Interesting, but I don't like the surreal.
352310
I enjoyed the acting and the mystery. But I didn't understand the end, and I dislike movies that don't have a resolution. I don't need a happy ending, but I need to understand what the heck was going on. Maybe I'm just dense, but I didn't get this one. I'd be happy if someone would be kind to explain it to me.
4803317
It was interesting, but strange.  Acted well, but overall I really wouldn't want to watch again.  I don't enjoy depressing movies.
3984359
My feelings about Gregoire Bouillier's quasi-autobiography "Report on Myself" are mixed. I was pleased with the beginning, promising a good story, and I liked his prose, full of memories appearing in a flash. The great French tradition, reminding me of masters such as Colette and Proust, seemed to continue in this little book.

Additionally, the psychological twists and complications  in the narrator's family life reminded me of Woody Allen, perhaps because of the times he describes (he was born in 1960). The stories grow wilder and wilder with each page, and the descriptions of Bouillier's love life and his bizarre adventures with his girlfriends become more and more surreal.

I loved his discovery of Odyssey, and how it makes his life and the book rooted in Western Civilization; I was the more interested because of my own cathartic experience with a book, interestingly also about Greece - it was "The Magus" for me...

Unfortunately, I found the book as a whole a little incoherent, the flashes and jumps between different moments of Bouillier's life chaotic, and I was bored with last 10 pages, although the book is tiny. Maybe the problem lies in its size: I felt like it was a sketch, material for a much more voluminous and developed memoir.
4138711
Well, huh ...  I suggest you watch it about half way.  You'll get a good sense of the strangeness, and the end isn't really worth it.
I grew up in Europe and this so reminds me why I left the continent.  Pseudo intellectual weirdness trying to camouflage as art.
2543707
I thought it was interesting, however, I didn't like the end.
1815826
I chose this book at random from the Suggested for you list on Audible because I wanted something outside of my comfort zone, something that I would not ordinarily pick.  I certainly got what I wanted.  I am just not sure if I am glad about that or not.

Much like the narrator, I spent a good portion of the time at the beginning of the book in a state of disbelief at the whole state of affairs.  After a certain point, also like the narrator, I reached a level of acceptance that allowed me just to go with the flow of the story.  Unfortunately, flow is an overstatement for how the book unfolded.  It was fantastical and weird and different, but at best that made it vaguely interesting, not good.

Eventually I got into the story in that I abandoned myself to the weirdness, and I definitely became more interested in the resolution towards the end.  Ultimately, however, I was disappointed in the book.  The ending may have seemed clever and twisty and different, but it felt like a cop out.  The author had a real opportunity to do something truly profound after the journey he had put his character through, instead he pulled something a fifth grader might try.  It was not even as sophisticated as a deus ex machina, it was more of this is my story, I can do whatever I want, and did I mention I have a super power that hasn't come up before?  It was annoying, unsatisfying and just plain lazy.

I gave it three stars for the originality of the weirdness.  It gave me an appreciation for why I tend to stay in my familiar old wheelhouse.
I had toyed with the idea of listening to it with my kids, thinking it might be something they would like, but I am glad I didn't do that.  There was enough language and sex to make it inappropriate for my pre-teen.
2096429
Not really my cup of tea. I always wonder why authors seem to make their character so open minded yet in real life that would never happen, at least not on those time frames. It makes the reading so unrealistic that is better to put the book down and read something else.
4001864
This documentary certainly has a compelling sort of ambience given that the whole thing is in grainy black and white film and shot in the surrealistic environment of a community of "homeless" people living underground in a train tunnel.  I put quotes around "homeless" because in fact these people had built themselves homes out of scrap material, so they were really homeless people with homes they made themselves.  Also, the music score is totally appropriate and helps too.

However, the bottom line it that it's another "cut above raw footage edited together" type of documentary that attempts to let the subjects tell their own story with no narration and no start or ending point, except for the fact I saw the subjects living in clean apartments at the end, which made me feel happy for them.

And, I saw them happy in their new apartments on fast forward because after an hour of watching the subjects blabber on and on and seeing the rats and garbage I'd just about had enough.  The documentary didn't seem to be going anywhere and I think I got the message.

I'm not surprised this documentary is successful and that many like it.  It is rather unique, and it gives us a view into another world.  But for me, it looked like there was no light at the end of the tunnel, so I hit fast forward to get out.
4958632
While I can't say I hated this book, I can't say I loved it either.  The Salt Letters provided an interesting and easily readable account of a girl's escape from family expectations to pursue the love of her life...and to do so required her to travel all the way across the world in a rickety, overcrowded boat.  Her experiences are harrowing and the narrative voice is true:  you feel Sarah's experiences and sympathize with her.

What I didn't like about the book was that it was written in such a vague way that I couldn't really tell what happened at the end.  The narrative weaves the story through both the present and the past, but the ending isn't clear if she's in a dream world from her sickness or if she's healed and will begin her life anew in the "new world."  It almost feels as if the author wants the reader to be confused, or that she's being cute in writing a double-meaning ending, but it was unsatisfying for this reader.  I didn't like not knowing.

What I did like about the book is how the characters feel real, how you can sympathize with them, how their struggle to survive the miseries of the long boat ride (boredom, discomfort, unsanitary conditions, bad food, lack of privacy, etc.) makes them all feel a little crazy, how the narrative takes on a fantasy tone at times.  The playfulness of the narrative was a stark contrast to the actual events of the story, and was, for the most part, done well.
1634711
Story was rational and the conclusion was logical.  But the book is dark and perhaps unnecessarily explicit in gross details.  I have  conflicting feelings about reading it.
2303654
The acting is first-rate, but the story is murky and has large gaps.  As a fairy-tale it is somewhat palatable, but the shift from abject poverty in "the castle" to shopping on Bond Street, or the equivalent, occurs literally without explanation or an effective transition.  The whole effect is unsettling for a literalist like me - I was waiting for the Fairy Godmother.  Though, I must admit, the setting is beautiful, that does not outweigh other defects.
2691476
This is an odd work. It is almost surrealist itself. It is an interesting experiment and an intriguing way to introduce Miro. There is so little narrative the reader must piece together the action from the dialog.  This is a complete stylistic mismatch for my literalist daughter who likes everything spelled out.  Another type of mind will enjoy it more. But It did not capture me in the end, either.
128109
There were many interesting anecdotes and facts, but it wasn't a work that made me appreciate the complexity of predator-prey relationships. ..more of a recitation of gory scenes. And it was disturbing yo me that he would toss animals, even ones he considered pets, into other animals' lairs just to see what would happen. Seemed cruel and sadistic to me. It wasn't the same as simply gathering insects to feed them. An odd book.
2460685
I liked it, but this is an odd, surreal story.  My only complaint was it was a bit much in places and could have used some editing to improve its flow.
1622535
In the first half of the book the stories are engaging, sometimes witty, often heavy but always thought-provoking. As I was nearing the end, things turned very stark and bizarre. THE LAST BLOCK IN HARLEM seems to have wondered ever so far off course, such that putting the beginning and middle with the ending became a daunting task.  After finishing Herz's book, I walked around pondering it for three days. The more I ruminated, the more I didn't like the novel. Of course, I did not write it and am not in the author's mind. I just felt that bizarre was unnecessary. Others may like it precisely for that reason.
4832644
This is an interesting "What if?" scenario if you're religiously inclined.  What if a young woman becomes a spiritual visionary, spending hours deep in prayer and reading mystical literature?  What if, in her visions, the woman becomes convinced that she is met to be a female priest...of the Catholic Church?  How would the Church react?

There are two components of the  story, one interesting and one not.  Personally, I liked the idea of this modern day woman acting like Joan of Arc, trying to reach out and save the Church instead of the French, and found her spiritual journey very fun to read.  But this weird Dan Brown-esque plot by the Church to eliminate the young woman seemed so tired and predictable.

The ending is completely out of left field and, frankly, really doesn't do much for the story.  I wish it had been omitted.
2937082
I have been sent this book to do an honest review. The author proves to have a deep imagination when it comes to exploring time travel and the supposing of reincarnation. It is about a soul surfacing in four different forms and eras with obviously four different experiences. There are quite a number of reviews and a lot of them go into describing what the book is about, so therefore I won't do much more of that. Quite honestly, I found the book had a hard time holding my interest. Die hard sci-fi fans with a love for a morbid twist and a keen imagination will most likely consume the book with appreciation. But for the rest of us, meh, not so much. First of all, it will take a good reader who can buckle down and hang in there, as the story line is very wave tossed otherwise. It is also just not for the faint hearted with its abundance of gory scenes. But then again, in sure lots of folk will love the deep surreal exploring it has to offer.