The Tiger's Wife

Slow in the fast lane

I often forget, when people tell me they like to read, that sometimes they read books about being "Behind the Scenes" of a reality television series. When they tell me they like to read, I forget that there are people who like to drive, who drive slow in the fast lane. I forget when they say they like to read, that there are people with lower IQ's, who like to read.

I also forget that some people read about elfs, spacemen, cowboys and romances... ONLY.

So, what I'll say is that if, when you hear people say that they too "like to read", you conjure them reading about bells tolling, worlds according to people, boys and tigers in boats, colors like purple, 22nd catches and any number of catchERs in rye - I suspect you'll like this book.

Enjoy!

31 out of 101 people found this review helpful.

Could not put it down!

This masterwork of modern literature is appreciated by readers who can enjoy a story told from many perspectives, blending modern-day narrative with flashbacks by both the narrator and her recently-deceased grandfather, with forays into folk tale and myth. By the end, all the threads are woven into an exotic tapestry where the present is enriched by the past. While many mysteries are solved, some are deliberately and deliciously left unexplained for the reader to chew on. I look forward to more by this author. Readers who find it difficult and boring should fault themselves, not the writing. Go back to the shallow end, and don't complain that the water is too deep when you simply haven't learned to swim. And if you don't understand that metaphor, get out of the pool!

24 out of 27 people found this review helpful.

Interesting and intriguing read

Beautifully written, haunting, sometimes eerie, the stories mix myth with reality. The narrator, Natalia, is a young doctor. While on her way to vaccinate some children in an orphanage across the border, she learns that her doctor grandfather has left home on a mysterious errand and died not far from where she is headed. His body has been shipped back, but she sets out to recover his possessions and, more importantly, discover why he died so far from home. The stories are connected by common themes of mutilation and death, laying spirits to rest, and bringing the bodies home. The journey through these tales are more important than the final destination. Stories and their importance in our lives, how myth, legend and superstition shape and mold our lives are themes that run throughout the story. Interesting and intriguing read.

15 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

All over the place

I can see the potential in this book. The stories were interestings and well written, however there were too many of them and the author doesn't do a good job linking them all together. At the end you are left with no connections and a feeling of wasted time and talent

12 out of 20 people found this review helpful.

Don't miss out on the best

This is a superb piece of literature. Exquisitely written, and built around astounding story-telling. It adds richness to all we know about growing up, families, community life, literature in life, vocation, culture. About life and about death.

11 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful, unique story!

The Tiger's Wife is the story of Natalie, a young doctor in the Balkans, who has been raised in awe of her brilliant grandfather. As she was growing up he would often take her to the zoo to visit the tigers. Much later she is traveling across a war torn region to bring vaccinations to an orphanage when she learns that her grandfather has died under strange circumstances. When she begins to investigate improbable and magical stories of the tiger's wife and the deathless man begin to surface.

The Tiger's Wife is a beautiful and highly unique story told in an entirely fresh style. The tone of magical realism lurking beneath the surface of Natalia's grandfather's practical life is always perfectly balanced, just enough that you can't ignore it, but never enough to sound implausible. Natalia herself can't quite believe or disbelieve and all the while the tiger is there, a shadowy presence in every dark corner. The setting of the exotic and unknown Balkans just adds to the mystery even more.

I truly enjoyed this fantastical book. It is not often that you come across such an original voice as Tea Obreht's and I look forwarding to reading more.

9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

Masterfully Woven Tapestry

THE TIGER'S WIFE by Téa Obreht ?????

Unbelievably good first novel! Ms. Obreht is going to be fun to watch over the coming years. Initially, I turned down an advanced reader copy of this one because the plot sounded a little chaotic to me. A reading friend gave it five stars and a glowing review; we don't always agree over books, but her review made me give it another look. Thank you, Susan! I couldn't agree more!

Generally, I synopsize my reads in a couple of quick sentences, but there are so many layers to this plot that I am cheating and giving you Random House's advanced publication copy (the same one that made me turn the book down initially...):

In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.
But Natalia is also confronting a private, hurtful mystery of her own: the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather's recent death. After telling her grandmother that he was on his way to meet Natalia, he instead set off for a ramshackle settlement none of their family had ever heard of and died there alone. A famed physician, her grandfather must have known that he was too ill to travel. Why he left home becomes a riddle Natalia is compelled to unravel.? ?Grief struck and searching for clues to her grandfather's final state of mind, she turns to the stories he told her when she was a child. On their weekly trips to the zoo he would read to her from a worn copy of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, which he carried with him everywhere; later, he told her stories of his own encounters over many years with "the deathless man," a vagabond who claimed to be immortal and appeared never to age. But the most extraordinary story of all is the one her grandfather never told her, the one Natalia must discover for herself. One winter during the Second World War, his childhood village was snowbound, cut off even from the encroaching German invaders but haunted by another, fierce presence: a tiger who comes ever closer under cover of darkness. "These stories," Natalia comes to understand, "run like secret rivers through all the other stories" of her grandfather's life. And it is ultimately within these rich, luminous narratives that she will find the answer she is looking for.

This is one of those books which, when you close the cover for the final time, makes you sit there for a moment staring at the picture on the front and thinking, "Wow!"

In structure, the book has the feel of being composed of a number of short stories. While this is Ms. Obreht's first novel, she is an acclaimed short story author, so it is possible that this technique was used intensionally. What the author manages to do with these segments is what speaks to her great gifts. Imagine sentences as silken threads of a tapestry, woven into sections. As the narrative moves forward, many such sections emerge, and the background begins to fill in and connect the seemingly disparate parts. Téa Obreht is a master weaver. Never does the book come across feeling as if someone tried to writ

7 out of 9 people found this review helpful.

Struggling...

Bought the book based on the great reviews in all the magazines. I'm struggling to finish it and have been disappointed so far. Hoping it gets better in the last quarter of the book.

6 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

Other better things to do!!!

While reading this book, I can think of many different books that I would rather be reading . This book is boring and confusing. No plot or discernible characters , I have to keep going back because I feel like I have missed something . I will finish it because I paid for it but I wish somebody like myself read the book and filled me in on how uneventful and plodding it is .

5 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

Lots of Potential

Was originally interested in this book because of the setting (Balkans), my soft spot for orphanages and those who try to help, and the mystery that somehow brings in Kipling's Jungle book. I liked the mystical elements of the deathless man and the tiger. At times, the smaller story lines became very interesting. Unfortunately, most of the time I was merely an interested and occasionally confused reader. For the sensitive reader: spousal abuse, occasional gratuitous profanity Note: This advanced reader's edition was provided through the GoodReads First Read program with the expectation of an honest review. My opinions are my own.

5 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Reminds one of old European woodcutter's superstitions and stories

Obreht definitely shows her talent for creating characters and stories in this book. As the stories/myths of the deathless man and the tiger's wife unraveled throughout the book, I was caught up in the back stories of the characters such as the waiter and the apothecary. The story telling itself reminded me of The Life of Pi. Natalie, the young doctor and granddaughter to the old doctor who has died, makes a strong narrator. However, I just wasn't interested in what was happening around her as she goes to the monastery to inoculate chldren. I've read other reviews which describe a better connection between the present day action of the book and the grandfather's stories than what I felt. I see the book's literary merit; I just am not a fan of stories that are so heavily laden with characters whose lives are molded by superstition and myth. Whether, the story is European, African, Indian, or Eastern, I am too much of a realist to be strongly attracted to such stories. I do believe that Tiger's Wife is a title worthy of book club discussions, especially since I've seen a wide range of reactions to it. Clearly, if you want a challenge, this is one to consider. If you expect a linear novel with defined plot and action, this will not meet your expectations. I received an e-copy of this book with the expectation that I would write an honest review. This reaction is my own.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Well written but terribly dull

This book is extremely well written and the author makes great use of descriptive language. However, if you like the kind of story where the characters develop, or where there is a plot, or where, um, I don't know, things happen, then this will not be the book for you. The blend of present events and old stories from the protagonist's grandfather would work if the author didn't layer double or even triple flashbacks to develop largely irrelevant details about tertiary characters. I would also complain about the total lack of any climax or resolution, but there is nothing going on in the book that could climax or resolve. The only reason I bothered to finish this book is because I refused to pay $15 and not do so. The author is a gifted writer but a poor storyteller, and I did not find this book enjoyable at all.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A Good Read

This was a good book. Not a great book but a good one. What's a great book? A book that changes my life. A book that helped shape who I am now and hopefully will be in the future. A book that changes my mind. A book that changes my path. THIS book was a good read. It wasn't scattered or hard to read. It follows three stories. One in the present of the girls' Grandfather who died and two stories he told her in the past that helped shape who he was. One being The Tiger's Wife and one being The Deathless Man (he was my favorite). It did feel like it had definite closure. More about the closure of the soul than a tangible ending but an ending nonetheless. I even enjoyed the way it came full circle. There was a connection in the stories that I did not see coming. Anyways, I don't want to give away too much of the plot. But unlike many reviewers, I felt it wasn't "hard" to read at all (surely you can follow three stories with clearly defined story lines and chapter changes) nor was I left with the feeling of being left to hang. I felt the ending was perfect.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Read it!

This novel totally restored my faith in the power of contemporary literature. Great storytelling, expansive plot, wonderful language. I was totally swept away. Enjoy!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

cannot recommend to anyone, waste of time

I was extremely surprised at how boring this book is. After the glowing reviews I thought it would be just wonderful. I just kept on reading until I finally said "enough". Could not stand to go further , too many books waiting to be read. So when I read other customers remarks felt that I was not the only disappointed reader, glad I did not spent money and read library copy. I am learning to be very careful when I read reviews.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Confusing

While I agree with others that it is beautifully written, I spent much of the time in a state of confusion. Changes between stories are abrupt. They didn't tie together well. When I finished it, my question was, what was that all about? Still don't know the answer.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Intriguing

Well written, with a story that grips you.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Dissapointing

The voice of the main character is very engaging, but the story as a whole was less gripping than its individual parts. I struggled to stay engaged.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

No plot, no summary!

What a waste of time to read this book. Made up of very weird, unconnected stories, which made no sense to this reader. I finished it, only because I had paid for it. If this is the best this author has to offer, I hope it will be the last. I didn't want to give it one star--maybe a minus five.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Too slow

Too many gaps. Could not see where it was going.