The Blue Bowl

by George Minot

Book Overview

A haunting debut novel about a psychically shattered patrician New England family and one of its sons, implicated in the mysterious death of his alcoholic father. The time is the 1990s. Simon Curtis, in his mid-thirties, is a painter ? a yearning, troubled loner still burdened with the unfinished business of childhood. He seeks refuge for the summer in his family's house in Maine, and then, for the fall, in their place in Massachusetts ? despite his...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039457348X
• ISBN13: 9780394573489
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A Simon Fan - Though Maybe I wouldn't Want To Hang Out With Him!

Unlike another reviewer, I think that Simon is fine - perhaps a little bit selfish and solipsistic - but that it's the rest of his family that needs therapy! And I get the impression that in terms of his art,he isn't a slacker but an extremely talented painter. I think that Simon is a great charcter - supposedly based on Minot's brother - Sam, also an artist. It would be interesting to find out how much of Simon is actually based on Sam and how much is from Minot's imagination. One of Minot's sisters - I think that it was Susan said in the Times recently that she felt that the book needed editing. There are some difficult sentences that even when I read them over a number of times - I still couldn't make sense of them. I don't know if she was refering to that or something else. Overall, I think that he is a very talented author. I'm in the midst of currently reading this book and I think that it's definitely worth your time.

A Worthy Debut

Like many of the reviewers cited here I had a hard time with this book in the beginning. The plot (or what there is of it) IS convoluted and the stream-of-conciousness paragraph-long sentences were not only confusing but downright exhausting. Around the time of the murder, though, the plot seems to pick up and I became much more interested in the central character of Simon. I began to see how necessary all that blah blah actually was in defining his lost-soul character. Once the trial started I found I couldn't put the book down. I think this is a fairly masterful depiction of the somewhat hackneyed and cliche wealthy New England family milieu. I would recommend this book despite its flaws. I think this writer will only get better.

Stunning language

I thought this book was filled with stunning language. The plot of the story was engaging and layered in many ways. Though this is not an easy read, it is an infinitely interesting read. I didn't mind too much the stream of consciousness passages--they seemed to help me understand the character of Simon. I also thought the opening of the novel was one of the best I have ever read.

I liked this book!

I really liked this book and was surprised to see the negative reviews posted. The story has some flaws, but the author does a tremendous job in building the tension and letting the reader gain insight into the functioning of the black sheep, semi-homeless, never-could-get-it-together Simon. The family tensions were terrificly depicted and quite believable. Even the movie star sister is believable. I've recommended the book to friends. The one flaw I had trouble with was that no one in the family ever urged Simon to "seek professional help"; it's hard to imagine a contemporary American family that contained an oddball without someone deciding he was "sick" and needed to see a professional. But I sort of suspended my skepticism of this gap by assuming the family had an outlook from a generation ago when people were quite reluctant to declare a family member as having psychological problems; they would be quicker to describe him as selfish and rude, as this family does. I hope to see more from George Minot. Can anyone tell me anything more about him than he "lives in New York" and has 2 famous writer sisters?

object of virtue

THE BLUE BOWL is an exceptional debut novel about the sad intricacies of family and the lonliness family inspires. Perhaps because of George's subtlety, in addition to his family name, it was inevitable that reviewers would compare him with his author sisters Susan and Eliza, but much of the comparison has been exaggerated and unfair, since his story is engrossing on its own merit and is entirely distinctive.