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Rating: 
Summary: Nabokov meets Mark Twain
Review: A clever idea by the author of the delightful 'Ella Minnow Pea.' But it doesn't quite come off. The mock-pedantic sophistication of Vladimir Nabokov meets the down-home humor of Mark Twain (there's even a reference to the 1910 appearance Halley's comet that marked Twain's death as it had his birth: Mark Dunn's homage to Mark Twain?). But Nabokov did it better in 'Pale Fire,' and Twain did it better every time he put pen to paper. The humor wears thin after about the first 100 pages, and becomes more and more irrelevant. At one point the book's putative author (one Mark Dunn, author Mark Dunn's fictional creation) wonders if the book has been over-researched. No, not really, but he DID throw in everything including the kitchen sink. Exuberance alone cannot a good book make.Nice try, but no brass ring this time.
Rating: 
Summary: Good show
Review: A Fun little book. You will enjoy this imaginative, fascinating and original read.
Rating:
Summary: Good show
Review: A Fun little book. You will enjoy this imaginative, fascinating and original read.
Rating:
Summary: refreshingly different and quite entertaining
Review: what a great book. the whole story is told in footnotes, quite a different approach to storytelling. some folks who prefer the traditional 1st/3rd person point of view linear story might not appreciate it. the book gives you the highpoints and direction markers and lets you fill in the fluff. it is hilarious. filled with allusions, it touches on highpoints and famous personalities of history. it is intelligent, humourous, and i genuinely laughed reading this book. it makes me want to go through other books and read thier footnotes a bit more closely. different, fresh, fun, well written. great book.
Rating:
Summary: refreshingly different and quite entertaining
Review: what a great book. the whole story is told in footnotes, quite a different approach to storytelling. some folks who prefer the traditional 1st/3rd person point of view linear story might not appreciate it. the book gives you the highpoints and direction markers and lets you fill in the fluff. it is hilarious. filled with allusions, it touches on highpoints and famous personalities of history. it is intelligent, humourous, and i genuinely laughed reading this book. it makes me want to go through other books and read thier footnotes a bit more closely. different, fresh, fun, well written. great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, Clever and Unique
Review: While not quite the phenomenal success as his debut novel, "Ella Minnow Pea," "Ibid" again dazzles us with Mr. Dunn's originality and wordplay. The book has more laugh-out-loud moments than any other I've read in a long time. While the book also tells an interesting and moving story, the structure of the book -- i.e., telling the story through the footnotes to a lost biography of the protagonist -- does keep the reader at a bit of a distance, so that the story is not quite as involving as it might otherwise have been. Nevertheless, "Ibid" is a treat that I would recommend highly to anyone who enjoys a good laugh and an unusual story about quirky characters and situations.
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