I am Radar by Reif Larsen is a character study of a black man born to white parents.

This book was very slow and hard for me to read, I have to be upfront about that. The book is written beautifully and Reif Larsen is a terrific writer, but I just couldn't get into this book. It took me months to get through because it's so packed full of narrative. It is packed full of science, relationship drama, history and major character conflicts and soul searching.

I wish I would have loved this book more, because I am amazed at Reif's writing style. I fell in love with these characters, but then the story would switch up and go somewhere else. I just got devoted to Radar and his parents and then the story switched around and took me somewhere I didn't want to go. I wanted to watch Radar's life tumble in front of my eyes, but I didn't get that. Honestly though, Radar and his parents were my favourite part of this story. Watching them grow and react to life was a real gem. I wanted way more of that, because I absolutely loved them.

If you like books that follow the entire story of a person, including their backstory and their family's story - you'll love this book. It truly is a cool character study. Following Radar is the main purpose of this book, but we learn so much more about other characters as well. It's a fictional drama story that is written beautifully. That's where it stands with me. It also includes great illustrations and historic notes making it feel more non-fiction than fiction at times. Oh, and did I mention lots and lots of science and radio waves?

I would definitely suggest this as a book for an English class. I'd love to see someone pick it apart and explain it to me. I was just not invested enough to re-read sections and to go back and understand a lot of the book. It's not a book to just sit down and binge - it's too full of knowledge and information. You have to be willing to go back and understand everything that's happening to really get it. So, it's just not for me at this point in time.

Overall, the over 600 pages were not my cup of tea. I think Reif is a wonderful writer and I hope he finds his readers! He's too talented, I don't want it to go to waste! Pick up this book if you love a good drama full of science and knowledge. I'm honored to have read this book, because it is really cool. I'm just not his ideal reader.

Two out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

Excited to read another book by this author, this book proved to be more academic, almost immediately the reader is confronted with references to W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism, George Miller Beard, Albert Robida; and I found myself researching these references (a task I personally find enjoyable). The story is fairly straightforward, an American boy named Radar is born, grows up, and joins a travelling troupe of performers who ultimately end up in the Congo. It's what happens along the way that is important in the story. I enjoyed it most not for it's plot, nor characters, but indeed from the allusions to real events and real people: John Jacob Astor, Jan Szczepanik, Tuffi the elephant, hermeneutics, Joe Engressia, The Carrington Event, Spukhafte Fernwirkung, the Conference of the Birds, and the "Vladi" fish that appeared on the Jumbotron screen at Times Square in 1990 (was this a real event, I'm not sure?). The author discusses things such as could epilepsy be a quantum event?, and contains mysteries such as the workings inside a puppeteer's black box. Overall, I love the way the story made me think twice, to such an extent that I began to think on the same wavelength as the author, and the book became almost predictable, but in a very pleasant way. My favourite character was the librarian who listed all the works he had read (and memorised) on page 637. Some parts, the book has other languages in it, I guess the author is multilingual. ( )

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During a big black out Radar is born, an ebony skinned baby, to his white parents. His mother's search for an explanation (and possibly a cure) brings them to Norway to a rather peculiar set of artists, physicists and puppeteers.

I don't know where to start. This was definitely different from what I expected, but in a good way. Even though it's quite the story, coming in at over 650 pages, and at times the story is a bit slow, it felt like so much was going on all at once. Radar may be the book's namesake, he didn't feel like the main character.

Interspersed with Radar's story, the book follows the lives of several other people in a number of 20th century conflicts. It is during these flashback, which I think make up at least half of the book, that Radar is completely absent. It also takes quite a while before it becomes clear just how these stories fit together in the main story.

However, I was never bored and in fact it was an easier read than I at first expected. While at times it felt a bit like it was trying too much to be the next special novel, I still enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

I Am Radar by Reif Larsen is a tome of a book. There's no denying this, I don't care who you are. It's a huge bloody book. This is why it took me so long to get through it, I suppose. Partly. Personally, I don't like wading through a character's whole backstory in order to get to the current story, unless ... no, I hate doing that. Period. But, although I found parts of it to be a bit over-descriptive, the writing was superb. The characters were well-written, and the relationships crafted by the author was quite complex. The story-line, also, had a lot going for it, which is why I didn't just DNF the book. I mean, it's a genre in itself, consisting of various genres. That alone made it rather marvelous.

However, I'm sure you're dying to know whether I Am Radar is worth investing so much time in.

Well, I think so, yes.

You see, it's always so much fun to see writers experiment, and actually succeed in their experiments. Apart from that, though, this is not the thickest book I've ever read and the fact that it kept me reading (although it took me months and months) says a lot. Under the Dome by Stephen King (another mother of a book), didn't enthrall me like I Am Radar. I know, I know, it's a bad comparison, but you get where I'm going with this, right? If not, let me spell it out for you: I Am Radar might have its flaws, but it's still a good read, filled with science and anthropological questions, and adventures.

I really wouldn't mind picking up another book by Reif Larsen, and I'm quite proud to have I Am Radar on my bookshelf. Give it a shot if you're up to the challenge!

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A beautiful, slightly imperfect, marvel. Similar in tone to his first book, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, but magnitudes larger in scope, I Am Radar manages to build several intricate worlds and weave them together. The characters, their interests, and the sentences which build them are fascinating and seem joyfully made, a bit like Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. The quality suffers slightly by a rather abrupt end (in so far as a 650 page novel can be said to be "abrupt"). Still, there is more to love in this book than most. Worth it for nearly any character. ( )