Outline

Me  7.5 - 6.5     What can I say? I pick books that make us go wtf. I was raised on a diet of Stephen King, Michener, and CS Lewis. Years of horror novels, historical fiction, and reading the Chronicles of Narnia over and over didn't prepare me for choosing a book that will be scrutinized. Sigh. This seemed like a winner from what I had heard which was that it was smart and brimming with language that would make our inner nerds tingle. Okay, I didn't hear that exactly, but it's close and what I was expecting. I thought much of the writing was excellent and beautiful, but often felt dimwitted while reading it. I wish I hadn't read that the narrator's character is revealed by her conversations with people, because I think I would feel somewhat less dimwitted had I not. Beautiful passages that seemingly connected with nothing. I know I missed a lot. 

Sandy 3 – 4     Outline annoyed the heck out of her and made her angry.  The narrator was a coy, narcissistic, over-analyzer who tried too hard to be profound. The only well-written character was the airplane neighbor, but he was weird and annoying and she would have taken a bath to cool off rather than take a boat ride with him. She bumped her rating up to a three when the woman in the writing class called the narrator a lousy teacher. Sandy wondered if the class was for the mentally disabled and would have asked for her money back were she in it. 

Becky 4 – 4     thought it was well written, but disjointed and pretentious. She wondered why the writing class had such horrible stories and why the students were there in the first place. She liked when the wife kept updating her sick husband on his tomb's progress. Trying to elicit so much from conversations became too contrived for her, especially since we usually see what we choose to see. We knew very little about the narrator, there is no real sense of her. She brought up a lot of good ideas and phrases, but there was no clear sense of theme or even story. Becky also felt as though she wasn’t smart enough to put it all together.  

Miles 6 – 6     thought it a worthwhile read and would selectively recommend. He liked her style, describing it as crisp, efficient, and insightful, but with no clear meaning. He liked that she was a nameless absorber and could picture all the characters except her. He had no emotional connection to any characters. Loss and damaged relationships appeared to be a theme, especially given her previous work, but with no story or plot to speak of the writing wasn't substantive enough.  

K'Lynn 5 – 6     thought it was an interesting premise to write a book based around conversations, and said she has heard stories from seatmates on a plane that have made her re-think her life. She liked it, but struggled with the narrator’s character because we never get to know her. She thought the description of the baby dropping the toy over and over again was very well done. One of the characters, (Angelique?) was described as having a need for provocation which was difficult for those around her to understand. This resonated with K’Lynn.  

Michelle 4 – 4     kept thinking that the characters would become entwined and that the narrator would somehow connect them all. When this didn’t happen it felt more like a therapy session than a novel, which bored her. She liked the parts where the narrator spoke with the neighbor, because it was almost exciting and she identified with the narrator not caring what people think about her at this stage of life, but overall she was irritated by the narrator’s non-descript anonymity and wanted to know more about her. The NYT book review went over her head and then she felt dumb. She didn’t hate it, but thinks the author must be an odd person and the story frustrated her. 

Caroline 5 – 5     would have enjoyed it more had she understood there was no plot. She spent much effort trying to piece it all together rather than just enjoying it. Maybe this is the author's point? Life isn’t a novel, but an outline? Carolyn liked the style and bookmarked many pages and found lots of good quotes, but spent much of her time waiting for something to happen. She found the narrator a good listener and liked this line about passion: ...no one ever says they wanted to have an affair, but they just couldn't find the time. 

Leticia 5 – 6.5     found great things in every chapter and noted that almost every one of them dealt with people who had experienced loss in a relationship.  She liked the chapter about the neighbor the best because we get to know him well.  She liked that he kept trying to get to know people despite his failed relationships. When out on the boat she was sure that the narrator was going to get left behind in the water, which would have picked things up.

Maggie 2 – 2    I give it a 2 out of 10. Enough said.  

To summarize...we thought the book had no plot, was about failed relationships, was equal parts irritation and frustration, and it left us feeling somewhat confused and stupid. We assume the author is coy, pretentious, narcissistic, and odd. It sounds like someone describing an ex-spouse. If this is what the author intended, then I bump up my rating.