No Perfect Words by Nava Renek


No Perfect Words
Title : No Perfect Words
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1933132302
ISBN-10 : 9781933132303
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 137
Publication : First published January 1, 2009

Fiction. After the breakup of a long-term relationship, forty-something Caroline Traeger must put her life back together. Left alone with her seven-year-old daughter, she desperately searches back through her life for an explanation for her personal failure. Through stories of her adventurous past, she explores love, desire, commitment, and loneliness, comparing her own choices to those of other women she's met along the way. Her journey is ours, re-arranging the pieces of the puzzle that make a meaningful life.

No Perfect Words Reviews

  • Steph

    No Perfect Words is a rythmic, flowing stream of consciousness that quite masterfully overlaps several culminating experiences in the protagonist's life. Searching for meaning in past events, past loves, this confessional prose probes, yet does not attempt to answer, the meaningfulness behind dysfunctional relationships and broken people. It simply allows them to exist, and imparts the sense of emptiness that these relationships inevitably leave behind while their hearts search for another body, another something to fill that void.

    I really enjoyed Renek's prose and her method of storytelling. I recommend this book and look forward to reading her earlier work.

    Note: I won this book on GoodReads. Thanks to Renek for her generosity in allowing readers to sample her work, and to Goodreads for giving her a forum to do so.

  • Amelia

    First Reads Winner

    I feel like I'm not quite qualified to review this book, quite honestly. It's a very different style than I am used to, and I found it hard to follow in places, although I believe that to be intentional. The story is told through flashback, and through the telling of other stories which merge and flow together. The language is elegant, even when it is coarse, and paints a clear picture of the settings, which are both common and exotic. With the narrator addressing her ex-husband throughout the story as if she were speaking directly to him, it feels very intimate, like listening in on a private conversation. It was an intriguing and fascinating book.

  • Amanda

    Won on GoodReads

    Interesting storytelling! The book skips around some. It's not a cohesive narrative...very similar to how it feels when you are trying to weigh your own emotions in your mind. I liked how the main character projected her feelings and traits into the characters of the stories she creates.

    Very different! Very creative!

  • Georgiann Hennelly

    This is a wonderful book .Written in short story form.Touched on a wide range of emotions, fears and dreams from the main characters view point.