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First of all, I should say I went to college with Anthony Caplan I am struggling not to refer to him as Tony, oops and he sent me a copy of his book for review. I probably wouldn't have picked it up for myself. That said, I quite liked it. If Goodreads allowed fractional stars, my rating would have been more of a 3. He has a delicate way with a sentence, at times achieving a quasi-James-Salter-esque style of shimmering reminiscence and narrative subtlety.
Latitudes - A Story of Coming Home
I appreciated how the mai First of all, I should say I went to college with Anthony Caplan I am struggling not to refer to him as Tony, oops and he sent me a copy of his book for review. I appreciated how the main character, Will, initially presents an oblique view of his childhood and young adulthood which gradually becomes more clearly defined. As the character matures, his understanding of his situation deepens.
By the end of the novel I was rather hoping there will be a second volume describing Will's experiences at Yale and into his 20s. I want to know what happens next. The writing style is a little uneven and in need of editing. After a series of well-wrought phrases, I would be abruptly bounced out of the mood by a paragraph-closing clunker of an observation.
There are some copy-editing errors, too, where a character will suddenly and mysteriously change names for a few sentences. However, this is true of most books from lower-tier presses, as are the generic cover and typography I imagine that shouldn't bother most readers, but I am sensitive to book design. Characters other than Will are underdeveloped, especially his siblings by the end of the book his sisters have basically disappeared. The whole drama of the divorce and the parental kidnappings come off as kind of flat in part, due to Will's emotional inadequacy as a viewpoint character, which while true to his persona, doesn't really do the reader any favors.
I enjoyed reading this, in part because I am of course familiar with the era and some of the culture, but also because on the whole it's engaging. But it seems clearly to be a rather autobiographical novel and I'm curious as to why Tony Anthony Caplan chose to write it as fiction rather than memoir. Aren't there enough young-man-grows-up-experiences-some-setbacks-on-the-way-to-maturity-and-the-Ivy-League bildungsromans in the world already?
Dec 09, Eline rated it liked it. I liked it, I really did, but I also found it somewhat strange. I think we can see this book as a kind of Bildungsroman because we see the long road Will travels from a child with little knowledge of the world to a teenager who wishes he never had to learn the world as good as he did. It's a difficult road with many obstacles and Will has to take them all.
He can't ig Wow He can't ignore them and go around them I liked the story because I could connect with Will. I understood him not always, but most of the times I did and had the same feelings as he did. I also appreciated the writing style of author Anthony Caplan. At the start I thought it was incoherent in a way but the more I read of the book, the more I understood this incoherent writing reflected the incoherent life Will knew when he was growing up.
In the beginning of the book I didn't always understand the situations, but that's the idea I believe because Will also didn't understand most of the situations in his life.
He didn't understand why his father hit his mother, why they divorced in an ugly way, why he and his sisters didn't get the love of a normal family, In the beginning we only seem to get some tatters like they are the only thing Will remembers from being an innocent child. Later on we get longer memories and more coherent ones They reflect the growth of Will emotionally. One thing I had difficulties with, is the fact the beginning of the book doesn't seem to have much connections with the rest of it. There are connections, but to me they didn't matter.
Don't know what to think of it The story also doesn't seem to lead somewhere. Ok, in the end we see a different Will and that's the point of a Bildungsroman but still It's a totally uncompleted story and that's just not my thing ; All in all I can say: Jun 26, Jessica rated it it was amazing. Family, religion, belonging, peer relationships, and self-discovery are all themes running throughout the novel.
Will, a relatable and ultimately likable character, is presented to us bot Latitudes: Will, a relatable and ultimately likable character, is presented to us both in his adult form, then through his life as it spans from childhood to entry into adulthood.
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- A Companion to World History (Wiley Blackwell Companions to World History).
This split of the family is a constant undercurrent in the book that could be explored in more depth, as we do not really get to understand how Will relates to his siblings, how he feels about his parents' actions toward him and his siblings, or how this shapes Will's decision-making process throughout his development. Despite some missing depth in the family descriptions, Will's adventures and motivations are made clear through rich description, a flowing prose that rarely misses a beat. The book is very engaging, drawing the reader into Will's world, keeping the suspense going about what might happen next.
The shifting between worlds and resultant ambiguity about many things are representative of the journey that many of us travel as we navigate the various environs we are exposed to in our quest to become adults. Overall, a highly recommended read; this book will leave readers with more questions than answers, but the questions are important ones, inviting readers to consider and face the continually unanswered questions surrounding the act of becoming.
Jun 29, Teressa Morris rated it really liked it. Latitudes is a very intense story of childhood and family relationships, and how, as we get older, those relationships change. Our family recently went through the trauma of a foreclosure and move, all at the same time my youngest was graduating high school. One thing Art and I kept reminding each other and the children was "we still have each other.
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In the book, Will struggles throughout his ch Latitudes is a very intense story of childhood and family relationships, and how, as we get older, those relationships change. In the book, Will struggles throughout his childhood, bouncing back and forth between Venezuela and the U. His parents divorce and custody fight only serves to complicate this feeling more. The poignancy of childhood set in the time period of the 's, mixed with the unusual circumstances of an international upbringing make this a story not to be missed. Sep 09, Malla rated it really liked it.
This beautifully written work carries a poignant undertone of love lost and how we will always search to find it. The break up of Will's family is dramatic and charged yet Will manages to find ways to cope. Written in biographical tones, it seems that Will becomes stronger the more he suffers, and yet the scars remain, deeply hidden. Coming of age entails an eventual acceptance of the past when Will openly grieves for his mother.
Delicate, subtle, deeply powerful, this is a book about the human This beautifully written work carries a poignant undertone of love lost and how we will always search to find it. Delicate, subtle, deeply powerful, this is a book about the human condition told with unrelenting honesty. Well worth the journey. Aug 08, Grady rated it it was amazing. His technique of relating the story in brief chapters, each with a title of place and time, helps keep the bifurcated life of young Will - a lad who is the son of a father committed to a life in Venezuela and a mother who prefers to maintain her residency in the USA - manageable for the 'The life urge is ever present in the most extraordinary places.
His technique of relating the story in brief chapters, each with a title of place and time, helps keep the bifurcated life of young Will - a lad who is the son of a father committed to a life in Venezuela and a mother who prefers to maintain her residency in the USA - manageable for the reader.
This is a story of a family and home that breaks, results in divorce, argues over the custody of the four children to the point of kidnapping back and forth from South America to North America and the schism that creates in our main character's development. Embroidering the loomed picture of modern day family dysfunction are descriptions of parental physical fighting, alcohol abuse, infidelity and obsession with sexual partnering - all aspects that produce indelible tattoos of pain on the recipient children. Anthony Caplan makes this story work by using language that is smart and poignant.
Nowadays, the mold by which we form our children is a broken one, and the stable home setting is the exception, or at least it increasingly seems so judging by the books in the racks of bookstores. But Will and his family were pioneers of the coming age, the Me Decade as it was termed in the news magazines. To summarize, LATITUDES is a captivating story about issues that make the headlines today but more importantly, it is a book about those issues that go undiscussed today. Children have needs and solid parenting is the resource for those needs.
The decision to bear children is a heady one and one that takes a life commitment from those who create a child. Anthony Caplan has successfully written a taut and engrossing novel, but he has also taken a stand on critical subjects that direly need our attention. Jul 24, Tiffany Cole rated it really liked it. Latitudes is a story about life - specifically, Will's life from youth until adulthood.
Simply put, it's a bildungsroman. Apart from the prologue, which begins in California in , the story is mostly in chronological order. Will is a child, probably no older than five. His sister Marina is the new baby, and his sister Jeanette is yet to be born, let alone conceived. The moment you start reading, it's easy to tell that there won't be a solid plot with steps Latitudes is a story about life - specifically, Will's life from youth until adulthood.
The moment you start reading, it's easy to tell that there won't be a solid plot with steps leading up to a certain conclusion, though the plot does thicken when the intense divorce battles come into play. When I imagine the way this story is told, I think about a large family scrapbook broken up into years and places the family have lived since I imagine someone pointing at a picture in the section titled "Caracas, Venezuela - " and asking what was currently happening with the family when that picture was taken. The explanation for that picture encompasses one chapter.
Then, in the next chapter, the reader points to another picture and another until they've looked through the entire scrapbook.
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What happened in New York State, ? What about Margarita Island, or Long Island, ? Every question is answered until, by the end, we know enough separate but interconnected stories about Will and those around him to feel as though we've known Will our whole life. Though Latitudes is mainly focused on how Will copes with moving around often and dealing with his parent's dysfunctional, abusive marriage, there's also a subtle layer of story underneath about society and history.
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I liked Latitudes writing style, though I initially didn't like a couple of the metaphors and similes. All in all, I find it an enjoyable book, and I recommend it to anyone who loves tales about growing up and coping with divorce. Sep 27, Reader's Paradise rated it liked it Shelves: Growing up, life in general can be hard, but when faced with divorce a family can be devastated. The parents trying to find their emotional sanctuary, fighting, and trying to find reasoning. But what about the children, when your parents are all you know?
Caplan gives us at times a heartbreaking view into the struggles of the main character and opens a window to many problems that come with and from divorce, and how it effects the growth of all those involved. Thank you for an interesting read. This book was provided by the author for the purpose of this review. Jul 01, Marsha rated it liked it. Because it was a novel I knew that I would have to begin the book uninterrupted, at least until the plot was developed. I restarted reading the book on Saturday, for me this is not good.
BUT before you decide not to read it you must understand why. It is almost necessary for the reader to become a therapist as the various problems within the family unfold. All of the above, plus you get your name and an inscribed link in LATITUDES on the acknowledgments page for your own project, organization, favorite charity or other appropriate site.
Mar 24, - Apr 23, 30 days. Share this project Done. A coming of age story about surviving divorce, dislocation, dysfunction and distance. Father remarries the daughter of a local aristocrat, and Will is sent off to the hothouse world of a New England boarding school. Support Select this reward.
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