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Tin Man
This is almost a love story.
Ellis and Michael are twelve when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of an overbearing father. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.
But then we fast forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?
This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that.
Ellis and Michael are twelve when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of an overbearing father. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.
But then we fast forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?
This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that.
213 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
About the author
Sarah Winman
9 books2,541 followersSarah Winman (born 1964) is a British actress and author. In 2011 her debut novel When God Was a Rabbit became an international bestseller and won Winman several awards including New Writer of the Year in the Galaxy National Book Awards.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,392 reviews
February 22, 2018
And Ellis remembered thinking he would never meet anyone like him again, and in that acknowledgement, he knew, was love.
What a beautiful, bittersweet story about first love.
Tin Man is a short book at just over two-hundred pages, but it packs a powerful punch. It follows the intoxicating relationship between Ellis and Michael, from the time they were young boys. In their youth, the pair create their own little world of cycling, swimming and art in 1960s Oxford, a world that eventually graduates from intense friendship into romantic love.
Art is an important theme, but it doesn't overtake the human and very emotional aspects of the story. From deep discussions with Ellis' mother about Van Gogh and the sunflower painting she keeps hung in their house, to Ellis' passion for drawing that is crushed by his father's insistence that he work in a car factory, art plays a huge role in the story.
Much of the novel's setting is in a time that's unfriendly to boys who like art and reading, and even less friendly to boys who like other boys. As we discover early on, it is now 1996 and Ellis is a grown man who married Annie, and Michael is nowhere to be seen. What happened to change things so dramatically? Can Ellis ever recover what has been lost?
It's a super quick read, but incredibly moving. The rich, vivid descriptions of the English countryside and the South of France remind me of Call Me by Your Name; the gay love story spanning several decades reminds me of The Heart's Invisible Furies. But, to be honest, it's also something completely unique, too.
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January 11, 2018
Oh my god, did I love this book. I don't know if everyone will feel the same way I did, but this one had me from the first page to the last.
I know that blurbs on the covers of books often come from friends or other authors from the same publisher, but when Matt Haig says, "This is an astoundingly beautiful book. It drips with tenderness. It breaks your heart and warms it all at once," how can you resist?
"'There's something about first love, isn't there?' she said. 'It's untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it's the measure of all that follows,' she said."
Ellis is a quiet boy growing up outside London. His mother has always felt a little stifled in their town, so she wanted Ellis to follow his dreams, to keep drawing, and to stay in school, paths that aren't necessarily encouraged in the 1960s. He meets Michael, the grandson of a local shopkeeper, and they become fast friends, Michael's more ebullient nature as a complement to Ellis' thoughtfulness.
As the two grow into manhood, they are nearly inseparable. Their friendship transforms, deepens, but both cannot give what the other wants. Then one day Ellis meets Annie and the two are instantly smitten with one another. Yet this isn't the type of story in which one friend gets discarded when the other gets married—Michael becomes a part of Ellis and Annie, an inseparable companion to each in a different way. They are whole when the three are together, mischievous, exuberant, bold.
But after a time, Michael needs to live his own life, and he leaves Ellis and Annie behind. This challenges the couple, as they find themselves becoming what they always swore they wouldn't be—ordinary. And as Michael sees places in the world he always wanted to, and experiences deep emotion, he feels a hole where his friends once were.
"In those days of my twenties and early thirties, I remember how friendships came and went. I was too critical — a disagreement over a film or politics gave me permission to retreat. Nobody matched Ellis and Annie, and so I convinced myself I needed nobody but them. I was a sailboat at heed to the breeze, circling buoys before heading out to the uncomplicated silence of a calm bay."
When Michael returns, the circle is once again completed. Yet he returns with secrets, secrets that could threaten the delicate balance of their lives. But their love for one another, and the joy they get from their friendship, is as if no time has passed.
I'm being a little vague in my description because I felt part of the story's beauty and power was letting the plot unfold. It jumps around through time from the 1960s to the 1990s, and shifts narration between Ellis and Michael. This is an immensely memorable story about friendship, love, and longing, and the blurred lines between those things.
This is a simple story, really—a tale as old as time, if you will—but it held me in its grasp completely. It runs just under 200 pages, so I read the entire book in an evening. This was not quite what I was expecting, but it absolutely blew me away. Sarah Winman's writing is so lyrical but yet it packs a punch. I loved these characters, and was sad that the book ended when it did—I'd love to see a sequel because there's so much more which could transpire.
It took eight days, but Tin Man is the first book to truly dazzle me in the new year. Again, it may partially be a function of the fact that books that touch my emotions really resonate for me, but this one I won't forget anytime soon. Wow, wow, wow.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com, or check out my list of the best books I read in 2017 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2017.html.
I know that blurbs on the covers of books often come from friends or other authors from the same publisher, but when Matt Haig says, "This is an astoundingly beautiful book. It drips with tenderness. It breaks your heart and warms it all at once," how can you resist?
"'There's something about first love, isn't there?' she said. 'It's untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it's the measure of all that follows,' she said."
Ellis is a quiet boy growing up outside London. His mother has always felt a little stifled in their town, so she wanted Ellis to follow his dreams, to keep drawing, and to stay in school, paths that aren't necessarily encouraged in the 1960s. He meets Michael, the grandson of a local shopkeeper, and they become fast friends, Michael's more ebullient nature as a complement to Ellis' thoughtfulness.
As the two grow into manhood, they are nearly inseparable. Their friendship transforms, deepens, but both cannot give what the other wants. Then one day Ellis meets Annie and the two are instantly smitten with one another. Yet this isn't the type of story in which one friend gets discarded when the other gets married—Michael becomes a part of Ellis and Annie, an inseparable companion to each in a different way. They are whole when the three are together, mischievous, exuberant, bold.
But after a time, Michael needs to live his own life, and he leaves Ellis and Annie behind. This challenges the couple, as they find themselves becoming what they always swore they wouldn't be—ordinary. And as Michael sees places in the world he always wanted to, and experiences deep emotion, he feels a hole where his friends once were.
"In those days of my twenties and early thirties, I remember how friendships came and went. I was too critical — a disagreement over a film or politics gave me permission to retreat. Nobody matched Ellis and Annie, and so I convinced myself I needed nobody but them. I was a sailboat at heed to the breeze, circling buoys before heading out to the uncomplicated silence of a calm bay."
When Michael returns, the circle is once again completed. Yet he returns with secrets, secrets that could threaten the delicate balance of their lives. But their love for one another, and the joy they get from their friendship, is as if no time has passed.
I'm being a little vague in my description because I felt part of the story's beauty and power was letting the plot unfold. It jumps around through time from the 1960s to the 1990s, and shifts narration between Ellis and Michael. This is an immensely memorable story about friendship, love, and longing, and the blurred lines between those things.
This is a simple story, really—a tale as old as time, if you will—but it held me in its grasp completely. It runs just under 200 pages, so I read the entire book in an evening. This was not quite what I was expecting, but it absolutely blew me away. Sarah Winman's writing is so lyrical but yet it packs a punch. I loved these characters, and was sad that the book ended when it did—I'd love to see a sequel because there's so much more which could transpire.
It took eight days, but Tin Man is the first book to truly dazzle me in the new year. Again, it may partially be a function of the fact that books that touch my emotions really resonate for me, but this one I won't forget anytime soon. Wow, wow, wow.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com, or check out my list of the best books I read in 2017 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2017.html.
May 8, 2018
This isn’t going to be a very lengthy review because I don't think anything I can say will do justice in describing the powerful relationships of these characters. I can though, say that this is an incredibly sad and beautiful story. The sadness and grief and loss and loneliness is tempered only by the love that these characters have for each other. Dora and Ellis and Mabel and Michael and Anne. The writing is quiet, descriptive, introspective and full of emotions, so genuine and so deep. I’ll never look at a sunflower in the same way again.
Thanks to my Goodreads reading buddies, Diane and Esil. It was a short book and there wasn’t a lot discussion other than how we all seemed to be affected along the way, feeling very much the same about this beautiful novel. I highly recommend this affecting book. It’s one I’ll read again.
I received an advanced copy of this book from G.P. Putnam’s Sons through Edelweiss.
Thanks to my Goodreads reading buddies, Diane and Esil. It was a short book and there wasn’t a lot discussion other than how we all seemed to be affected along the way, feeling very much the same about this beautiful novel. I highly recommend this affecting book. It’s one I’ll read again.
I received an advanced copy of this book from G.P. Putnam’s Sons through Edelweiss.
April 1, 2018
This story is so sad - with memories of love - loss - loneliness- grief - regret. ... and special friendships. It’s tragic and beautiful—
Sarah Winman had me in the palm of her hands at the very start of her novel..and held me there until the end. The writing is wonderful -original- artful - lucid - simple and emotionally powerful.
Ellis and Michael became best friends as kids. Their friendship was sacred - their bond strong - and then when they were grown guys - Ellis married Annie. Ellis, Michael, and Annie share an extraordinary bond - they became a unit. Then Michael moves to London.
While he’s away - (5 years), - Ellis and Annie fall into being an ordinary couple —exactly what they didn’t want to be.
Then Michael returns.
I don’t want to spoil the story or experience....just say this book is marvelous!
I immediately bought Sarah’s other two books: “When God Was A Rabbit”, and “A Year of Marvellous Ways”. I want to read anything Winman writes! She is a great new discovery for me.....and I look forward to read her work again.
A small sample except:
“It was the first of many memories he had, of how Michael sought Dora’s attention in those early days, how he clung to her every word as if they were handholds up a cliff face. He said he had to sit in front on account of car sickness, and he spent the entire journey complementing Dora on her driving and her style, steering the conversation back to the ‘sunflowers’ and the south, back to color and light. He had been able to change gears for her. Ellis firmly believed he would have”.
Thank You Penguin Group Putnam, Netgalley, and Sarah Winman
Sarah Winman had me in the palm of her hands at the very start of her novel..and held me there until the end. The writing is wonderful -original- artful - lucid - simple and emotionally powerful.
Ellis and Michael became best friends as kids. Their friendship was sacred - their bond strong - and then when they were grown guys - Ellis married Annie. Ellis, Michael, and Annie share an extraordinary bond - they became a unit. Then Michael moves to London.
While he’s away - (5 years), - Ellis and Annie fall into being an ordinary couple —exactly what they didn’t want to be.
Then Michael returns.
I don’t want to spoil the story or experience....just say this book is marvelous!
I immediately bought Sarah’s other two books: “When God Was A Rabbit”, and “A Year of Marvellous Ways”. I want to read anything Winman writes! She is a great new discovery for me.....and I look forward to read her work again.
A small sample except:
“It was the first of many memories he had, of how Michael sought Dora’s attention in those early days, how he clung to her every word as if they were handholds up a cliff face. He said he had to sit in front on account of car sickness, and he spent the entire journey complementing Dora on her driving and her style, steering the conversation back to the ‘sunflowers’ and the south, back to color and light. He had been able to change gears for her. Ellis firmly believed he would have”.
Thank You Penguin Group Putnam, Netgalley, and Sarah Winman
January 19, 2022
I had never read anything by Sarah Winman and I was blown away with the beautiful prose and tremendous “heart” in this story. As some other reviewers have said, this is a hard book to review.
The story actually begins in 1950, before Ellis is born, when his mother Dora wins a prize at a bar and she chooses a copy of Van Gogh’s picture of sunflowers in the French countryside. She had seen the picture and others by Van Gogh during a school trip to the National Gallery and she felt it represented what she wanted, “Freedom. Possibility. Beauty.” However her life changed, she married and did not have those things, so the picture was the closest she was going to get. Dora places the picture in a place where she will see it daily, a bright spot in the dull place they call home, where most everyone works at a car factory.
We jump ahead to when her son Ellis is 12 years old and meets Michael for the first time. Ellis and Michael are so young but they become more than friends, soulmates really, almost immediately. They do the things that twelve year olds do, swim, hang out, explore nature and talk, they talked a lot, and realized how much alike they were. At one time they began to explore their sexuality and became even closer.
Michael really enjoys Dora’s company and they talk about the painting together and it is clear that they also have a connection. Michael is a sensitive, loving, all giving friend.
The two meet Annie and then they are a trio. They spend all of their free time together and slowly they begin to grow up and after a while the relationship changes. Ellis marries Annie and Michael flees the town and is away for 5 years.
The first part of the book is told from Ellis’s perspective and the second half from Michael’s. Each section moves back and forth in time but still flows beautifully. I did find that I needed to read this book in a quiet place to really absorb the beauty of the writing. Ellis’s life doesn’t turn out quite the way he wanted, he loves Annie but instead of creating art for a living he is forced to work at the car factory and they begin to become an ordinary couple, which is not what they wanted.
Michael has several relationships, one of which was incredibly close. This partner becomes deathly ill and we follow Michael’s path through this tragedy, caring for and then losing another person he loves. He finds some peace working at an inn as a mere “housekeeper and cleaner” but he has a little cottage to himself which faces the countryside which is covered with sunflowers and he is happy for a while. He finally feels that he needs to return to Michael and Annie and he comes back.
He is unsure how Ellis will feel about how he left but Annie assures him that Ellis still loves him. “I start to walk across the road, and my footsteps are loud. He looks up now. He’s squinting. He grins. He puts down the plank of wood and slowly comes toward me. We meet in the middle. I’ve missed you, he says. In my chest, the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth”.
I will leave you with those beautiful words. I’m sure that I haven’t done justice to this book, it has to be read and absorbed. It’s a story of love, loss, friendship, despair, heartache, happiness, the full range of emotions are laid out in this lovely story.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss, thank you.
The story actually begins in 1950, before Ellis is born, when his mother Dora wins a prize at a bar and she chooses a copy of Van Gogh’s picture of sunflowers in the French countryside. She had seen the picture and others by Van Gogh during a school trip to the National Gallery and she felt it represented what she wanted, “Freedom. Possibility. Beauty.” However her life changed, she married and did not have those things, so the picture was the closest she was going to get. Dora places the picture in a place where she will see it daily, a bright spot in the dull place they call home, where most everyone works at a car factory.
We jump ahead to when her son Ellis is 12 years old and meets Michael for the first time. Ellis and Michael are so young but they become more than friends, soulmates really, almost immediately. They do the things that twelve year olds do, swim, hang out, explore nature and talk, they talked a lot, and realized how much alike they were. At one time they began to explore their sexuality and became even closer.
Michael really enjoys Dora’s company and they talk about the painting together and it is clear that they also have a connection. Michael is a sensitive, loving, all giving friend.
The two meet Annie and then they are a trio. They spend all of their free time together and slowly they begin to grow up and after a while the relationship changes. Ellis marries Annie and Michael flees the town and is away for 5 years.
The first part of the book is told from Ellis’s perspective and the second half from Michael’s. Each section moves back and forth in time but still flows beautifully. I did find that I needed to read this book in a quiet place to really absorb the beauty of the writing. Ellis’s life doesn’t turn out quite the way he wanted, he loves Annie but instead of creating art for a living he is forced to work at the car factory and they begin to become an ordinary couple, which is not what they wanted.
Michael has several relationships, one of which was incredibly close. This partner becomes deathly ill and we follow Michael’s path through this tragedy, caring for and then losing another person he loves. He finds some peace working at an inn as a mere “housekeeper and cleaner” but he has a little cottage to himself which faces the countryside which is covered with sunflowers and he is happy for a while. He finally feels that he needs to return to Michael and Annie and he comes back.
He is unsure how Ellis will feel about how he left but Annie assures him that Ellis still loves him. “I start to walk across the road, and my footsteps are loud. He looks up now. He’s squinting. He grins. He puts down the plank of wood and slowly comes toward me. We meet in the middle. I’ve missed you, he says. In my chest, the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth”.
I will leave you with those beautiful words. I’m sure that I haven’t done justice to this book, it has to be read and absorbed. It’s a story of love, loss, friendship, despair, heartache, happiness, the full range of emotions are laid out in this lovely story.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss, thank you.
February 12, 2020
There’s something about first love, isn’t there? she said. It’s untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it’s the measure of all that follows…
Tin Man is a nostalgic and melancholy read filled with bitter memories and finding oneself at middle age—at any age. More so than plot, this novel offers a meandering of tender memories that all coalesce like rivers in a delta, pooling into one larger story.
Quite honestly, Tin Man offers more by way of poetic descriptions of landscape and emotion than it does of actual plot at times, but that’s the beauty in this story I suppose. The simplicity of narrative—of intent—couples with the deepest and most complex emotions one can feel: love, regret, loneliness, disappointment, heartbreak (so beautifully described as the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth).
Tin Man is the story of Ellis and Michael. The tale of two twelve-year-old boys who meet at an intersection in their lives where they are both motherless and running from fathers who don’t understand them, who want them to punch away their anger and to harden against the natural softness in their souls. It is the story of the years of their lives they spent together—and those they achingly spent apart. It is a story of compassion and fear, of young lives withered away and stolen by the AIDS epidemic. A story that crosses from England to France and back again.
Sarah Winman managed to squeeze a lot into such a short novel, small and delicate in your hands in its pocket-sized hardback version. I had a strange relationship with Winman’s writing style. It was quiet, like a whisper, and I always felt more moved by the story than I did by her writing. That sounds strange, since one would think these two were one in the same; in many ways they are. But I always felt that it was the story pulling me back in again and again more so than the language she used to tell it. And that’s okay. Because there were moments of absolute brilliance, moments when the narrative glinted and shone like a small mirror turned toward the sun--
--and those moments were special.
It was still a world of shyness and fear, and those shared moments were everything: my loneliness masquerading as sexual desire. But it was my humanness that led me to seek, that’s all. Led us all to seek. A simple need to belong somewhere.
Tin Man broke my heart in so many little ways, and it was never quite put back together again. That I appreciated, actually. I was never drawn to Ellis the way I was drawn to Michael, and I will always remember Michael’s compassion, his heart, his life. 4 very strong stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
**Thank you to the publicity team at G.P. Putnam's Sons who reached out to me and sent 2 lovely copies of this beautiful book!**
FOLLOW ME AT:
Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Get a Copy of My Book | Book Editing, Author Coaching, Submit Your Book to Me
Tin Man is a nostalgic and melancholy read filled with bitter memories and finding oneself at middle age—at any age. More so than plot, this novel offers a meandering of tender memories that all coalesce like rivers in a delta, pooling into one larger story.
Quite honestly, Tin Man offers more by way of poetic descriptions of landscape and emotion than it does of actual plot at times, but that’s the beauty in this story I suppose. The simplicity of narrative—of intent—couples with the deepest and most complex emotions one can feel: love, regret, loneliness, disappointment, heartbreak (so beautifully described as the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth).
Tin Man is the story of Ellis and Michael. The tale of two twelve-year-old boys who meet at an intersection in their lives where they are both motherless and running from fathers who don’t understand them, who want them to punch away their anger and to harden against the natural softness in their souls. It is the story of the years of their lives they spent together—and those they achingly spent apart. It is a story of compassion and fear, of young lives withered away and stolen by the AIDS epidemic. A story that crosses from England to France and back again.
So when my father went off to his football matches, I went to Mrs. Deakin’s to read, or to make cakes with her for the church fayre. But I wanted to shout, I like football too! and I want to be with you. I want to be around men and their laughter and their ways! But in four years, I was never invited. And I retreated further into the background until I could barely be seen against the wallpaper and curtains, until I eventually disappeared, erased by the notion of what a boy with a handbag should be like.
Sarah Winman managed to squeeze a lot into such a short novel, small and delicate in your hands in its pocket-sized hardback version. I had a strange relationship with Winman’s writing style. It was quiet, like a whisper, and I always felt more moved by the story than I did by her writing. That sounds strange, since one would think these two were one in the same; in many ways they are. But I always felt that it was the story pulling me back in again and again more so than the language she used to tell it. And that’s okay. Because there were moments of absolute brilliance, moments when the narrative glinted and shone like a small mirror turned toward the sun--
And Ellis remembered thinking he would never meet anyone like him again, and in that acknowledgment, he knew, was love. He could see his mother concentrating on Michael’s words, how enraptured she was…she bent down and kissed him on the head and said, Thank you. Because everything she held on to and everything she believed in came together in that unexpected moment. The simple belief that men and boys were capable of beautiful things.
--and those moments were special.
It was still a world of shyness and fear, and those shared moments were everything: my loneliness masquerading as sexual desire. But it was my humanness that led me to seek, that’s all. Led us all to seek. A simple need to belong somewhere.
Tin Man broke my heart in so many little ways, and it was never quite put back together again. That I appreciated, actually. I was never drawn to Ellis the way I was drawn to Michael, and I will always remember Michael’s compassion, his heart, his life. 4 very strong stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
**Thank you to the publicity team at G.P. Putnam's Sons who reached out to me and sent 2 lovely copies of this beautiful book!**
FOLLOW ME AT:
Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Get a Copy of My Book | Book Editing, Author Coaching, Submit Your Book to Me
August 4, 2021
“... it was my humanness that led me to seek, that’s all. Led us all to seek. A simple need to belong somewhere.”
When I picked up this compact little book, I didn’t really put two and two together when I glanced at the artwork on the cover. But when I started reading, I immediately realized that I was again going to have a little encounter with Vincent van Gogh. Well, not with the actual artist, but with one of his sunflower paintings. You see, nearly one month prior to this, I had read another extraordinary novel that brought me back in time to the year when van Gogh spent several months in an asylum in the south of France. If I believed in kismet, then this would be it! In some fashion, van Gogh had inspired the characters in both Sarah Winman’s novel and the other, Let Me Tell You About a Man I Knew. These characters in turn then stirred in me such a range of emotions. I marveled at the joys and heartaches of love and friendship. I mourned for lost time, the ‘should-haves’, and memories.
“An airplane cast out a vivid orange wake that ripped across the violet wash. And I remember thinking, how cruel it was that our plans were out there somewhere. Another version of our future, out there somewhere, in perpetual orbit.”
This is a story of two boys, Ellis and Michael, brought together by loss and need - loss of loved ones and the need to feel connected. A beautiful friendship grows between them. It’s not just these two that capture your heart, however. The relationships that Ellis and Michael forge with others further ignite their spirits and will take hold of you as well. Ellis’s mother, Dora, suddenly realizes the narrowness of her life when she gazes at that sunflower painting for the first time. With it now hanging on her wall, it becomes a daily reminder of all the wonderful possibilities in life. Mabel, Michael’s grandmother, offers love when it’s needed the most. Her door is an open one and she encourages a friendship between the two boys. And then Annie walks into their lives. Ellis and Michael now become Ellis, Annie, and Michael. The dynamic shifts and a unique and poignant bond is formed between the three.
“There’s something about first love, isn’t there? It’s untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it’s the measure of all that follows…”
What a wondrous story this was. It’s full of everything I like best in a novel – a little bit of art, introspection, melancholy, nuanced characters, sexual identity, and joy. Yes, there were moments of joy despite the palpable feelings of loneliness and regret. I had to grasp onto those moments most of all. Just as we do in this everyday life of ours. How else would we ever get by?
Sarah Winman, this was my first time reading your work, but I don’t think it’s too early to venture a guess that you might secure a place on that favorite author list before long. You see, I can’t help but fall for the ones that see right into the hearts of us ordinary folk!
“We love who we love, don’t we?”
When I picked up this compact little book, I didn’t really put two and two together when I glanced at the artwork on the cover. But when I started reading, I immediately realized that I was again going to have a little encounter with Vincent van Gogh. Well, not with the actual artist, but with one of his sunflower paintings. You see, nearly one month prior to this, I had read another extraordinary novel that brought me back in time to the year when van Gogh spent several months in an asylum in the south of France. If I believed in kismet, then this would be it! In some fashion, van Gogh had inspired the characters in both Sarah Winman’s novel and the other, Let Me Tell You About a Man I Knew. These characters in turn then stirred in me such a range of emotions. I marveled at the joys and heartaches of love and friendship. I mourned for lost time, the ‘should-haves’, and memories.
“An airplane cast out a vivid orange wake that ripped across the violet wash. And I remember thinking, how cruel it was that our plans were out there somewhere. Another version of our future, out there somewhere, in perpetual orbit.”
This is a story of two boys, Ellis and Michael, brought together by loss and need - loss of loved ones and the need to feel connected. A beautiful friendship grows between them. It’s not just these two that capture your heart, however. The relationships that Ellis and Michael forge with others further ignite their spirits and will take hold of you as well. Ellis’s mother, Dora, suddenly realizes the narrowness of her life when she gazes at that sunflower painting for the first time. With it now hanging on her wall, it becomes a daily reminder of all the wonderful possibilities in life. Mabel, Michael’s grandmother, offers love when it’s needed the most. Her door is an open one and she encourages a friendship between the two boys. And then Annie walks into their lives. Ellis and Michael now become Ellis, Annie, and Michael. The dynamic shifts and a unique and poignant bond is formed between the three.
“There’s something about first love, isn’t there? It’s untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it’s the measure of all that follows…”
What a wondrous story this was. It’s full of everything I like best in a novel – a little bit of art, introspection, melancholy, nuanced characters, sexual identity, and joy. Yes, there were moments of joy despite the palpable feelings of loneliness and regret. I had to grasp onto those moments most of all. Just as we do in this everyday life of ours. How else would we ever get by?
Sarah Winman, this was my first time reading your work, but I don’t think it’s too early to venture a guess that you might secure a place on that favorite author list before long. You see, I can’t help but fall for the ones that see right into the hearts of us ordinary folk!
“We love who we love, don’t we?”
February 1, 2020
void /void/
adjective
completely empty
an accurate definition of my feelings since finishing this book. i feel like someone took my heart and wrung it out dry of every emotion i am capable of feeling.
this was as story about the complexity of human emotions - the suffocating power of grief, the deafening silence of loneliness, the glimmering light of hope, the comfortable steadiness of friendship, and the ever consuming ability of love.
a very moving book.
4.5 stars
adjective
completely empty
an accurate definition of my feelings since finishing this book. i feel like someone took my heart and wrung it out dry of every emotion i am capable of feeling.
this was as story about the complexity of human emotions - the suffocating power of grief, the deafening silence of loneliness, the glimmering light of hope, the comfortable steadiness of friendship, and the ever consuming ability of love.
a very moving book.
4.5 stars
March 3, 2020
“Tin Man” has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year and is certainly worthy of that nomination. The book is a profound exploration of friendship,the complexities of human relationships, grief, loss, identity, belonging, and love in all it’s forms.
"We love who we love, don’t we?”
The consideration of alternative paths one’s life can take was particularly poignant and really resonated with me.
“How cruel it was that our plans were out there somewhere. Another version of our future, out there somewhere, in perpetual orbit.”
Tin Man is beautifully written and intensely emotionally affecting. This is a book that will remain in your mind and heart long after you’ve finished it. Highly recommended.
"We love who we love, don’t we?”
The consideration of alternative paths one’s life can take was particularly poignant and really resonated with me.
“How cruel it was that our plans were out there somewhere. Another version of our future, out there somewhere, in perpetual orbit.”
Tin Man is beautifully written and intensely emotionally affecting. This is a book that will remain in your mind and heart long after you’ve finished it. Highly recommended.
May 9, 2018
4+ I starts with a picture of Sunflowers, the same painting Van Gogh painted in the French countryside. Dora, pregnant with Ellis wins this copy and againt her husband's wishes hangs it in her house. She will look at its sunny face, day after day, whenever things become unbearable. Michael and Ellis meet when they are twelve, become best friends and for a while something more. Than Ellis meets Annie, and the two of them include Michael in their lives. One day Michael disappears, and then a different tragedy strikes, and that is this story.
How can such a slim book in page count hold so much emotion? Not melodramatically told, but simplygood storytelling and some emotive prose. Such a sense of melancholy, lonliness, grief and love fairly leap off the pages. We hear from Ellis, and then we hear Michaels story. At one point Michael writes in his journal,
"I'm broken by my need for others. By the erotic dance of memory that pounces when lonliness falls."
Sounds like words from a poem, and there is much more of those type of lines. This is a story that is both beautiful and sad. That painting, Van Gogh and the sunflowers will have meaning, threaded throughout this story. I would have given this five stars but for the fact that I sometimes became confused with the timeline. This does go back and forth, but for the most part I think it needed to be told this way, foritto make emotional sense. It does end with a sense of hope, bittersweet but hopeful.
This was my monthly read with Angela and Esil. We all loved this one as I love reading with them. We have been on a good read roll lately, hoping it continues.
ARC from Netgalley.
How can such a slim book in page count hold so much emotion? Not melodramatically told, but simplygood storytelling and some emotive prose. Such a sense of melancholy, lonliness, grief and love fairly leap off the pages. We hear from Ellis, and then we hear Michaels story. At one point Michael writes in his journal,
"I'm broken by my need for others. By the erotic dance of memory that pounces when lonliness falls."
Sounds like words from a poem, and there is much more of those type of lines. This is a story that is both beautiful and sad. That painting, Van Gogh and the sunflowers will have meaning, threaded throughout this story. I would have given this five stars but for the fact that I sometimes became confused with the timeline. This does go back and forth, but for the most part I think it needed to be told this way, foritto make emotional sense. It does end with a sense of hope, bittersweet but hopeful.
This was my monthly read with Angela and Esil. We all loved this one as I love reading with them. We have been on a good read roll lately, hoping it continues.
ARC from Netgalley.
September 19, 2018
Keep your scenery, give me the scoop!
Description! Too much description! A good part of the book is the main character wandering around the street, noticing things—well, noticing EVERYTHING. I don’t need to see the sun and the flowers and the roads and the light and the buildings. Every. Single. Thing. I really don’t. I guess you could say I’m not a visual person. I’m not one to soak up nature; I’d rather be sitting inside, letting my head, my family, a friend, a book, or a movie talk to me. So when I have a book that wants to make me stay outside (horror!!) and look at all the pretty things, I balk. Close the door and come inside, it’s boring out there. The outside world is in the way of the characters. I read to hear what people are saying and thinking, not ogle the landscape. If I wanted that, I’d be reading more poetry. So here we have a story of two people, but what I remember most is the discomfort of being outdoors and looking at plants and buildings. Sorry, I want the scoop, not the scenery. Life is too short to stop and smell the roses.
Okay. Deep sigh. Move it along, Debbie. Talk about the good things: Beauteous, just beauteous language, poetic and flow-y. Some of the sentences truly are magnificent and I did highlight a bunch of them. Also, there is terrific psychological insight into the dark emotions of longing, grief, loneliness, disappointment, and the intensity of one’s first love. And we get a good look inside two heads, both so intelligent, sensitive, real, vivid. There’s wisdom all over the place.
Standouts:
-The scene of Ellis’s mother standing in front of a Van Gogh painting.
-The description of heartbreak as “the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth.”
-The scenes of Michael visiting his dying lover in a hospital.
It’s telling that despite all this luscious stuff, I felt like the atmosphere was so oppressive, I had to give the book only 3 stars. What can I say? Can I help it if cilantro ruined an otherwise good meal?
Always a surprise when this happens: When I do the old peek-back-at-the book-you-just-read thing, I completely love the sentences. (The dish looks appetizing because I can’t taste the cilantro.) I forget that I had spent entirely too much time having to picture the surroundings. I guess that’s what it is. It’s tedious and boring work to have to focus on visualizing the setting, whereas it’s easy and fun to sit inside the characters’ heads and visualize their thoughts and feelings.
The story is about two men, one straight (Ellis) and one gay (Michael) who get involved when they are teens. Both guys are cool and interesting: Ellis sketches and Michael writes. Their close relationship is intense and nuanced. We don’t see love exactly, we just see depression and yearning and recollection, and lots of it. When they’re grown, Ellis marries Annie, who seems like a cool chick (though she doesn’t get enough airtime for me). Supposedly the three of them love each other, but how do we really know that when the writer only puts them together in a few brief scenes? I can’t get no satisfaction, all I want is some interaction.
The book starts like dynamite. We get a little story about Ellis’s mother, who has a special connection to a Van Gogh painting. Very intense, and it drew me in. From there we go into chapters from Ellis’s point of view. I didn’t realize how much the third-person narration was making me feel distant until I got to the next section, which Michael narrates. God was I happy that someone was talking in first person. That always makes the story seem closer, the characters more interesting and accessible. I thought oh goodie, now that Michael is talking, the writer will stop with all the description. For a brief while, it seemed like we were getting just talk and thoughts, not panoramas. But quickly Michael started describing his surroundings, and I started to get bored and annoyed again.
So as I said, because the landscape trumped the plot (including actions and dialogue), I wasn’t feeling the love. On top of that, the plot moved around and it was hard to figure out what time period we were in. A staccato “1994” as the chapter head just didn’t do it. Sometimes I like it when time periods are jumpy (like in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox), but here, I got confused. Then I found myself not caring.
For those who like quotation marks, forget about it. There are none. Zero. That didn’t bother me, which might be surprising since I’m an ex-editor.
I feel weird not loving this like all of my friends did, but what can I say? Everyone’s taste is different. I wish I had liked it more, I really do, but for me it’s 3-star material, I can’t lie. In the end I was grateful it’s a short book so I could get out of there. Did I regret reading it? No. Will I read something else by this writer? Probably not.
Don’t listen to me and my lousy 3 stars. The world loved this book. I’m from outer space.
Description! Too much description! A good part of the book is the main character wandering around the street, noticing things—well, noticing EVERYTHING. I don’t need to see the sun and the flowers and the roads and the light and the buildings. Every. Single. Thing. I really don’t. I guess you could say I’m not a visual person. I’m not one to soak up nature; I’d rather be sitting inside, letting my head, my family, a friend, a book, or a movie talk to me. So when I have a book that wants to make me stay outside (horror!!) and look at all the pretty things, I balk. Close the door and come inside, it’s boring out there. The outside world is in the way of the characters. I read to hear what people are saying and thinking, not ogle the landscape. If I wanted that, I’d be reading more poetry. So here we have a story of two people, but what I remember most is the discomfort of being outdoors and looking at plants and buildings. Sorry, I want the scoop, not the scenery. Life is too short to stop and smell the roses.
Okay. Deep sigh. Move it along, Debbie. Talk about the good things: Beauteous, just beauteous language, poetic and flow-y. Some of the sentences truly are magnificent and I did highlight a bunch of them. Also, there is terrific psychological insight into the dark emotions of longing, grief, loneliness, disappointment, and the intensity of one’s first love. And we get a good look inside two heads, both so intelligent, sensitive, real, vivid. There’s wisdom all over the place.
Standouts:
-The scene of Ellis’s mother standing in front of a Van Gogh painting.
-The description of heartbreak as “the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth.”
-The scenes of Michael visiting his dying lover in a hospital.
It’s telling that despite all this luscious stuff, I felt like the atmosphere was so oppressive, I had to give the book only 3 stars. What can I say? Can I help it if cilantro ruined an otherwise good meal?
Always a surprise when this happens: When I do the old peek-back-at-the book-you-just-read thing, I completely love the sentences. (The dish looks appetizing because I can’t taste the cilantro.) I forget that I had spent entirely too much time having to picture the surroundings. I guess that’s what it is. It’s tedious and boring work to have to focus on visualizing the setting, whereas it’s easy and fun to sit inside the characters’ heads and visualize their thoughts and feelings.
The story is about two men, one straight (Ellis) and one gay (Michael) who get involved when they are teens. Both guys are cool and interesting: Ellis sketches and Michael writes. Their close relationship is intense and nuanced. We don’t see love exactly, we just see depression and yearning and recollection, and lots of it. When they’re grown, Ellis marries Annie, who seems like a cool chick (though she doesn’t get enough airtime for me). Supposedly the three of them love each other, but how do we really know that when the writer only puts them together in a few brief scenes? I can’t get no satisfaction, all I want is some interaction.
The book starts like dynamite. We get a little story about Ellis’s mother, who has a special connection to a Van Gogh painting. Very intense, and it drew me in. From there we go into chapters from Ellis’s point of view. I didn’t realize how much the third-person narration was making me feel distant until I got to the next section, which Michael narrates. God was I happy that someone was talking in first person. That always makes the story seem closer, the characters more interesting and accessible. I thought oh goodie, now that Michael is talking, the writer will stop with all the description. For a brief while, it seemed like we were getting just talk and thoughts, not panoramas. But quickly Michael started describing his surroundings, and I started to get bored and annoyed again.
So as I said, because the landscape trumped the plot (including actions and dialogue), I wasn’t feeling the love. On top of that, the plot moved around and it was hard to figure out what time period we were in. A staccato “1994” as the chapter head just didn’t do it. Sometimes I like it when time periods are jumpy (like in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox), but here, I got confused. Then I found myself not caring.
For those who like quotation marks, forget about it. There are none. Zero. That didn’t bother me, which might be surprising since I’m an ex-editor.
I feel weird not loving this like all of my friends did, but what can I say? Everyone’s taste is different. I wish I had liked it more, I really do, but for me it’s 3-star material, I can’t lie. In the end I was grateful it’s a short book so I could get out of there. Did I regret reading it? No. Will I read something else by this writer? Probably not.
Don’t listen to me and my lousy 3 stars. The world loved this book. I’m from outer space.
September 5, 2022
“O, I’m gonna be wounded
O, I’m gonna be your wound
O, I’m gonna bruise you
O, you’re gonna be my bruise”
-- The Words of Your Body, Spring Awakening
”All Dora Judd ever told anyone about that night three weeks before Christmas was that she won the painting in a raffle.
“She remembered being out in the back garden, as lights from the Cowley Car Plant spilled across the darkening sky, smoking her last cigarette, thinking there must be more to life.
“Back inside, her husband said, Bloody move it, will you, and she said, Give it a rest, Len, and she began to undo her housedress as she made her way upstairs. In the bedroom, she looked at herself sideways in the mirror, her hands feeling for the progression of her pregnancy, this new life she knew was a son.”
Her husband had wanted her to choose the bottle of Scotch whiskey, the men all chanting for her to pick the whisky. Instead, she chose what she wanted for herself, the painting of sunflowers, a replica, but it was her choice, her ticket, after all.
And then Ellis was born, and and life went on for a while, another fourteen years passed, until it was time for the funeral. After that, it was just Ellis and his father until Carol moved in. Their lives are lived in ordinary, common ways, and time still manages to pass, fading the memories of life before.
What Ellis wants to do for a living, work is to create art, but this idea is dismissed by his father, no discussion. He will work in the Car Plant, banging out dents and bruises to the metal so that no one could even tell that once there was an imperfection. An artist of sorts, but that is not a consolation to Ellis.
This is, in part, a love story. A sort of Romeo and Romeo and Juliet story. Ellis meets Michael, and there is love of a kind that they don’t dare define, and time passes and Ellis meets Annie and there is love, and a marriage, and a friendship that encompasses the three of them. A love triangle, of sorts, but one without sharp edges.
The years pass, and now, in his mid-forties, Annie, the woman Ellis loves, loved, is gone.
”This had always been the worst time, when the quiet emptiness could leave him gasping for breath. She was there, his wife, a peripheral shadow moving across a doorway, or in the reflection of a window, and he had to stop looking for her.”
The first half of this story is seen through Ellis’s eyes, the second half is seen through Michael’s eyes. Both are incredibly moving. Even though many years pass without contact between them, the bond they shared through their lives remains strong, remains a part of not only who they were, but of the men they came to be. As this story continues, time advances and retreats as memories are revisited and the present.
Love. Loss. Loneliness. Life. The road not taken. Regrets. Grief. Sexual identity. Tragedy. Friendship. First Love. Aids. Youth. Aging. Memories. There are so many layers to this story, each adding more to this lovely, emotional read.
I have not read Winman’s ‘When God Was a Rabbit’ or her ’A Year of Marvellous Ways’ although both have been on my list to read for quite a while now, and I’m now even more eager to read them.
What captured me from the start in ’Tin Man’ was how quietly lovely, and yet powerful, this story was. There’s a hushed sense of reverence for these people and their lives, as though she’s sharing this story in airy whispers so as not to disturb their lives.
Many thanks for the ARC provided by First-to-Read
May 19, 2018
I just loved this book!
As The Guardian says about it “Tin Man is a story about alternate lives that might have been lived had circumstances been different”
Hence this is a story of love, loss,and extreme loneliness.... of a friendship that starts out with two young boys and later a girl, caught up in a tender love triangle.
Deeply affecting..the loneliness is palpable. This is one story I won’t forget.
I, as a few others who have read this, will be adding some other books to my TBR by this author.
Thank you Diane S, Angela, and Cheri for you amazing reviews that led me to this book😊
As The Guardian says about it “Tin Man is a story about alternate lives that might have been lived had circumstances been different”
Hence this is a story of love, loss,and extreme loneliness.... of a friendship that starts out with two young boys and later a girl, caught up in a tender love triangle.
Deeply affecting..the loneliness is palpable. This is one story I won’t forget.
I, as a few others who have read this, will be adding some other books to my TBR by this author.
Thank you Diane S, Angela, and Cheri for you amazing reviews that led me to this book😊
September 26, 2020
A story so simple and short, yet so powerful. This book was an absolute joy to read.
There were so many emotions going through my mind, my heart whilst reading. I couldn’t fully process one emotion, before I was bombarded with another, then another, with some moments of stillness and on the cycle went. My mind was just spiralling trying to grasp all the meanings and the beauty the author could’ve meant by writing about such small and subtle moments.
And I have to hand that to the writing of this book. It was beautifully simplistic, but it brought out in full effect the complexity of the characters emotions. Their loneliness, their grief, their desires, wonders of the world and happiness. It carried you away completely. It made me feel, made me hold back my tears, reread some paragraphs, pause and reflect on them.
There’s so much heart and depth behind her writing and without it ever getting overly descriptive. It felt just right.
It’s a love story. It’s about art. Human relationships. Tenderness. Finding beauty in everyday life. Grief. Loneliness. Searching for oneself and love all over again.
I was in a constant state of melancholy whilst reading and I can’t recommend it enough. I desperately wanted more.
There were so many emotions going through my mind, my heart whilst reading. I couldn’t fully process one emotion, before I was bombarded with another, then another, with some moments of stillness and on the cycle went. My mind was just spiralling trying to grasp all the meanings and the beauty the author could’ve meant by writing about such small and subtle moments.
And I have to hand that to the writing of this book. It was beautifully simplistic, but it brought out in full effect the complexity of the characters emotions. Their loneliness, their grief, their desires, wonders of the world and happiness. It carried you away completely. It made me feel, made me hold back my tears, reread some paragraphs, pause and reflect on them.
There’s so much heart and depth behind her writing and without it ever getting overly descriptive. It felt just right.
It’s a love story. It’s about art. Human relationships. Tenderness. Finding beauty in everyday life. Grief. Loneliness. Searching for oneself and love all over again.
I was in a constant state of melancholy whilst reading and I can’t recommend it enough. I desperately wanted more.
July 23, 2017
Review: You only have to look on Goodreads for 30 seconds to see the abundance of 5 star reviews for this book. I read Sarah Winman’s, ‘When God Was a Rabbit’ a couple f years ago and it quickly become one of my favourite ever books. Sarah has a beautiful way with words and a real unique storytelling talent. I was thrilled to have won a copy of Tin Man, new newest novel and the copy I won was a gorgeous cloth, hardback version which looks absolutely stunning. This book isn’t even out yet but the lucky advance reviewers are already singing its praises so I really got my hopes up for this one.
Sigh… I’ve been absolutely dreading writing this review because I know so many people will disagree with me . I’m worried I’m going to get stoned to be quite honest because whilst yes, it’s beautifully written and yes, Sarah has a wonderful voice and yes, it covers topics that need to be covered more and sensitive issues that aren’t spoken about in books and yes, it’s bright and vivid – I didn’t like it. I’m not denying it’s a wonderful book. It is. I just personally, didn’t like it. I found it far too whimsical and unbelievable and unrealistically romantic. That’s my first mistake really, I don’t like romance novels. Doh.
A big issue I had with this book was I personally found it was too ‘over described’ . There’s a chapter where the character is in France and hand on heart, I had no idea what I was supposed to be picturing, the setting he was supposed to be in — anything. We’re told place name after place name and people will be like “well why didn’t you look it up and find out what it was“, because I’m reading a fiction book, not doing research into French tourist spots.
The storyline itself, I get what the author was trying to do. I think. I like that it looks at gay relationships and straight relationships and friendships in an entirely different light. some friendships in the book truly were beautiful and it gives a real intimate insight into the different types of relationships a human being can have and how certain people fit together. I loved that. I loved the idea behind it but the actual storyline… I feel like not much, well, happened. Like yeah, stuff happened. But what was the storyline?
So yeah, I’m going to end this here because I don’t know what else to say; I can’t say this book had much of an impact on me, if any. Unlike When God Was a Rabbit which captured me and wouldn’t let me go. I got it but it really wasn’t for me. The whimsicality, the romance, the elaborate settings – it was all a bit much. And disclaimer: I’m not talking about the gay element of the book, I personally loved that and would want to see that more in contemporary books. Meh, I’m sorry I really wanted to love it! Also, why were there no speech marks throughout the whole damn book?
Sigh… I’ve been absolutely dreading writing this review because I know so many people will disagree with me . I’m worried I’m going to get stoned to be quite honest because whilst yes, it’s beautifully written and yes, Sarah has a wonderful voice and yes, it covers topics that need to be covered more and sensitive issues that aren’t spoken about in books and yes, it’s bright and vivid – I didn’t like it. I’m not denying it’s a wonderful book. It is. I just personally, didn’t like it. I found it far too whimsical and unbelievable and unrealistically romantic. That’s my first mistake really, I don’t like romance novels. Doh.
A big issue I had with this book was I personally found it was too ‘over described’ . There’s a chapter where the character is in France and hand on heart, I had no idea what I was supposed to be picturing, the setting he was supposed to be in — anything. We’re told place name after place name and people will be like “well why didn’t you look it up and find out what it was“, because I’m reading a fiction book, not doing research into French tourist spots.
The storyline itself, I get what the author was trying to do. I think. I like that it looks at gay relationships and straight relationships and friendships in an entirely different light. some friendships in the book truly were beautiful and it gives a real intimate insight into the different types of relationships a human being can have and how certain people fit together. I loved that. I loved the idea behind it but the actual storyline… I feel like not much, well, happened. Like yeah, stuff happened. But what was the storyline?
So yeah, I’m going to end this here because I don’t know what else to say; I can’t say this book had much of an impact on me, if any. Unlike When God Was a Rabbit which captured me and wouldn’t let me go. I got it but it really wasn’t for me. The whimsicality, the romance, the elaborate settings – it was all a bit much. And disclaimer: I’m not talking about the gay element of the book, I personally loved that and would want to see that more in contemporary books. Meh, I’m sorry I really wanted to love it! Also, why were there no speech marks throughout the whole damn book?
February 15, 2019
I don't know why I waited so long to read this book, but now that I have, I want everyone else to read it, too! This is my first book by Sarah Winman, though I am sure it won't be my last. It tells a quiet story, and one that truly moved me. I don't want to get too much into the plot, because there are a few twists I don't want to spoil. That being said, it is a deeply character driven book (my favorite kind!), and while it is tinged in melancholy, it is also a story about love, friendship and identity. I know I won't be quick to forget Ellis, Michael and Annie.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Thanks to Netgalley for supplying me with a copy of Tin Man in exchange for an honest review.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Thanks to Netgalley for supplying me with a copy of Tin Man in exchange for an honest review.
October 13, 2018
Who would have thought such a small book could pack so much punch. I loved every word of it, so much so that I am still giving it five stars despite the fact there were no speech marks - a contrivance which I normally hate!
Everything else was perfect. I enjoyed the characters, the writer's simple style, the oh so emotional story and even the leaping around in time which meant the story was revealed piece by piece. There was a lot of loss and a lot of sadness, but also periods of great happiness. Ellis, Michael and Annie had unusual lives but certainly not wasted ones.
This book is a keeper and I will look out for the author's other works.
Everything else was perfect. I enjoyed the characters, the writer's simple style, the oh so emotional story and even the leaping around in time which meant the story was revealed piece by piece. There was a lot of loss and a lot of sadness, but also periods of great happiness. Ellis, Michael and Annie had unusual lives but certainly not wasted ones.
This book is a keeper and I will look out for the author's other works.
July 29, 2018
Lovely and poignant, spare and powerful. I read it twice; the second time just to linger over the beautiful words and let the story of Ellis, Michael and Annie sink into my heart.
Truly memorable. If you haven’t read this little gem yet, I highly recommend it.
Truly memorable. If you haven’t read this little gem yet, I highly recommend it.
July 27, 2018
I was hooked at Sunflowers......truly my favorite flower. 🌻
TIN MAN is a complex story of tough love and friendships, dysfunctional families and heartbreaking loss....losses that disrupt life that are mostly, but not always associated with death....And it all begins so innocently with a raffle for a painting of sunflowers.
Ellis and Michael are so young when they first meet and discover some of the possibilities of life; and when Annie joins the picture, the two become three and even deeper friendship's evolve.
So much....yet so little life is lived in this relatively short, emotionally charged story, yet amidst the silence of repressed grief, there are also laughs, fun times and unforgettable kindnesses.
While initially confused with some of the abrupt shifts in timeline, the TIN MAN, my first Sarah Winman novel turned out to be one fine read!
Thank you Goodread's friend Karen. So glad I caught YOUR review or I would have missed this one.
May 25, 2018
Thank you to Penguin Group Publishing for providing this advance reader copy via Edelweiss.
This book takes place in England and spans the time period of the early sixties to the mid-nineties. I was immediately drawn emotionally to the character of Ellis Judd, a man in his forties who is just going through the motions to get up each day and go to work. He's functioning physically like a machine, yet he's swallowed up by grief and emptiness as he passes through each day. The work alarm goes off, he brushes his teeth...these are all huge accomplishments to a person so hollowed out by sorrow. As the book begins, a photograph is referenced showing Ellis, his wife Annie and best friend Michael. They all have expressions of sheer happiness as they stand together in a joint embrace, the background out of focus. Then we find out that Ellis Judd's wife Annie died five years ago in a car accident. But, there's much more to the story of Ellis's feelings of devastation, for his legacy of love was much more complicated. For he was the central figure in loving both his wife and the beloved male friend from his youth.
The first half of the book is told from Ellis's point of view, and the second half is told from Michael's point of view, with a short epilogue from Ellis ending the book. This was a very fast read for me, and I usually read at a snail's pace. I was surprised to hear that this was a short book (it's a little over 200 pages), because I rationalized my fast read due to the brilliance of the writing. It didn't feel like the book was short, because the story was so rich. I was a little disoriented by the latest trend of not using quotations to reference dialogue, but managed without much distress.
The backstory to Ellis's life speaks of his very influential mother Dora. She wins a copy of one of Van Gogh's paintings "Sunflowers" at a community center raffle. She has a passionate and visceral connection to this painting, which she first noticed on a school trip at fifteen years old. Her crass and surly husband Leonard had shouted out to her to choose the whisky prize over the painting. But, in Dora's first act of defiance, she chose the painting. This seemingly inconsequential item means so much to her that when Leonard threatens to destroy the painting, Dora says, "Do it and I'll kill you," - as she stands in front of the painting raising the hammer she just used to hang it up. There are many moments where Dora can be found sitting in front of this painting, just gazing at in rapture, as it provides for her a kind of peace and inspiration...a world apart from her disappointing marriage.
The meeting of Ellis and Michael during their youth at the local greengrocers "Mabel's" is momentous. Michael is a sensitive and well-read child, having been orphaned and taken in by Mabel. Michael relates very well to Ellis's Mom Dora. They share their love of the Sunflowers painting and communicate about many other things like books (Michael had a whole suitcase of them when he moved into Mabel's). Michael is an old soul and he loves to sit in the front of the car with Dora whenever she drives the two boys on outings. When Dora passes away and Ellis is confronted by his father's cold and violent nature, Mabel takes Ellis into her protective fold, and he and Michael's relationship evolves to a higher plane.
I won't go into more detail, as I'll leave the rest for future readers. Suffice it to say that this was a very beautifully written story, and I thank my Goodreads friend Angela M for inspiring me to read it.
This book takes place in England and spans the time period of the early sixties to the mid-nineties. I was immediately drawn emotionally to the character of Ellis Judd, a man in his forties who is just going through the motions to get up each day and go to work. He's functioning physically like a machine, yet he's swallowed up by grief and emptiness as he passes through each day. The work alarm goes off, he brushes his teeth...these are all huge accomplishments to a person so hollowed out by sorrow. As the book begins, a photograph is referenced showing Ellis, his wife Annie and best friend Michael. They all have expressions of sheer happiness as they stand together in a joint embrace, the background out of focus. Then we find out that Ellis Judd's wife Annie died five years ago in a car accident. But, there's much more to the story of Ellis's feelings of devastation, for his legacy of love was much more complicated. For he was the central figure in loving both his wife and the beloved male friend from his youth.
The first half of the book is told from Ellis's point of view, and the second half is told from Michael's point of view, with a short epilogue from Ellis ending the book. This was a very fast read for me, and I usually read at a snail's pace. I was surprised to hear that this was a short book (it's a little over 200 pages), because I rationalized my fast read due to the brilliance of the writing. It didn't feel like the book was short, because the story was so rich. I was a little disoriented by the latest trend of not using quotations to reference dialogue, but managed without much distress.
The backstory to Ellis's life speaks of his very influential mother Dora. She wins a copy of one of Van Gogh's paintings "Sunflowers" at a community center raffle. She has a passionate and visceral connection to this painting, which she first noticed on a school trip at fifteen years old. Her crass and surly husband Leonard had shouted out to her to choose the whisky prize over the painting. But, in Dora's first act of defiance, she chose the painting. This seemingly inconsequential item means so much to her that when Leonard threatens to destroy the painting, Dora says, "Do it and I'll kill you," - as she stands in front of the painting raising the hammer she just used to hang it up. There are many moments where Dora can be found sitting in front of this painting, just gazing at in rapture, as it provides for her a kind of peace and inspiration...a world apart from her disappointing marriage.
The meeting of Ellis and Michael during their youth at the local greengrocers "Mabel's" is momentous. Michael is a sensitive and well-read child, having been orphaned and taken in by Mabel. Michael relates very well to Ellis's Mom Dora. They share their love of the Sunflowers painting and communicate about many other things like books (Michael had a whole suitcase of them when he moved into Mabel's). Michael is an old soul and he loves to sit in the front of the car with Dora whenever she drives the two boys on outings. When Dora passes away and Ellis is confronted by his father's cold and violent nature, Mabel takes Ellis into her protective fold, and he and Michael's relationship evolves to a higher plane.
I won't go into more detail, as I'll leave the rest for future readers. Suffice it to say that this was a very beautifully written story, and I thank my Goodreads friend Angela M for inspiring me to read it.
April 12, 2018
Tin Man is a gentle, melancholy filled novel, that's quite different from anything I've read in recent times. It is the first Sarah Winman book I read and I know it won't be the last.
I should probably stay with this novel a bit longer and try to write a review later when I'm less sleepy, but we all know that's not my style.
This is an unusual novel in its execution. As you'll see it mentioned in many reviews, there are no speech marks. The punctuation nazi in me was initially put off by it, but not as much as I would have expected, especially since it's the first time I came across this crime. The writing was so beautiful, so touching, I ended up appreciating the lack of disruptions especially as this novel is made up of memories and recollections. Those recollections belong to two friends, Ellis and Michael, who met each other as kids in the late 1960s. Their friendship was tight and got tighter as time went by.
Eventually, the two became three, as Ellis marries lovely Annie. The three continue to be tight until Michael moves away and eventually stops all contact.
In his mid-forties now, Ellis is a widower. His loneliness and grief are palpable. Through the mundane details, Winman manages to carry us into Ellis' empty, sorrowful world. It's heartbreaking. Of course, he's given to looking back, and looking back involves Michael, who'd been such an important part of his life.
That's when we move to Michael's story. And that's the story of a gay man, who's had many dalliances, but who had only loved one person.
Tin Man is a layered novel, written in a non-linear way, it flows and meanders, and it's filled with details and mundanity, and the little things, gestures that stay with one.
Tin Man had an ethereal quality about it that absolutely mesmerised me.
It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it sure was a deliciously unique cup of coffee for this reader.
May 8, 2018
A high 4 stars.
Tin Man is very short and deceptively simply written, but it packs a punch. The story focuses on the relationship between Ellis and Michael. They meet when they are boys. They drift in and out of each other’s lives but the emotional bond between them is strong and complicated. The story is first told from Ellis’ perspective and then from Michael’s perspective. There are a few other strong characters, including Ellis’ mother and wife, who add a lot of dimension to the story. The timelines in both narratives move back and forth in time. The story feels like a puzzle, with disparate pieces coming together to form a more or less coherent picture of what happened between these characters. The whole time, the sense of loss, loneliness, regret and love is palpable.
This would have been a 5 star read, but I got lost a few times in piecing the story together. Still, the writing and emotional pull of the characters make this one well worth reading.
This was another buddy read with Angela and Diane. Lovely as usual. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
Tin Man is very short and deceptively simply written, but it packs a punch. The story focuses on the relationship between Ellis and Michael. They meet when they are boys. They drift in and out of each other’s lives but the emotional bond between them is strong and complicated. The story is first told from Ellis’ perspective and then from Michael’s perspective. There are a few other strong characters, including Ellis’ mother and wife, who add a lot of dimension to the story. The timelines in both narratives move back and forth in time. The story feels like a puzzle, with disparate pieces coming together to form a more or less coherent picture of what happened between these characters. The whole time, the sense of loss, loneliness, regret and love is palpable.
This would have been a 5 star read, but I got lost a few times in piecing the story together. Still, the writing and emotional pull of the characters make this one well worth reading.
This was another buddy read with Angela and Diane. Lovely as usual. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
June 26, 2018
I buddy read this with Brenda in our Traveling Sister group. This is a slim volume but it packs a lot of heart in achingly beautiful, simple prose. The book opens with the pregnant Dora's first act of defiance in choosing a copy of Van Gogh's “Sunflowers” as her raffle prize over the whiskey her husband wanted. It transformed her drab existence...."this was the life she wanted: Freedom, Possibility. Beauty”.
Fast forward decades and the next section of the book begins with Dora’s son, Ellis, who lost his wife and best friend 5 years ago. He is still in the depths of despair, and his grief and loneliness is heavy. We travel back and forth in time as Ellis gives us background into his childhood, his friendship with Michael, and his wife Annie.
Regarding the title: several references were made in the book about how Ellis needed to be better - better at showing emotion, making human connections. Is he the Tin Man? A reference not just to his job in an auto body shop, but to his heart?
The last half of the book is told in first person narrative by Ellis's friend Michael, who fills in the large gaps in time and fits the pieces of the puzzle together for the reader.
This is in many ways a story of contrasts. Drab loneliness vs the color and beauty found in nature and art. It’s a story of bonding and friendship, but also one of love and loss, loneliness vs. simple human kindnesses. Its about acceptance and finding a place in the world. People are complicated...there are often stark contrasts within a person: Ellis wonders "how flowers and care can reside equally in a man of such rage".
And love, it’s about love in all it’s forms: among friends, romantic love, the love between parent and child, and unrequited love. The love and kindness shown to others. It’s about the beauty and hope that can be found in a simple piece of art. The belief that “men and boys are capable of beautiful things.” And overshadowing it all is the tragic AIDS epidemic.
A few favorite quotes:
“I haven't cried. But sometimes I feel as if my veins are leaking, as if my body is overwhelmed, as if I'm drowning from the inside.”
“But it was my humanness that led me to seek, that’s all. Led us all to seek. A simple need to belong somewhere.”
“I see how decisions are made, in moments like that, that change the trajectory of ones life.” How those decisions can change how one defines oneself.
“Autumn knocks on the window. I pull back the sliding doors and let it in. Lights from the meat market flicker and car light streak the gloom. Overhead the pulse of aeroplane wings replaces the stars. The flat is quiet. This is loneliness.”
“I wonder what the sound of a heart breaking might be. And I think it might be quiet, unperceptively so, and not dramatic at all. Like the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth.”
As haunting and sad as this book was, it ends on hopeful note. I really liked the message about belonging, acceptance and love and human kindness. This story and the characters are ones that will stay with me for a long time to come.
* I received my copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to EW, the publisher, and the author.
Fast forward decades and the next section of the book begins with Dora’s son, Ellis, who lost his wife and best friend 5 years ago. He is still in the depths of despair, and his grief and loneliness is heavy. We travel back and forth in time as Ellis gives us background into his childhood, his friendship with Michael, and his wife Annie.
Regarding the title: several references were made in the book about how Ellis needed to be better - better at showing emotion, making human connections. Is he the Tin Man? A reference not just to his job in an auto body shop, but to his heart?
The last half of the book is told in first person narrative by Ellis's friend Michael, who fills in the large gaps in time and fits the pieces of the puzzle together for the reader.
This is in many ways a story of contrasts. Drab loneliness vs the color and beauty found in nature and art. It’s a story of bonding and friendship, but also one of love and loss, loneliness vs. simple human kindnesses. Its about acceptance and finding a place in the world. People are complicated...there are often stark contrasts within a person: Ellis wonders "how flowers and care can reside equally in a man of such rage".
And love, it’s about love in all it’s forms: among friends, romantic love, the love between parent and child, and unrequited love. The love and kindness shown to others. It’s about the beauty and hope that can be found in a simple piece of art. The belief that “men and boys are capable of beautiful things.” And overshadowing it all is the tragic AIDS epidemic.
A few favorite quotes:
“I haven't cried. But sometimes I feel as if my veins are leaking, as if my body is overwhelmed, as if I'm drowning from the inside.”
“But it was my humanness that led me to seek, that’s all. Led us all to seek. A simple need to belong somewhere.”
“I see how decisions are made, in moments like that, that change the trajectory of ones life.” How those decisions can change how one defines oneself.
“Autumn knocks on the window. I pull back the sliding doors and let it in. Lights from the meat market flicker and car light streak the gloom. Overhead the pulse of aeroplane wings replaces the stars. The flat is quiet. This is loneliness.”
“I wonder what the sound of a heart breaking might be. And I think it might be quiet, unperceptively so, and not dramatic at all. Like the sound of an exhausted swallow falling gently to earth.”
As haunting and sad as this book was, it ends on hopeful note. I really liked the message about belonging, acceptance and love and human kindness. This story and the characters are ones that will stay with me for a long time to come.
* I received my copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to EW, the publisher, and the author.
June 26, 2018
There are rare times that a book will reach out and grab hold of your heart and soul and affect you in ways that you never knew the written word could do.Tin Man by Sarah Winman is such a unique and marvelous tale.
Told in two distinct parts, Tin Man is a love story but so much more. It is the memoir of two men, Ellis and Michael, who, during their youth, were shy, young lovers. Ellis, however, went on to marry the woman of dreams, Annie, and the three of them formed a very close, tight friendship. But the book is more than just a love story. Through the young men we learn and we feel what it was like to be in love with someone who society and family and norms forbids. Through their love we feel their pain and confusion and also the realization that, had they been in a different time, place or family, their lives could have been so profoundly different. Whether that life would have been better or worse, we will never know, only that there was a missed opportunity and a memory of “what could have been.”
Winman is a powerful writer who crafts tales with so much feeling and depth that the reader is capable of developing an empathy for the characters she has created. She proved herself to be a talented storyteller with her book, When God Was a Rabbit, but she surpasses all that we thought imaginable with Tin Man, which truly is her best work to date. Tin Man is destined to be a classic and truly is a “must read” piece of fiction.
Told in two distinct parts, Tin Man is a love story but so much more. It is the memoir of two men, Ellis and Michael, who, during their youth, were shy, young lovers. Ellis, however, went on to marry the woman of dreams, Annie, and the three of them formed a very close, tight friendship. But the book is more than just a love story. Through the young men we learn and we feel what it was like to be in love with someone who society and family and norms forbids. Through their love we feel their pain and confusion and also the realization that, had they been in a different time, place or family, their lives could have been so profoundly different. Whether that life would have been better or worse, we will never know, only that there was a missed opportunity and a memory of “what could have been.”
Winman is a powerful writer who crafts tales with so much feeling and depth that the reader is capable of developing an empathy for the characters she has created. She proved herself to be a talented storyteller with her book, When God Was a Rabbit, but she surpasses all that we thought imaginable with Tin Man, which truly is her best work to date. Tin Man is destined to be a classic and truly is a “must read” piece of fiction.
December 6, 2021
4.5Stars: I loved “The Tin Man” by Sarah Winman. It’s a slip of a novel with great emotional impact. It’s a story of a young widower, Ellis, reflecting upon his life. He works at a car plant at the body shop, taking the dents out of cars. He’s teased a bit by his fellow workers, but he doesn’t care. He’s a morose character, with no joy.
The story is in two parts; the first is Ellis going through the motions of his life. The reader soon learns that his wife died in an auto accident. Ellis reflects on his life and that leads the reader to his formative years with his best friend Michael. The majority of the novel is a coming-of-age story of two sweet sensitive boys growing up in a working class town.
The second part of the novel is written through the diaries of Michael and his life as a gay man in the AIDs era in London.
This is a touching novel of Ellis, through reflections, examining his life, passions, and regrets. It’s a beautiful novel that shows how we don’t always know those we are closest to.
The story is in two parts; the first is Ellis going through the motions of his life. The reader soon learns that his wife died in an auto accident. Ellis reflects on his life and that leads the reader to his formative years with his best friend Michael. The majority of the novel is a coming-of-age story of two sweet sensitive boys growing up in a working class town.
The second part of the novel is written through the diaries of Michael and his life as a gay man in the AIDs era in London.
This is a touching novel of Ellis, through reflections, examining his life, passions, and regrets. It’s a beautiful novel that shows how we don’t always know those we are closest to.
December 2, 2018
Follow https://booknationbyjen.wordpress.com for all reviews and recommendations.
Tin Man, a tender and beautiful story, is heartbreaking and wonderfully moving. At twelve years old, Ellis and Michael become friends. They both have difficult family lives and less than stellar relationships with their fathers. They spend lots of time together having fun and exploring their town outside of London, and then, their close friendship becomes something more.
Ten years later, Ellis is married to Annie and Michael is out of the picture. Ellis is burdened with shame, stemming from his past, his insecurities about who he really is and fear of his father. Author Sarah Winman writes about Ellis and Michael as young boys and as grown men, telling us all that happened in between. It is a complex love story of sorts, really, a life story of two men, their choices and regrets, and also a story of strong women who allow these men to journey toward their own truths by providing love, support, friendship and family. With memories of love and loneliness, these wonderful characters and powerful relationships are captivating, expressive and unforgettable. For me, other compelling and interesting parts of the story include Van Gogh's painting of The Sunflowers, France during the summer of 1969, and the late 1980's AIDS epidemic.
Don't be fooled by the small, diary-size of this novel - it packs a wonderful and powerful 5-star punch.
Follow my reviews on https://booknationbyjen.wordpress.com.
Tin Man, a tender and beautiful story, is heartbreaking and wonderfully moving. At twelve years old, Ellis and Michael become friends. They both have difficult family lives and less than stellar relationships with their fathers. They spend lots of time together having fun and exploring their town outside of London, and then, their close friendship becomes something more.
Ten years later, Ellis is married to Annie and Michael is out of the picture. Ellis is burdened with shame, stemming from his past, his insecurities about who he really is and fear of his father. Author Sarah Winman writes about Ellis and Michael as young boys and as grown men, telling us all that happened in between. It is a complex love story of sorts, really, a life story of two men, their choices and regrets, and also a story of strong women who allow these men to journey toward their own truths by providing love, support, friendship and family. With memories of love and loneliness, these wonderful characters and powerful relationships are captivating, expressive and unforgettable. For me, other compelling and interesting parts of the story include Van Gogh's painting of The Sunflowers, France during the summer of 1969, and the late 1980's AIDS epidemic.
Don't be fooled by the small, diary-size of this novel - it packs a wonderful and powerful 5-star punch.
Follow my reviews on https://booknationbyjen.wordpress.com.
August 16, 2018
This is an exquisite gem of a book! I fell in love with the tone of it immediately.
There’s a dream like quality to the book- we are swirling in Ellis’ and Michael’s memories- from the time they met onwards. Two friends with broken families who learn to find happiness because of their friendship. They are both well fleshed out characters that the reader definitely becomes invested in.
This book is about friendships and love and memories. It is about loss and recapturing your memories.
“....just because you can’t remember doesn’t mean the past isn’t out there. All those precious moments are still there somewhere.”
“ I’m broken by my need for others. By the erotic dance of memory that pounces when loneliness falls.”
The writing flowed throughout much like a dream. Sarah Winman is such a beautiful writer.
I felt there was more I wished to explore with these two characters and also more I wanted to know about Annie- the third element to their friendship and story.
Ultimately, it is a profound exploration of love and memory!
Highly recommend!
4.5 STARS.
There’s a dream like quality to the book- we are swirling in Ellis’ and Michael’s memories- from the time they met onwards. Two friends with broken families who learn to find happiness because of their friendship. They are both well fleshed out characters that the reader definitely becomes invested in.
This book is about friendships and love and memories. It is about loss and recapturing your memories.
“....just because you can’t remember doesn’t mean the past isn’t out there. All those precious moments are still there somewhere.”
“ I’m broken by my need for others. By the erotic dance of memory that pounces when loneliness falls.”
The writing flowed throughout much like a dream. Sarah Winman is such a beautiful writer.
I felt there was more I wished to explore with these two characters and also more I wanted to know about Annie- the third element to their friendship and story.
Ultimately, it is a profound exploration of love and memory!
Highly recommend!
4.5 STARS.
June 26, 2018
Tin Man is a small novel but with a massive emotional punch.
Sarah Winman creates complex, complete characters and writes beautifully about their relationships and sexuality. There’s a comfortable mix of the everyday and the poetic.
Ellis is a wonderful central character ...... sad, down to Earth, lonely and bemused. His best friend Michael ....... actually, I don’t want to say anything more about the characters or the plot, as that will lessen the impact if the book.
Just to say that episodes from the past and present are skilfully woven into a narrative that brings to life characters you care deeply about.
There are some heartbreaking plot twists and the descriptions of loneliness are sometimes hard to read, but this is not a depressing novel.
Tin Man glows with warmth, humanity and hope and I’m certain this novel will stay with me for a very long time.
Sarah Winman creates complex, complete characters and writes beautifully about their relationships and sexuality. There’s a comfortable mix of the everyday and the poetic.
Ellis is a wonderful central character ...... sad, down to Earth, lonely and bemused. His best friend Michael ....... actually, I don’t want to say anything more about the characters or the plot, as that will lessen the impact if the book.
Just to say that episodes from the past and present are skilfully woven into a narrative that brings to life characters you care deeply about.
There are some heartbreaking plot twists and the descriptions of loneliness are sometimes hard to read, but this is not a depressing novel.
Tin Man glows with warmth, humanity and hope and I’m certain this novel will stay with me for a very long time.
March 6, 2019
Find my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
“There’s something about first love, isn’t there? It’s untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it’s the measure of all that follows.”
I’m pretty sure the only reason I avoided this at first was because it had like an 11,000 person waiting list at the library by the time I had heard about it. I decided to give it a go after seeing debra's reaction, and now?????
If you know me, you know I pretty much get emotional about twice a year and usually that can be blamed on . . . .
Yesterday I opted to read this during the lunch hour, but remained seated at my desk due to work being just a little too worky to feel comfortable leaving my cohorts and retreating to my favorite hidey hole. The end result was a gal shoveling salad in her snot and tear covered face while I cried the ugly cry of a Kardashian.
This slim novel tells the story of two near lifelong friends – Michael and Ellis. The first half focuses on Ellis (the “Tin Man”) and is told in a detached/third person style (which lacks quotation marks to boot). The second half features Michael, presented in first person via a journal format. It definitely isn’t a book for everyone as it is very atmospheric and often the setting is the focus rather than the players. You’ll either be okay with the writing or you won’t. If you find yourself on the positive side of the spectrum, you’ll discover a story that reminds us . . . .
I’m not going to say any more. Only that this is the best thing I’ve read so far this year and also . . . . .
“There’s something about first love, isn’t there? It’s untouchable to those who played no part in it. But it’s the measure of all that follows.”
I’m pretty sure the only reason I avoided this at first was because it had like an 11,000 person waiting list at the library by the time I had heard about it. I decided to give it a go after seeing debra's reaction, and now?????
If you know me, you know I pretty much get emotional about twice a year and usually that can be blamed on . . . .
Yesterday I opted to read this during the lunch hour, but remained seated at my desk due to work being just a little too worky to feel comfortable leaving my cohorts and retreating to my favorite hidey hole. The end result was a gal shoveling salad in her snot and tear covered face while I cried the ugly cry of a Kardashian.
This slim novel tells the story of two near lifelong friends – Michael and Ellis. The first half focuses on Ellis (the “Tin Man”) and is told in a detached/third person style (which lacks quotation marks to boot). The second half features Michael, presented in first person via a journal format. It definitely isn’t a book for everyone as it is very atmospheric and often the setting is the focus rather than the players. You’ll either be okay with the writing or you won’t. If you find yourself on the positive side of the spectrum, you’ll discover a story that reminds us . . . .
I’m not going to say any more. Only that this is the best thing I’ve read so far this year and also . . . . .
May 11, 2018
You can see my review here: https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...
What a strange but alluring book! It is a story of two boys who are friends and then they are more than that. The boys Ellis and Michael are twelve at the onset of the story discovering life, bicycling, swimming, trying to escape their fathers who are imperious, and finding that friendship leads them to something else.
The story then jumps to years later to the time when Ellis is married to Anne. In the meantime the author makes us wonder what happened to Michael. Why did these boys grown to men disconnect?
There is a beautiful connection to sunflowers particularly the reproduction of Van Gogh's work. Yellow is often the symbol of friendship, life, love and happiness and truly this book was about all of those things and yet it was much more. The flowers turn their face to the sun and while reading this book, particularly in Michael's section, I had to think that the sun was exactly what Michael was seeking. Van Gogh's tortured life the unrequited love he once felt is also reflected in Michael's life.
The only drawback to this beautifully written novel was while the author seemed to let us really get to know Michael, I felt that Ellis remained a stranger. However, this book is one of beauty, one that touches the reader with the soul of its characters, one that was short yet ever so poignant.
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
― C.G. Jung
What a strange but alluring book! It is a story of two boys who are friends and then they are more than that. The boys Ellis and Michael are twelve at the onset of the story discovering life, bicycling, swimming, trying to escape their fathers who are imperious, and finding that friendship leads them to something else.
The story then jumps to years later to the time when Ellis is married to Anne. In the meantime the author makes us wonder what happened to Michael. Why did these boys grown to men disconnect?
There is a beautiful connection to sunflowers particularly the reproduction of Van Gogh's work. Yellow is often the symbol of friendship, life, love and happiness and truly this book was about all of those things and yet it was much more. The flowers turn their face to the sun and while reading this book, particularly in Michael's section, I had to think that the sun was exactly what Michael was seeking. Van Gogh's tortured life the unrequited love he once felt is also reflected in Michael's life.
The only drawback to this beautifully written novel was while the author seemed to let us really get to know Michael, I felt that Ellis remained a stranger. However, this book is one of beauty, one that touches the reader with the soul of its characters, one that was short yet ever so poignant.
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
― C.G. Jung
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