on an exciting journey of self-discovery and awakening. You will be left bewildered by the end of it, with so much happening but very little explanation to any of it. Yet, that's the beauty of this novel, the unexplainable is what makes it so fascinating.
Call it a case study on the search for the true meaning of life, a serious discussion of God, faith, and religion, a light comic romp, or a love story. Whatever it is, it will get to you. It will make you question life, connect with these characters at some level and take a deeper look within yourself. But it will also make you sit with a smile on your face while you read it, chuckling at all the funny bits as you appreciate Kaufman's originality and wit.
My favourite line in the book was: "The only difference between a happy ending and a sad ending is where you decide the story ends."
So Kaufman writes, and so we should all believe.
God - "Because it makes a good story."
Andrew Kaufman has succeeded in creating a literary classic with this one. Magic realism at its very best, The Waterproof Bible is a quirky, whimsical story dealing with the oddest mix of characters you will ever read about, who all intersect each others' lives in one way or another over the course of a few days.
You have Rebecca, an extraordinarily ordinary woman who involuntarily broadcasts her emotions onto others. When she's happy, everyone can feel her happiness, when she's sad, everyone can feel her sadness, and when she's scared, everyone can feel her fear - however, she's found a way to trap and store her emotions in personal objects and storing them at Unit 207, E.Z. Self-Storage, which left her capable of lying to people about her real feelings and hiding them from everyone, including those who actually cared. An incident with a tap left on flooded some of her boxes (premonition of the larger flood that will occur later in the book?), forcing her to throw them out and with them her emotional attachment to the people concerned with these objects.
There's Lewis, Rebecca's brother-in-law, who has just lost his wife and decided to flee the city rather than cope with the situation, but ended up meeting a woman who claims to be God.
Then there's Aby, a frog humanoid who left the water in search of her estranged mother on dry land. One important fact about Aby is that she's an Aquatic - Aquatics are those who believe and follow the Aquaticism religion - (don't worry, Kaufman goes into great depth explaining the basics of the religion to us). There's also Margaret, Aby's mother and she owns (sort of) a hotel and does not want to go back to Aquaticism.
Finally, there's Stewart, Rebecca's husband, who left her three years prior and is now building a boat while he waits for his wife to make the final call.
Each one of these characters have one thing in common - they are all waiting for that one moment when lightning strikes, so their feeling of loss diminishes. Rebecca loses her emotions when her sister dies, Lewis loses his senses when his wife dies, Stewart loses his wife as their relationship dies, Margaret loses her family and home as her religion dies, and Aby loses her mother as her beliefs die. In one intersecting moment, they all meet and miracles happen.
This book, or shall I say 'bible', is full of visuals, metaphors, allegory and all other forms of imagery. It is satiric, yet biblical - at the same time it is a love story that is cliché-free. From floods, to moments of enlightenment, to a meeting with God, to blindness, to thunderstorms and saving lives, this book will take you on an exciting journey of self-discovery and awakening. You will be left bewildered by the end of it, with so much happening but very little explanation to any of it. Yet, that's the beauty of this novel, the unexplainable is what makes it so fascinating.
Call it a case study on the search for the true meaning of life, a serious discussion of God, faith, and religion, a light comic romp, or a love story. Whatever it is, it will get to you. It will make you question life, connect with these characters at some level and take a deeper look within yourself. But it will also make you sit with a smile on your face while you read it, chuckling at all the funny bits as you appreciate Kaufman's originality and wit.
My favourite line in the book was: "The only difference between a happy ending and a sad ending is where you decide the story ends."
So Kaufman writes, and so we should all believe.
November 20, 2012
I want to give this 3.5 stars, but ŷ doesn't allow the half star rating. I loved Kaufman's "All My Friends are Super Heroes", so much that I went looking for this one. And I wasn't disappointed. Completely out of genre for me, this was an unusual kind of love story with hidden gems of life wisdom. I love how easily Kaufman allows you to believe the unbelievable. Why couldn't a giant frog woman drive a white Honda Civic in downtown Toronto? Witty, whimsical, poignant are all words that came to mind while reading. The only flaw for me was that the story jumped around from character to character, which caused the plot to feel a little disjointed, despite the fact that all the main characters shared significant connections. I suspect a second reading might clear up some minor confusions, but overall a very enjoyable book.
April 30, 2015
I think the author's quirky style and non-characters work better in a short story than a novel. I eventually got tired of them.
The non-characters in this book include Lisa's sister and her ex-husband, Lisa's widower, some aquatics and some rainmakers. Odd and sometimes amusing things happen, usually involving water.
This should not be recommended to fans of Murakami.
The non-characters in this book include Lisa's sister and her ex-husband, Lisa's widower, some aquatics and some rainmakers. Odd and sometimes amusing things happen, usually involving water.
This should not be recommended to fans of Murakami.
March 10, 2018
Es ist ein gutes Buch und ich würde es an jeden weiterempfehlen, der ein bisschen leichte Lektüre gerne mit Momenten von Tiefgang kombiniert sieht. Es hat Spaß gemacht, dieses Buch zu lesen und es gab durchaus Momente, in denen ich mir ein Schmunzeln oder ein kurzes Auflachen nicht verkneifen konnte (was bei den anderen Fluggästen durchaus für verwirrte Blicke gesorgt hat), dennoch hat das Buch auch seine Schwächen. Zum Beispiel nehmen die Charaktere sehr viel übernatürliches Geschehen einfach so hin, wodurch von dem Leser erwartet wird, das er das gleiche tut, und damit konnte ich mich während des ganzen Verlaufs nicht so recht anfreunden. Es gibt außerdem sehr viele religiöse Anspielungen, die sich tatsächlich nicht überlesen lassen, weil sie einem ziemlich direkt ins Gesicht schlagen. Wem dies nicht gefällt, solte daher die Finger von diesem Buch lassen. Die vier verschiedenen Sichtweisen muss ich grundsätzlich als positiv bewerten (ich mag es, wenn man die Möglichkeit bekommt, in verschiedene Charaktere einzutauchen), konnte mich aber nur in zwei davon so richtig hineinversetzen. Eine Sichtweise wurde so kurz gehalten, dass es eher immer eine Überraschung war, wenn plötzlich ein Kapitel aus dieser Sicht beschrieben wurde, mit dem anderen Charakter konnte ich mich einfach nicht identifizieren, sodass seine Sichtweise mich oft aus meinem Lesefluss geworfen hat.
Insgesamt kann ich daher nur drei Sterne geben, was immerhin heißt, dass ich das Buch trotz allem mochte. Es hat seine Schwächen, ist es aber dennoch wert, gelesen zu werden (wenn auch nur, um sich Flugzeit um die Ohren zu schlagen).
Insgesamt kann ich daher nur drei Sterne geben, was immerhin heißt, dass ich das Buch trotz allem mochte. Es hat seine Schwächen, ist es aber dennoch wert, gelesen zu werden (wenn auch nur, um sich Flugzeit um die Ohren zu schlagen).
October 6, 2021
סיפור מוזר וכה קסום.
אשה שמאז לידתה כל מי שסובב אותה חש את רגשותיה, ומתוך ניסיון לשלוט בכך, היא אוגרת חפצים, עד שהיא נאלצת לשכור יחידת אחסון.
אשה ירוקת עור מתרבות ימית, הולכת להציל את אמה.
מוסיקאי מפורסם שאשתו נפטרה פוגש אשה שהיא (אולי) אלוהים.
הייתי מרותקת לספר הזה, שמציג מציאות חלופית, שיש בה הרבה סימבוליות, והיא אנושית ונוגעת.
אני חושבת שלא כל אחד יאהב את הספר הזה, אבל לי הוא התאים, ואפילו מאוד. לא הכרתי את הסופר, אנדרו קאופמן, לא שמעתי עליו מעולם, וכמובן שלא קראתי את ספריו. הספר הזכיר לי בסוריאליזם שלו את הספרים של הרוקי מורקמי, שאני מאוד אוהבת. אחפש עוד ספרים שלו.
אשה שמאז לידתה כל מי שסובב אותה חש את רגשותיה, ומתוך ניסיון לשלוט בכך, היא אוגרת חפצים, עד שהיא נאלצת לשכור יחידת אחסון.
אשה ירוקת עור מתרבות ימית, הולכת להציל את אמה.
מוסיקאי מפורסם שאשתו נפטרה פוגש אשה שהיא (אולי) אלוהים.
הייתי מרותקת לספר הזה, שמציג מציאות חלופית, שיש בה הרבה סימבוליות, והיא אנושית ונוגעת.
אני חושבת שלא כל אחד יאהב את הספר הזה, אבל לי הוא התאים, ואפילו מאוד. לא הכרתי את הסופר, אנדרו קאופמן, לא שמעתי עליו מעולם, וכמובן שלא קראתי את ספריו. הספר הזכיר לי בסוריאליזם שלו את הספרים של הרוקי מורקמי, שאני מאוד אוהבת. אחפש עוד ספרים שלו.
August 10, 2019
I would have given this 3.5 stars had that been an option. A very nice, fanciful book about empathy and finding yourself. Kaufman's underwater world that he's created is also really fun and interesting to imagine.
October 1, 2023
Reading a novel by Andrew Kaufman is the literary equivilent of watching a Wes Anderson movie. They are always quirky and heart-warming and this was no exception.
July 11, 2021
Kaufman truly has a talent for creating beautiful metaphors and characters you can feel. I adore his work.
April 16, 2022
Delightfully whimsical and just so creative. It's Morningside Heights by way of Evan Almighty with a twist of Bas-Lag. Of course just about everyone has super powers, yet struggles with mostly mundane human challenges. All while the third person narrator never so much as blinks at any of this. Written in the key of we. Read it, you'll see.
August 24, 2014
Back in the good ol� days there was real and unreal and that was it; it was one thing or t’other. Then all these other realisms started appearing: surrealism, magic realism,hyperrealism, neorealism, pseudorealism. Suddenly it all got very confusing. Confusion, of course, is a state of mind. And if you were looking for a state of mind in which to approach The Waterproof Bible I would aim for this one: Things only get confusing if you let them get confusing. Accept what’s presented on the page as reality even though a) that reality doesn’t match the one you’re comfortable with and b) it stretches the laws of physics (and possibly credulity) beyond breaking point. Just suspend disbelief, sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s not hard. Fans of science fiction do it all the time. We accept concepts like transwarp beaming—which even its inventor describes (will describe) as “like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse”—without batting an eye so the notion that another race of sentient humanlike creatures exists under the earth’s oceans and have gone undetected for millennia isn’t such a stretch and the fact that a woman could be born with the ability to project her emotions is nothing. Oddly enough the one thing I found impossible to accept in this book is that the homes of these underwater denizens have stairs. I don’t care what universe this book is set in there is no way anyone needs stairs under the sea. That aside I got on just fine.
The only difference between a happy ending and a sad ending is where you choose to end the story. I doubt Kaufman thought of that first—God alone knows who did—but he must’ve had that in mind as he brought this one to an end. Assuming, of course, that any story ends when an author stops typing. For me this one hasn’t ended yet. To be honest I can’t get it out of my head and even when I’ve moved on to the next book I can see myself harking back to this one again and again.
Read my full review .
May 22, 2012
The edition I read had a different cover, it had a frog on the front and was published by Telegraph books. Loved the cover but shame on the publisher/editor for the spelling mistakes, you did not do the author justice by allowing such proofreading sloppiness.
Never mind, I did enjoy this beautiful and unusual book. I think it could have gone a little deeper with the characters and been expanded in many ways. Towards the end it did feel rushed as the chapters became very short. Well done Andrew Kaufman for such originality and making the extraordinary believable. I half expect to see green people with gills lolloping about on sticks now!
If you like Kaufman, check out Murakami, you are sure to love his work as it touches on similar themes.
Never mind, I did enjoy this beautiful and unusual book. I think it could have gone a little deeper with the characters and been expanded in many ways. Towards the end it did feel rushed as the chapters became very short. Well done Andrew Kaufman for such originality and making the extraordinary believable. I half expect to see green people with gills lolloping about on sticks now!
If you like Kaufman, check out Murakami, you are sure to love his work as it touches on similar themes.
March 18, 2012
I have to admit, I initially, whole-heartedly judged this book by it's cover; you would too because the edition I have is GORGEOUS. Coral fabric hardcover, with the title in gold and the partial dust jacket depicting waves in blues and greens and yellows. Unfortunately the guts of the book were less memorable than its skin. I wished that the ending was more drawn out; as it is it feels rushed. I enjoyed the story for its weirdness and imagination but it didn't leave much of an impression overall.
March 17, 2016
Being that this is considerably longer than the other two Kaufman books I have (and love) I was kind of apprehensive about this, which is why it sat in my "to read" folder for such a long time. Turns out it was needless worrying though, because whilst it's no All My Friends Are Superheroes, it's still a flippin delight that made me cry more than once. If I wasn't so wary of turning invisible or giant frogs driving Honda's, I think I'd want Andrew Kaufman to write my life.
August 13, 2015
This book is so very, very lovely. I picked it up because of the cover, which is weird and wacky, and the title which is well, exactly the same. I haven't read a print book in a while (#queenofthekindle) and it was really refreshing to leaf through pages, especially when those pages were filled with a story that manages to be both whimsical and deep, full of fantasy AND full of realism. I'd be keen to read more of Kaufman's work, definitely!
March 8, 2012
Not as good as all my friends are superheroes or the tiny wife, but still really good. I loved the beliefs of the aquatics. Especially looking at something really tall to remind yourself how small you are, and that in turn your problems are also small. Didn't like the more religious aspect of it, but that's my fault for trying to ignore the word "bible" in the title!!
January 7, 2013
I have to be honest I don't actually know what this was about...but I enjoyed it a lot......full of quirky characters in fairly normal circumstances...
I liked the idea of people being gable to feel your emotions and storing them all.
the whole aquatic thing to me was a side story to the interplay between most of the characters,who amusingly rarely met.
I liked the idea of people being gable to feel your emotions and storing them all.
the whole aquatic thing to me was a side story to the interplay between most of the characters,who amusingly rarely met.
February 16, 2011
I liked this! Quirky and a little weird but I was drawn in to each of the storylines. I started out most interested in Rebecca, the character who projects her emotions, but in the end I loved Aby, the Aquatic who was so driven to rescue her mother.
September 2, 2014
I don't... I just... Ummm...
What just happened here?
And more importantly, why?
What just happened here?
And more importantly, why?
May 9, 2013
Andrew Kaufman writes wonderful characters, and nothing makes sense until it all does
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