What do readers think of A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer duBois? Write your own review.

I think this book is well written. It has two main characters, and it is interesting on how and why they meet. However, the characters themselves did not engage me. I didn't seem to care about their journeys.

Reading this novel proved to be laborious. The theme is strange. Readers seeking in-depth character analysis will enjoy this book. Ms. Dubois painted a bleak picture of present day Russia. Yet, the facts are accurate, reflecting the political climate.
Often authors have difficulty with the conclusion of a story--not so with Ms. Dubois. I liked the ending, only wishing it would have appeared after 200 pages instead of 400 pages!
Ms. DuBois writes every well. It is always nice to read an author possessing a fine command of the English language.

I agree with so many other reviewers! I know the author is a wonderful writer, but I didn't care about these characters, and I found a lot of the book to be tedious because of the chess element. I didn't truly like the characters, or care if they helped each other or not - and I really wanted to and tried. I will certainly look for her next novel, as there were a few parts I was able to get on somewhat of a roll and enjoy her writing.

I wanted to rate this on two levels; her writing is a 5 but the story is a 3. I enjoyed her writing immensely and will look for a future book. It was a little too slow and philosophical for me and the characters were not compelling. The scenes of Russia were as I pictured it and loved the use of current politics with Putin. A little bit too many adverbs and adjectives; a more uplifting topic with her style would make a marvelous read.

I enjoyed the writing style and wanted to like this book more than I did. It was a little too slow moving for me. Usually that would not be an issue, as some books are more of a journey than others and I can appreciate that. I did have trouble getting "into" the portions that centered around Aleksandr. It took me until well halfway into the book to gain enough interest in the book to want to finish and find out what happens with Irina. I can tell that this author has the ability to weave an interesting story and to write intelligently but what I didn't love was was how the style had a touch of being almost forcibly descriptive. Everything seemed to have/require an obvious, uninteresting adjective or adverb ahead of it. It became tiresome and eventually irritated me. I did like the connection between her childhood with her father and the game of chess. I liked how chess was the thread that connected all the facets of the story. At the end of the day, it was an entertaining enough read that I would possibly recommend it to certain friends.

This story is true to it's name and for the two central characters the things they want and strive for are truly lost causes. I was never really sympathetic to either one of them because they seemed so self absorbed that I did not like them. The title is probably a mistake as it removes all question of the ending before you even get into the book.

Overall, this was not one of my favorite books. I almost abandoned it. I found the writing burdensome and the pace slow. Even though the characters were well developed, I really didn’t care what happened to either of them. I didn’t believe that they could help each other find the meaning of their lives.