Did Not Finish. Please see the above note in the opinion section.

Review published on Booklover Book Reviews website: http://bookloverbookreviews.com/2017/07/impossible-views-of-the-world-by-lucy-ives-book-review.html

The blurb was intriguing so that's what drew me into reading this book. And for the most part it was mildly interesting - there was a great attention to detail in the writing style and that made sense for a book set around a museum and those who worked there. But I also felt this went against the story as it just felt 'overdone' - there was little about the characters that felt endearing so the story fell a little flat.

The mystery of the map was the bright light in the story and did keep me fascinated but then even that seemed to get caught up in itself and just become too over elaborate and took away from what could have been an interesting study of some different characters and the solving of a mystery.

The writing style did take some getting used to and did distract at times from the plot.

Based on the description, I really thought I was going to love this. Unfortunately, after reading 50% (my general rule of thumb), I abandoned it. Here's why: (1) I couldn't keep any of the characters straight. None of them were very developed by halfway through, which is a red flag for me. (2) The writing style is... different. It's a little all over the place for me. (3) Nothing much happened plotwise in the first half, so I lost interest every time I sat down to read. I really wanted to like this, but just couldn't.

This novel follows a woman in her late 20's who works in a museum through several tangled threads in her life. Started with very strong writing, but soon rambled and seemed to zig zag. There is a significant amount of attention paid to American art and would be interesting to someone in the industry or informed about the topic. For me, it was a bit tedious.

First, I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Books, and Lucy Ives for a free copy of this book before the publication date in exchange for an honest review.

Stella is a curator with a week from hell. To top it all off, her co-worker, Paul, goes missing. Finding a map makes her question everything about anything she knows. She deals with everything on her plate, while also finding out things about her co-worker Paul.

This book was not for me. I really, really struggled to get through this book. Even though it was a relatively short book, it took me some time to actually finish it. I wanted to like this book. The cover is beautiful and the synopsis definitely intrigued me. However, that's about how far it got for me.

First, the writing style was too much for me. I can tell that Lucy Ives has the writing style of a poet. There were times where I had to reread because things were confusing for me. I never read poetry, therefore, it might be hard for another reader who is like me and never reads that kind of writing style.

Next, I felt like some of the writing was pretentious. It seemed like the character seemed like she was all high and mighty. I'm still trying to figure out if it was the narration, writing style, or the character, Stella, herself.

This book was classified as a mystery, and I agree that there were some parts that had mysterious accents, but not many. There were a few parts around 30% that grabbed my attention, but I felt like that might have been the only time. There were a few descriptions that this book had that wasn't fulfilled.

I really wanted and tried to like this book. Unfortunately, the writing style made it hard for me to follow, along with the narration used. Towards the end, I was just reading to get to the end. Overall, I just couldn't get into it. I wish I had liked it better, but it just wasn't for me.

DNF at 13%. I consider myself a relatively intelligent person, but I had such a hard time with the writing in this book. It was pretentious, overly verbose, and I would have to read and re-read entire sentences and paragraphs several times to figure out just what the heck was being said. I thought I knew a lot of big words and had a pretty wide knowledge of vocabulary - apparently I'm wrong, because I needed a dictionary by my side. I can't comment about the storyline, as I never made it far enough in to figure out what this was about. Not every book is for everybody I guess!

This novel sure is witty, but it didn't feel like a neurotic humor, nor did I find it dazzling, and I certainly did not find Paul's secret "unbearable".

I did like the lost-at-thirty-years-old thing Stella had going on there. Made her more humane, and that was necessary because all her pretentious words made her seem all put together and snob-ish in the beginning. She reveals more about her life and you get to know her better. I still have a curiosity and this thought popped into my head a few times while reading - what exactly was her job at the museum? And speaking of those bombastic words, there were a lot. Sure, I read to learn new words, but it's too much when on the same page there is at least one word that I have to look up. Maybe it's just because English is my second language, but this sure was an impediment. However, the witty part about this novel was this exact speech - she is funny, sometimes deep, you chuckle at some parts, and that works in her favor.

The plot, minimal as it was, is centered around a museum, and that immediately creates the perfect background for mystery and secrets. I had a hard time keeping up with all the bits of information she came upon. I think this is because the novel was in the first person narrative, and every time she figured something out she expected us to have an aa-haaa! moment as well. Well, explain it to us, mere mortals with no PhD in art history. I still have this feeling that I missed something and now it's (obviously) too late to understand it all. And as I mentioned, I didn't find any secret as unbearable and shocking. I've read worse. Or better, depending how you look at it.

I liked the way she over-analyzed everything, I had no problem having patience for that. However, I didn't have any patience for her love life drama, but it was good that she had two major things going on in her life during the week the novel takes place in. A mother with whom she has a not loved based relationship; an emotionally distant father, but still present and helpful; two men she loves or not; a man who's dead and into whose life she decides to look into and then take it upon herself to discover his hidden things and side job; and a fourth man who thank goodness doesn't become her lover in the course of that week - yeah, it was a packed-full week; only in novels.

Surely this novel would appeal more to art lovers, to those with a knack for modern mysteries, and novels set in museums. I wish I liked this novel more, but I knew it wasn't something I enjoyed reading when I chose to watch TV instead, and I hardly every do that.

This book is well-written, although at times I felt the author was trying too hard. Interesting topic.

I found this book to be pretentious. It was not an enjoyable read. I hung in there for the whole thing, but I wish that I had quit much earlier. I kept hoping that something would occur to draw me in, but it just never happened. The language was unnecessarily showy, the characters were obnoxious and immature, and there was little plot to speak of.

I don't know whether it's because I am around the same age as the protagonist, but I identified with Stella as a character from the first chapter. While not all her situations were familiar to me, I could relate to enough that I really felt for and understood her as she tried to puzzle out the drama surrounding her. Alongside the memorable characters and intriguing plot, I also fell in love with Ives' prose. So often these days, writers are told to dumb-down their text, omitting certain punctuation. It was, therefore, a breath of fresh air to read more complex, thoughtful sentences, with diverse grammar and phrasing. That alone was enough to make me fall in love with this book! Impossible Views of the World kept me invested in the characters and the action from start to finish and it was a thrill to pick it up each night and continue with the tale. For lovers of intellectually stimulating and thoughtful literary fiction, this book is a must read!

I apologize, but this book wasn't exactly how I expected. I couldn't bring myself to finish it, so I prefer not to write a public review. I'll give another chance to this author maybe in the future, but right now it's not a book for me.

I found the idea behind this book interesting, but unfortunately I really just didn't care for the prose. It was too verbose for me and it seemed like it was just for the purpose of being verbose. The writing style was just not my style.

Artfully Awkward and Elegant

Some blurb I read noted this novel's "neurotic humor and dagger-sharp prose", and I'm in agreement with that observation. But there's something more to it than that. In one of my favorite lines from Steve Martin's "L.A. Story", his character observes that "..an interview with me would be fascinating by the way, because of the interesting word usements I structure". Exactly that sort of elegant inelegance appears on every page of this book. Ms. Ives structures very interesting word usements. Archaic, literary, obscure, childish, and slang phrases may appear in the same sentence. Some sentences are awkward; some are arresting and elegant. Despair, deadpan humor, sarcasm, impatience, confidence, doubt, and striking honesty all shoulder each other for prominence as we follow Stella's interior life.

The idea, I guess, is that our heroine is under a lot of pressure, and is keeping it all together and is trying to move forward, even while everything around her is either overwhelming, or falling apart, or just confusing. This translates into a manner of thinking and reacting and regretting and coping that is just as fragmented and conflicted. I've read lots of books that try to describe that state of mind or portray it, but I don't think I've ever read a book the structure of which so subtly and effectively gets that idea across.

Examples are always problematic, because out of context they may not make one's point. But let me try here. At one point Stella is trying to have a conversation with her boss, who is sort of babbling. Here's Stella's next move - "I wasn't sure how many more mixed metaphors Bonnie would want to put me through before we could come at last to the possibility of literal speech. I decided to be direct. 'How are you doing?'". To me, this is a smart, funny, and insightful way for the author to show us exasperated, impatient, and prickly Stella.

So, regardless of the plot, or the twists, or how the story develops, the actual writing, (that is, the way Stella thinks and speaks), is the real and fascinating star of the show. And whether she is cracking wise, analyzing her romantic life, stewing about her mother, reassessing her life with her ex-husband, or navigating the insular and oppressive art museum world in which she swims, Stella is always worth listening to.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Impossible Views of the World is a witty novel about art, history, research, and finding yourself amongst those things. When a colleague goes missing, Manhattan curator Stella Krakus ends up discovering a mysterious map of a nineteenth century utopia and, through researching this, some obscure novels and texts and old donors to the museum. The narrative follows her looking into these strange strands whilst balancing the other areas of her life—her soon-to-be ex-husband, a workplace romance not going as planned, and her relationship with her glamorous mother.

The novel is written in a witty and engaging style, with offhand comments mixed with snippets of academic research. Stella’s investigations are interesting and show how odd circumstances and a strange obsession can change how you view life. The story, however, is a little disappointing, though ambiguous might also fittingly describe it. It focuses upon Stella’s life and inner workings, and about being in your thirties, especially in a competitive and privileged art world. It is true that Stella’s world is well-described, with the characters in and around her life vividly painted in many ways, though something about it doesn’t quite all come together.

Ives’ novel will appeal to those who like books about a character’s own self-discovery, with a side of mystery and academic investigation. It is clever and sharp, but also fairly ambiguous, with a number of unanswered plots.

There's a mystery to unfold within the walls of a New York art museum in Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives.

Stella Krakus has had a tough time recently with her not-yet-finalized divorce and a fling with a colleague that is rather one-sided and has been falling apart. The sudden disappearance of one of her colleauges, Paul, further complicates her life as she gets drawn in to the mystery surrounding Paul. Investigating the secret files and work that Paul was researching in the museum before his untimely end consumes Stella's life as she tries to gain an understanding into who Paul was and what could have possibly driven him to the fate he met.

There was lots of beautiful writing and interesting metaphors presented within the text; however, this rather poetic language, while well-crafted, detracted from the story and a reasonably paced progression. While there were aspects to the misanthropic nature of Stella that I could relate to, I found that she and the other characters weren't likable - not that it's a necessary component to a narrative, but without anyone to connect to it only added to a feeling of dissonance for me; the narrative wasn't particularly engaging with the build of the mystery Stella attempts to uncover taking too long and failing to captivate. Paul's fate seemed more like a means to an end to create a plot versus being an actual part of a plot or something more meaningful.

Overall, I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

A fun read filled with romance, art, and gorgeous prose! Fast paced, and well plotted. You'll want to visit an art museum after reading it!

What a book! Really enjoyed! Highly recommend. Perfect book club pick!

Stella Krakus is having a rough week and is in the midst of an existential crisis (personal & professional). Her soon to be ex-husband, Whit, is being difficult, she's also at a confusing crossroads with her occasional hook up and colleague Fred. Her mother is adding to the pile by simply being herself and then there's the small matter of Paul, a colleague who was as much a work friend as Stella has, that's gone missing though no one at CeMArt seems much to care or at least, tepidly worry. There's also a foreboding looming encroachment of the corporatization & conglomeratization of the museum by WANSEE.

It is this mystery of what's happened to Paul (and then what he'd been doing before his end) that most pulled me through this story. I loved following Stella's trail of research (obscure books are connected to an obscure map and that map figures into a larger situation at the museum that has roots a good bit in the past and more obscure works). Add to that Stella's very clear voice, wry wit in the telling and tangential observations, I quite enjoyed this story. I found many passages that were highlight worthy and am a little sorry that I can't quote them here but it's worth mentioning just the same. The author definitely has a talent for lyrical prose and I appreciated that. The only thing I didn't find terribly compelling was Fred and I never quite understood Stella's fascination or attraction unless it was that he was purposely unattainable & emotionally unavailable to her, but it was good to see her get past him. I very much liked that without knowing it, Stella needed the journey of tracing Paul's trail to work out her own stuff and by the end she's in a better place than she began. Well done.

This read like a love letter to archivists and curators everywhere (cartographers, microcalligraphers, logophiles and those who love puzzles and puns, this is for you too). If that happens to be your thing (it's my thing) then go forth and enjoy. Also, I'd recommend this to literary fiction fans that also enjoy a bit of mystery.

Thanks Penguin and netgalley for this ARC.

We all have to grow up; this is a great awesome book about a woman finds her own power and worth.