Overall,I really enjoyed this book - it was crisply written, compelling, and had a great undertone of "going sane in a crazy world." It comes as no surprise that when talking about the book, I have to give shouts out both to Ignatius Reilly of Confederacy of Dunces and Oscar de Leon of Oscar Wao infamy. LaValle's Anthony James is kind of a hybrid of the two, yet brings together the best of both worlds.I guess my only big critique of the book as a whole is that, for my taste, it lacked over-archi...

The Ecstatic is narrated by Anthony James, a 315-pound Afro-American who may be a touch schizophrenic, like his mother. The book begins strong with the family bringing Anthony back to the family home, after finding him in his apartment naked and officially dropped out of Cornell. It takes on the form of part road trip/part community/family story, but the plot is actually the weakest part of the book. One example is the Lorraine strand of the story that recedes, then disappears altogether without...

I read Victor LaValle’s The Changeling and Big Machine before coming to this, his first novel. I loved The Changeling, his lasted novel. In the 15 years between this, his first novel, and his latest, he has clearly become a very fine novelist. What I loved about The Changeling, however, was in too short supply in his first attempt. Like clarity, for instance. I never understood what the point of this story was often lost as to the purpose of scenes and what they were building towards. Like pacin...

I wanted to like this so much more than I did.

The author manages to find humor in the wreckage of his characters' lives without ever condescending. This is a fine work where every scene matters. Truly funny and truly sad in equal measures. Also, I'd most certainly buy the lead character's encyclopedia.

Strange, sad, hilarious, and more than a little surreal. I will definitely be checking more out from Mr. LaValle, and soon.

It's been almost a year since I finished this book and I still don't quite know how I feel about it. The author says that the title comes from an old term for mentally ill people, and that this book is meant to highlight the experiences of those people who still to this day fall through, or are pushed, the cracks in society. It's entirely accurate to say that this book centers those experiences and portrays them in a nuanced, complex, and perhaps most unusually accurate way. It's difficult to fi...

As I was first reading this book I thought it was an Ignatius J. Reilly clone story. Far from it! This is actually an outstanding piece of original literature, told from the point of view of the main character, Anthony James, who has just flunked out of Cornell University, lives in a hellhole of a basement apartment, wears colored suits (green and purple are but two examples) and weighs 315 pounds at age 19. He comes from a family with a history of mental illness; Anthony himself is probably sch...

I expected to like this better than I did. Lots of things happen, but it didn't feel like anything was pushing them to happen. But since it was an interview with LaValle about his forthcoming book that got me reading this one, I'm not giving up. I hope next time he reads as well in the pages as he does on the jacket flap.

Anthony is the ultimate in unreliable narrators. This books is full of surreal scenes, twisted logic, impossible events and a touch of magic, but how much of Anthony’s account can we believe? Sitting here, the day after finishing this astounding book, I struggle to untangle what actually happens in the story. I think Anthony returns to his childhood home where his sister, mother and grandmother live. I think they are afraid for him, certainly in the opening paragraphs it seems he is not capable

If you're only interested in my review of this book, skip to the next paragraph. To those of you who hung around, consider this me waving at you. *waves* Yes, I've been away. I'm still not back in full force, but I'm eleven reviews in the hole (all the books I read while away from the interwebs) and I figured I'd knock some out before I disappear again during the week before and after Christmas. No worries, I'm not going to spam your feed with reviews today. I'll be spacing these out so that I h...

I’m upset because I really wanted this to be a five star. Lavalle is one of my favorite authors and I adored, “The Devil in Silver.” I figured I was going to love this one too, especially with such heavy themes of mental health analysis. To be fair, I did enjoy both Lavalle’s writing, commentary on social issues as well as mental health, and the characterization of the protagonist’s family members. Unfortunately, these factors were not enough to redeem the book. Unlike both “The Devil in Silver,...

While at the library looking for a new author, a book I've never heard of, I pulled this off the shelf and without reading the book jacket blurbs, I just dived right in. How do narrators with mental problems bordering on insanity manage to have such smart insights into their surroundings? How do they come up with just the right comic line at the right time? For me, this seems to be a major flaw in these kinds of books. Then again, all of us can name what appears to be instances in which "lunatic...

I want to give this a 3.5 because I was lost several times in this book and I felt like it was moving a little slow however, I did enjoy it. I wasn't a big fan of a few scenes and at times, it was hard to figure out whether the scene was actually happening or if Anthony was imaging things (someone who has read this PLEASE tell me if the movie theater part was actual or his imagination). But I think that's the good thing about this book...the lead does have mental issues and so it's written from

An interesting assortment of characters populates Victor LaValle’s The Ecstatic, everyone from the morbidly obese main character, Anthony, to his ninety-something grandmother who is periodically (and literally) strapped to various family members’ backs, to the precocious teenage beauty pageant contestant Nabisase, to Uncle Arms, the proprietor of an alternative pageant not focused on beauty but tribulation.It’s been several days since I finished this book and three things remain with me. And, I

Victor Lavalle's The Ecstatic left me feeling ambivalent. I found the novel to be well written, original, and crafty; but at times I also felt lost and confused. Perhaps the latter is intentional since the story is narrated by Anthony Jones, an obese schizophrenic, who lives with his equally schizophrenic relatives. Anthony is rapidly deteriorating and although he seems relatively in control at the beginning of the novel, it is quite clear that he has lost all of his mental faculties at the end....

This earlier work of LaValle's is not quite like his later, more supernatural novels, but is still pretty unhinged. The narrator is a morbodly obese young man who hails from a small crazed family and may be crazed himself. A parade of bizarre things happen, like a rally of vegans, beauty pageants, and stray-dog attacks, but it flows together seamlessly with LaValle's flawless wiring.

Another fantastic novel by Victor LaValle. This story is funny, brutal, engaging & has a brilliant end.

I really liked this. Completely unique. Strong and completely vivid writing. It reminds me of a terrific independent film none of your friends have heard of. Really well done.

I dont want to diminish how unique and special this book is... but I want to describe it as a Black urban "Little Miss Sunshine" or "Donnie Darko" or a "Series of unfortunate events". Like the perfect indie dark humor irreverant americana film. Really fantastic introduction to an author Ive heard alot and nothing about at the same time. The cover and title of the book is so misleading and so spot on.