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You Remind Me of Me Dan Chaon Books

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You Remind Me of Me Dan Chaon Books

I tried. I really did, but this book left me cold. Tolstoy famously posited that all happy families are alike, unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. This book made me think that unhappy families are pretty much all alike - economically precarious, bad luck with men/women, drug problems and bad decisions. I could not differentiate in any meaningful way between the two main characters - Jonah (face chewed up by dog), Troy (has kid he calls Little Man). The other main character - (spoiler alert) their mother has been written many times before - not one original thing about her. Many of the reviewers have criticized the books structure and I'm there with them. I don't mind a non-chronological structure, but there has to be some evident logic you can hold onto...and I couldn't discover it. Dan Chaon can write a great sentence and a good scene...maybe by now he can write a great novel (this was his first, but in this case, he couldn't sustain the narrative.


Tags : Amazon.com: You Remind Me of Me (9780345441416): Dan Chaon: Books,Dan Chaon,You Remind Me of Me,Ballantine Books,0345441419,Psychological,City and town life;Fiction.,Identity (Psychology);Fiction.,Middle West;Fiction.,City and town life,FICTION Psychological,Fate and fatalism,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction General,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,Identity (Psychology),POPULAR AMERICAN FICTION,United States,Middle West

You Remind Me of Me Dan Chaon Books Reviews

A haunting work of fiction...which firmly abutts reality. No doubt you will recognize these characters in your life. You may even recognize some of the internal dialogue. Troubled characters, asking hard philosophical questions, while they search for their place in the world. The writing is first class in any genre.
Loved the story and how it was told - it really kept me hooked in. I didn’t care for the way the author used unnecessary language in places. I felt that sometimes it was a bit verbose when simplicity could have done an adequate or better job at painting the picture in some places.
Would have liked a bit more one the closure between Jonah and Troy as well, but i cant overstate how masterfully told this story is otherwise.
Beautifully written; beautifully plotted. There is an element of mystery here that is intriguing, but this is a gorgeous literary fiction book. As a writer and writing coach, I know them when I see them.

I could not put the book down.
I really didn't like this book as much as "Ill Will" a newer book by Dan Chaon, so I was somewhat disappointed. The writing is good, but as for the plot and characters, it fell flat flat for me quickly and I just couldn't get into it or sustain interest.
If I had not read Await Your Reply first, I probably would have rated this higher, but it did not quite measure up to that very high standard. Still, it was a very, very good book. Almost twelve hours after I have finished reading it, I am still shook up over the last chapter. I feel I may always be shook up over it. Although it did not induce the mouth-gaping moments that Await Your Reply created and I guessed correctly early on regarding one of the biggest plot points, it did have plenty of twists, turns and gut-wrenching moments.

While this book may not have measured up overall to Await Your Reply, it did in some ways surpass it. I think this book will stick with me longer and make me reflect more on my own life past, present and future. While some of the details of Await Your Reply are starting to fade from my memory after six months, I suspect that this book may last a lifetime.

Maybe that is because it reminds me of me.
This book was extraordinary...a book that revived my faith that the novel is here to stay. The theme -- in Chaon's own words "How can you be alive when every choice you make breaks the world into a thousand filaments, each careless step branches into long tributaries of alternate lives, shuddeing outward and outward like sheer lightning."

That's solid writing by a master in control of the process. The novel is, ultimately, about choices and alternate lives what would happen if you were born to a different mother? If you'd grown up in a different place? If you had some kind of proof that you were unlucky? These are questions that we all wrestle with at some point in our lives; Jonah more than most.

There is ample foreshadowing that "something is wrong with Jonah" his child demeanor, the way he deals with the dog Rosebud as an adult, his own lack of involvement at the time of his mother's death. It is inevitable, then, that his appearance in Troy's life will eventually create what appears to be a crisis.

Each character is carefully drawn, even the minor ones. I could picture each one -- the twitches, the yellowing sheets, the gnarled hands, and most of all, the scar which, of course, is symbolic of the schism that runs through Jonah's life.

I highly recommend this novel!
I just finished this book and I absolutely loved it. At its heart, Jonah's struggle is the result of attachment disorder--he and his mother never properly bonded, and consequently, Jonah is unable to properly bond with anyone else in his life. He wanders aimlessly, trying to find connection, and failing miserably at every turn. His brother, however, was adopted into a loving, though imperfect family, and that has made all the difference. Troy is bonded to his mother, father, wife, son, and house guest. He experiences a full range of human emotion and is a successful human being. Dan Chaon has become one of my all-time favorite authors, right at the top alongside John Updike and Laura Lippman.
I tried. I really did, but this book left me cold. Tolstoy famously posited that all happy families are alike, unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. This book made me think that unhappy families are pretty much all alike - economically precarious, bad luck with men/women, drug problems and bad decisions. I could not differentiate in any meaningful way between the two main characters - Jonah (face chewed up by dog), Troy (has kid he calls Little Man). The other main character - (spoiler alert) their mother has been written many times before - not one original thing about her. Many of the reviewers have criticized the books structure and I'm there with them. I don't mind a non-chronological structure, but there has to be some evident logic you can hold onto...and I couldn't discover it. Dan Chaon can write a great sentence and a good scene...maybe by now he can write a great novel (this was his first, but in this case, he couldn't sustain the narrative.