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About A Mountain (2010)

by John D'Agata(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0393068188 (ISBN13: 9780393068184)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: The aspect of this book I found most striking is its adherence to standard formatting despite its elliptical mode of storytelling. I love D'Agata's jumpcuts - he'll be mid-scene getting a tour of Yucca Mountain then go off on Edvard Munch for pages, then a particular suicide victim in Vegas for pages without any formal indication or separation (asterisks, extra spacing, etc). To me, it then read as a single flow, when maybe it needn't be? I hadn't noticed it as much in his other work, but here D'Agata's use of cataloging is ever-present, and these lists act as suspensions of sense-making, or they grow the scope of a particular event. 'And then' 'And then' which is a tactic similar to (bad metaphor) - a mushroom cloud. D'Agata drops a nugget of information then shows how it... more reverberates into all sorts of other avenues, a catalog of effects & possibilities.And finally, he gets a lot of mileage in the final pages by doing simple journalism: describing the exact path of Levi, the suicide victim, from his house to the top of the Stratosphere, every left & right turn, every stairwell mentioned. This list presents itself as objective, and exists in a space that no standard journalism would bother with. Devoting that much time to detail of the night reveals so much about the city, the decay, the false hope, without having to actively ruminate on it.
review 2: Well I would have to start by saying that I enjoyed reading this book, The stories were interesting and kept you wanting to know more. The author John D'Agata did a good job in presenting a ton of information without making it extremely boring. What makes this book unique is how D'Agata creates false connections between the subjects he writes about. His clever use of language creates a portrait for the reader to enjoy. Although the picture is never quite 100% clear as D'Agata leaves room for imagination. This book has a little bit for every reader politics, drama, Research, Suspense, and Mystery. I Think anyone reading this book should also understand that the "facts" D'Agata writes about are very loosely if at all Factual. I was very interested in the story so I went on to do further research, My findings were that D'Agata used the information but skewed it to better fit his needs. That being said "About a mountain" was a definitely a Good Read that I would recommend to everyone. less

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