you think you can't read this -- but you can'tput it down
580492
I watched an hour of "Boston Med" a few months ago.

Well, I didn't really watch the show. I couldn't. Neither could I turn away. I sat, squinting, until I could, through tears, watch a strangely happy ending.

Maybe you have a strong stomach. Maybe you have a thing for medical miracles. Maybe you're just not a wimp like me.

But consider: A man waiting for a subway. He falls. His face lands on the third rail. Poof! The third-degree burns are the least of it - he loses his nose, cheeks, teeth, part of his mouth, muscle, bone and nerves. What's left: a crater in the center of his vaporized face.

And you had a hard time watching "The Elephant Man?"

Now consider: a man in a hospital with a chronic heart condition. He needs a transplant. And gets one. Then --- cruel irony --- he dies. He was an organ donor, so doctors harvest his organs, including his heart.

But there is one more organ to transplant: his face.

Couldn't make this up if you tried, could you?

"The Match: Complete Strangers, a Miracle Face Transplant, Two Lives Transformed" is the minute-by-minute account of Joseph Helfgot's death and James Maki's new life. The author, appropriately, is Helfgot's widow. She wrote it with the help of my friend William Novak, the king of celebrity ghostwriters --- who assures me that, this time, the lead author really did write the bulk of her book.

I started the book expecting to turn away. Three hours later, I set it down, in awe at Susan Whitman Helfgot's courage. And more, her willingness to tell all in the interest of a cause she never expected to champion: organ donation.

The range of this book is astonishing --- she's intercutting three stories. First, the story of her marriage, her husband's sickness, his death. Then the story of James Maki, a guy who'd pretty much wasted his life. And then the story of the surgeons and the medical team that, in a daylong marathon, performed an operation that would have been impossible only a few years ago and seems unbelievable even now.

Because the focus shifts so quickly, the book reads like a thriller. And it is. But more, it's a powerful account of people in crisis, when there's no time to think and all you really have to go on is your character.

So often these days --- especially in public life --- we see people, one after another, revealing the worst aspect of their character. They're stupid and arrogant, heartless and proud of it. Not Susan Whitman Helfgot. She's simply magnificent.
3912887
Trying to find the right words to review this story is epically hard. First, it's awesome. Second, I did NOT see the end coming. Like, not even a little. I was sitting here, reading along, thoroughly enjoying the ride when... BAM! It's like the brick wall of reading. A great brick wall, one that doesn't hurt, but a wall none the less.
Read this; you won't be sorry. And that's coming from someone who usually avoids short stories like the plague.
3022514
I want to say that this book is for EVERYONE.  But I know there are many people who will not read this book, some who will begin it and never finish it, and some who will dislike it, even intensely.

However, if you are a person who appreciates being involved in a reading experience that demands that you lay yourself bare, where the writing is electrifying, where (as my husband described) each page sizzles like popcorn kernels popping in a pan, where you actually have to pause several times on each page to catch your breath, then you will appreciate and be humbled by The Sellout.  The author holds a mirror up to the myths of America and that mirror reflects the oft-unspoken, oft-unacknowledged, oft-denied realities of Americaits history and its present.  Other reviewers have characterized this book as hilarious and funny; the humor, however, is biting, insightful, brilliant, satiric.  More than laughing, I found myself grunting as if Id been gut-punched with a truth from which I could not turn away.  Beatty juxtaposes ideas that you would never think of as belonging together in such a way that the reader is jolted immediately awake by an obviousness that he or she could never have imagined, yet cannot now avoid.  This is a book that addresses race in America, the oppression, prejudices, and inequalities upon which America has been built, and which are sustained today in overt and covert ways, that run, like an underground sewer, throughout all our institutions, and that reside, like viruses latent or manifest, in each of us.  This is an important book.  It is a brilliant tour de force.  Perhaps it required its outrageous, shocking, implausible plot in order to reveal truth.  This is a book that lacerates our protective bubble that does not allow us to ignore the enormity of violation inherent in our society.
2178010
A unique perspective, continually spell-binding.
3754560
Great -- and don't fail to read the afterword.
4409913
Each sentence is so dense with  information that this book cannot be read in a hurry.
1170413
Far more detail than  you are anticipating, then dig into it and every page proves to be fascinating reading.
3119382
Others have done an excellent job in describing this book.  I found it extreme difficult to read because of the stream of conscience presentation.  I finally stopped trying to comprehend it and continued to read to the end.  It was extreme emotionally disturbing to me.  I'm rereading it now and have come to understand a little better the perspective that Aciman was using.  I have been thinking that he had collected a lot from the writings of his student at CUNY.  But I really can't tolerate reading it for more than about 200 Kindle Online Reader locations.  Using this reader had been  another obstacle.  I downloaded the PC reader but it won't let me register it.  Have no idea what's that about.
3766047
My expectation was this was a title/description suited for a quick-pass-the-time-distraction.  I was wrong...it was mesmerizing, but in a very methodical way.  Little details, well-drawn characters, evocative settings all served to pull me into the tale and the twisting thick plot that was strongly compelling.  In a way, the cover art is a disservice -- this is no baby thriller, but a well thought out adult novel.  There is a weight to the writing (and I imagine in the hardcover edition -- very glad I was reading this on a Kindle and not trying to prop this up for night reading!) that is palpable and perhaps made more so by its very Danish worldview.  Rather than recount it, would urge you to read it -- it's that good, and was sorry to bid farewell to the characters.
2537604
I do not know how I can possible love this book as it is in my top 10 difficult to read books.  It is because it NEEDS to be read.  I believe with all my heart that this is happening and needs to be exposed.  Hard to read, yes.  Worth it, also yes.
2012882
good story - but not an easy read - some books you can just pick up and can't put down this one you can
983659
I can't even put into words just how incredible this is. I LITERALLY cannot. This is just so.... I don't quite understand how to breathe or live or function anymore. I don't know if these are tears, or my SOUL POURING FROM MY EYES. Can one even LIVE properly after reading something so beautiful, amazing, and heart-breaking? Honestly, there really aren't any words I can put together to share with you the beauty and impact of this book. No matter how hard I try. I just can't. All I can do is cry and hope that people will take away from this book, not that it was just a good book they were glad to stumble upon, but take away the, I don't quite know how to phrase it, really, the outlook on the the way things are. How things have to be. How things can't be, no matter how hard you wish for them. And, just how things are. To some, it may seem depressing or sappy, but I say that it's just.... well.... the only way to know how amazing this is, is to read it yourself. You will NOT regret it."Okay?"
4739690
I was not going to review this book...  Paraphrasing for the difference in artistic context:
"IN SHORT: Wow. Flat out wow.
Have you ever had one of those reading experiences where your concentration was so fixated on  the story that everything else was shut out? That you called all your  friends afterwards and told them 'YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!' and when they  asked 'Why?,' you had to answer 'I can't tell you.' If not, you are about  to. This is not a question of not giving away the story, this is a story  that is so well written, with details so intricately woven into the entire  piece that some idiot reviewer somewhere will feel compelled to lay out  every detail and wreck the experience for you.  Not me."
On a scale  of 5, a 6.  Whatever your age, you will never regret having read this book.
228993
First off, let me start with how much I enjoyed this book. I cycle through a book a month, and have been shoveling through a recent trend of completely forgettable books until I stumbled across this gem. Aesthetically, this book is intimidating. I dare anyone to out-due Abrams and Dorst. The aged pages, the handwritten notes, the objects within the pages, all of it. It completely immerses you not only in The Ship of Theseus, but in lives of the two readers. Calling it a book is a bit unfair, as this is more of an experience.

Secondly, I have read this book twice now in a little over a month. With that being said, I imagine I'll have to re-read it a few more times to really get everything out of it. It is truly that in depth. The years it must have taken to conceptualize, write, and connect the most minuscule dots is overwhelming.

I read the book like this: Read all the way through Ship of Theseus, then went back and read the notes, and their respective paragraphs. I also removed, and catalogued all of the objects within the book, because they will fall out as you are reading. Make sure to mark which page you got them from!

How I recommend reading it: Read a chapter, go back and re-read it with the notes before you continue on to the next.

Also, the ink color seems to represent at what point Eric, and Jen are writing to each other. Food for thought.
4405972
Ooo la la. You not only get eyeball to eyeball with the text, but you can enjoy the company of the author.  It's excruciating but fun.
2857355
I must say that I had alot of trepidation about reading this book because of its reputation of being difficult. I must admit that it was not at all easy to read, but not because of the long sentences, but because the intensity of attention this book rightfully demanded and my own anxiety to understand as much as possible.  I read it slowly and looked up the paintings and places in the internet to visualize people and places.  I baked madeleins, and imagined its taste when dipped in lime-blossom tea, and I thought about my own connections between tastes, sights, touches, music and memories, all of which were interesting trips, some happy, some sad....as you can see, this book was very interactive for me.  What is most amazing is the author's superhuman ability to notice details of life--people, places, culture, nature, you name it--- and transport them into different layers of senses, perceptions, arts with such beauty and fluidity.  I often laughed out loud when reading the incredibly detailed and brutally accurate and humourous descrpitions of human behaviors that are so ridiculous in nature but commonly accepted in practice.(for example,the M. Legrandin's conversations with the author's father, shamelessly avoidant, hilarious!) The book ends with "The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience.  They were only a thin slice among contiguous impressions which formed our life at that time; the memory of a certain image is but regret for a certain moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years."--left me with the image of Monet's paintings. I can see why this book has influence so many thinkers of modern history---Oppenheimer, for one.  For me, one down, 6 more volumes to go, but I will take time to enjoy them , s..l..o..w..l..y. "
4313605
This is one time you can judge a book by it's cover. You are guaranteed to get lost in this book.  Half way through you have to remind yourself that this not a work of fiction. The detailed accounts are so graphic and raw, but they don't glorify the violence illustrated in this book.  Sample one chapter and you will be another "Reader Under Siege".  I give the author a lot of credit for baring his soul. I gave him 4 stars because I didn't want this book to end, otherwise it's a 5 star read.