ARC Review: Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives

Title: Impossible Views of the World
Author: Lucy Ives
Publisher/Publication Date: Penguin Press; August 1, 2017
Genre: Contemporary
Source/Format: First to Read; eARC

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

A witty, urbane, and sometimes shocking debut novel, set in a hallowed New York museum, in which a co-worker's disappearance and a mysterious map change a life forever...

Stella Krakus, a curator at Manhattan's renowned Central Museum of Art, is having the roughest week in approximately ever. Her soon-to-be ex-husband (the perfectly awful Whit Ghiscolmbe) is stalking her, a workplace romance with "a fascinating, hyper-rational narcissist" is in freefall, and a beloved colleague, Paul, has gone missing. Strange things are afoot: CeMArt's current exhibit is sponsored by a Belgian multinational that wants to take over the world's water supply, she unwittingly stars in a viral video that's making the rounds, and her mother--the imperious, impossibly glamorous Caro--wants to have lunch. It's almost more than she can overanalyze. But the appearance of a mysterious map, depicting a 19th-century utopian settlement, sends Stella--a dogged expert in American graphics and fluidomanie (don't ask)--on an all-consuming research mission. As she teases out the links between a haunting poem, several unusual novels, a counterfeiting scheme, and one of the museum's colorful early benefactors, she discovers the unbearable secret that Paul's been keeping, and charts a course out of the chaos of her own life. Pulsing with neurotic humor and dagger-sharp prose, Impossible Views of the World is a dazzling debut novel about how to make it through your early thirties with your brain and heart intact.

My Thoughts:

I started this book not once but twice, and it took the second attempt to really get past the first couple of chapters. Normally, when I DNF a book, I leave it at that unless there’s something about the story that’s got my interest, or I want to know what happens at the end. Both of those things can apply as my reason for returning to Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives. So, with the last couple of hours I had with the eARC, I read this book in full. And, I was left feeling a little disappointed because Impossible Views of the World had a lot of potential. 

There were some really great moments in the story, and I actually liked the fact that the main character, Stella, worked at a museum, which is an occupation I rarely come across in fiction. In a lot of ways, Impossible Views of the World kind of felt like a character study with Stella being the primary narrator and subject. So, this book was driven by the happenings in the lives of the characters. There was a literary quality to the story, as well as a little bit of a mystery. But, I feel conflicted about it because there were parts that I enjoyed and others that I didn’t. 

I think my main complaint was that Impossible Views of the World was a very wordy book. I like long books. I don’t mind long stretches of exposition in the name of establishing the characters and the world of the novel. However, Stella’s internal dialogue had a habit of running on for long paragraphs or entire pages. She nit-picked almost every little detail. Some of it was difficult to get through because it was just one idea that was seemingly thought about for a while. This might have been to give a quirk to Stella’s perspective, but it just wasn’t for me.

Impossible Views of the World was just okay. I don’t really know how to rate this one, so I’m just going to leave it alone for now.

Rating n/a

This copy of the book was provided by First to Read (Publisher) for this review.