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Junko W. (Pahoa, HI)
Prelim to a sequel?
Margot opens when the title character is a young child growing up with a privileged lifestyle in 1950's New York. The story follows her growth into adulthood. Her relationship with her harsh and shaming mother is one of the central themes of the book. I hoped that Margo would come into her own as she reaches adulthood. We are left hanging with an ending that calls for a sequel. I am not invested enough in the character to want to read it if there really is a sequel.
Joanne W. (Ossining, NY)
Oh Margot!
Margot is tall and smart and awkward and her Mom is not happy about that. In the rarefied world of wealthy Long Island and NYC Margot does not fit in.
It was so interesting watching her learn to love herself and make her way in the world through the turbulent 1960s. Allowing herself to feel smart and desirable, to make some true friends and to make some big mistakes along the way. We are introduced to her childhood friends and college comrades. We see her find her place in the science department where she feels most at home. And we are left with her taking a big leap with lots of unknowns and we are left wanting
…more more.
I thoroughly enjoyed Margot. I recommend it to any woman who has ever felt not enough, who has struggled to find her way with all that life has thrown her way! (less)Margot started off great. I loved the descriptions of the families and their conspicuous wealth and East Coast elite class status. I found it interesting that Margot's mother lost all of her status and wealth
At this point the book was a solid 4 stars. Margot's years at Radcliffe were fascinating and very relatable. I was in college in New England 15 years later but not much had changed so I found myself nodding at a lot of the experiences Margo had. The scientific parts of the book were a bit dense but still mildly interesting.
I get to the last few pages of the book and started to feel like Margo was going to
…more make her way positively in the world - make some proper choices and become a great trail blazer.
And then it ends - not as I expected and not tragically but with so many questions I thought I was missing chapters. Is there going to be a part 2? Hence the reason for my Average rating.
I am sure other readers will disagree with me but that is the beauty of the forum right?
Thanks to Book Browse - I did enjoy reading Margo and it did provide me with a visceral response to the ending so always fun. (less)It's been 24 hours since I finished Margot and I'm still not sure what I think about the book. The beginning was difficult to read as her mother was increasingly harsh and cruel. Her experiences in a prep school seemed "normal" as did her mother's desire to see Margot find a husband and settle down. I liked that despite a financial setback, she didn't give up on going to college. I could relate to the time period. But I was constantly distracted by the author's writing style of incomplete sentences and words strung together. The editor in me kept looking for verbs. And it didn't add anything to the story line.
…more It was an okay read but doubt that I would recommend to anyone. (less)When Margot Thornsen "slips the leash" and goes off to college, she is on a mission to make up for the independence she has been denied all her life by her constantly critical, overbearing, meddlesome, alcoholic mother who has no goal for her daughter other than that she marry well and soon. But without a solid foundation and with extremely low self esteem, Margot makes bad even disastrous decisions and choices at every turn. Although Margot attends Radcliffe during the free-wheeling 1960s, the many descriptions of drug use and casual sex are excessive in my opinion and detract from the story. The long
…more description of Margot's early life among her dysfunctional family makes the first third of the book a slow go. Character development is adequate but I hoped Margot would eventually learn from her many missteps and her new environment, giving reason to be optimistic about her future. I found the ending disappointing, although as a previous reviewer has suggested, perhaps the author is considering a sequel. (less)I cannot really find anything concrete to explain my "meh" reaction to this book, but I had to struggle to finish it. Plot and characters were adequately accomplished, so perhaps it was the period setting , but it just didn't provoke a positive response. The more so in light of how gripping Lydia Millet's Dinosaurs was for me.
Kathy (southern ME)
Disappointing
Margot is a strange, and often bleak, work of fiction. The synopsis of this book does not feel like a good reflection of it. I expected to read a story of a woman coming into her own during the women's lib/feminist atmosphere of the 60s. Steavenson lingers in Margot's childhood longer than I anticipated, and once Margot is coming of age and pursuing higher education, it often feels like she is ineffectual and not self-aware. Instead, Margot is often going in whatever direction the wind takes her. Even as her world becomes more open to gender equality, Margot is often the victim of circumstances and of the men in
…more her life (as well as her own mother).
Steavenson is an unusual writer and I was ambivalent about her writing style. I would not characterize her writing as lyrical, yet she often uses poetry constructs like rhyming and alliteration in her descriptions. Sometimes these were effective devices, and other times they were simply distracting. Steavenson does capture the era well, but I never felt connected to Margot or sensed her as a real person, and the ending of the book left me feeling that she had not really grown/changed or succeeded in any meaningful way. Without revealing spoilers, I found the end disappointing and frustratingly irresolute. This is the only work I've read by Steavenson but I'm not sure that I would pick up another. (less)If you enjoy books about girls attempting to overcome horrible childhoods and basically failing at every attempt, then this is the book for you. Characters come and go inadvertently and there is an unnecessary abundance of "icky" sex and extremely unlikable characters. Throw in drug trips, possible rape, and a totally confusing, open-ended conclusion, and there you have Margot. Granted she does achieve some success at Radcliffe in biochemistry but this reader found the overly long scientific descriptions confusing and out of balance with the rest of the book. I suggest that if Steavenson writes a sequel, she
…more hire a new editor. The writing fluctuates from choppy, verbless sentences to flowery, melodramatic sentences that seem neverending. (less)
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