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Ducks, Newburyport (2019)

by Lucy Ellmann

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
7882926,981 (4.06)7 / 119
"Peeling apples for tartes tatin, an Ohio mother wonders how to exist in a world of distraction and fake facts, besieged by a tweet-happy president and trigger-happy neighbors, all of them oblivious to what Dupont has dumped into the rivers and what's happening at the factory farm down the interstate--not to mention what was done to the land's first inhabitants. A torrent of consciousness, narrated in a single sentence by a woman whose wandering thoughts are as comfortably familiar as they are heartrendingly honest, Ducks, Newburyport is a fearless indictment of our contemporary moment."--… (more)
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» See also 119 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 29 (next | show all)
Oh my god, really? I'm 100 pages in and I want to shoot myself in head to put me out of my misery. What the hell am I reading? Shortlisted? Yikes. ( )
  Karenbenedetto | Jun 14, 2023 |
That was so.long. I think I overall enjoyed this, it's a stream of consciousness book with basically no plot. A middle aged mother in Ohio in about 2017. There are no paragraphs or sentences, every new thought just begins "the fact that..." There are endless lists and word associations, and truly just an encyclopedic narration of this woman's mind. There are many cultural touchstones that she keeps coming back to, Laura Ingles-Wilder's books being one of them which I'm more familiar with. A lot of commentary on Trump, and violence in America.
This is more boiled-down than a real person's actual stream of thought. Unless I'm the odd one out, a huge chunk of my waking thoughts is just a running list of what I have to do, what I have to remember, what everyone needs around me. I'm glad that was left out though, I don't need to hear how many loads of laundry someone else is doing in addition to my own.
There's a running mini-story of a mountain lion that pops up every now and then, separate from the run-on string of thoughts. The lion stalks prey, protects her cubs, is hunted and captured, injured, and ends up in captivity with her cubs. I don't really know what was meant by that, but to me it shows how a mother would prefer to be focused on raising her children until the violence of the outside world invades. That seems to run parallel to the thoughts of our narrator throughout.
If you're into experimental literature, you might check this out. ( )
  KallieGrace | Jun 8, 2023 |
Well this book took me forever to finish, but ended up becoming a favorite. There wasn't much a plot since it's one long stream of conciseness in a postmodern style. It's not an easy book and some people might get scared if they look at how it's written. For me, it was a good example what it's like inside the mind of someone with anxiety. The book covers a lot of topics. It wasn't publish that long ago, so it's still relevant. This was a fun ride! ( )
  Ghost_Boy | Aug 25, 2022 |
DAMN. Yes. Wow. Behold: the least articulate review I may ever have offered, for one of the best books I've read this year. ( )
  KatrinkaV | Jul 11, 2022 |
the fact that I almost didn’t want this book to end, the fact that I needed to get back to my real life, the fact that it was convincing, engrossing, suspenseful, amusing, devastating, the fact that lone mountain lions have been spotted twice in Des Moines in recent years, the fact that I don’t think they were lionesses... ( )
  Bruyere_C | Dec 2, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 29 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ellmann, Lucyprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Norvell, ZoeCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
No country perhaps in the world is better watered with limpid streams and navigable rivers than the United States of America, and no people better deserve those advantages, or are calculated to make a proper use of them than her industrious and adventurous citizens.

Zadok Cramer
I represent a field you are passing between Grover's Corners, Ohio, and Parkersburg, Ohio. In this field there are 51 gophers, 206 field mice, 6 snakes and millions of bugs, insects, ants, and spiders. All in their winter sleep.

Thornton Wilder
Dedication
For Bathsheba and Pepito
First words
When you are all sinew, struggle and solitude, your young — being soft, plump, vulnerable — may remind you of prey.
Quotations
if aliens come
they will never stop laughing
at our sci-fi movies
they will never let it drop
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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"Peeling apples for tartes tatin, an Ohio mother wonders how to exist in a world of distraction and fake facts, besieged by a tweet-happy president and trigger-happy neighbors, all of them oblivious to what Dupont has dumped into the rivers and what's happening at the factory farm down the interstate--not to mention what was done to the land's first inhabitants. A torrent of consciousness, narrated in a single sentence by a woman whose wandering thoughts are as comfortably familiar as they are heartrendingly honest, Ducks, Newburyport is a fearless indictment of our contemporary moment."--

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