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Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa

1 review

ljthelibrarian's review

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dark informative reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I finished Hunchback in one sitting partly due to the novella length and partly out of curiosity to see what would happen next. 

I was initially drawn to this book because it differs from the type of narratives we usually see around disability, exploring the main character Shaka's internal world, her day-to-day, and the life she lives online. This book is for readers of literary fiction who like complex main characters, and books that make them slightly uncomfortable. 

The observations regarding accessibility particularly resonated with me. As a librarian people often ask me if I think that physical books will disappear and be replaced by eBooks, and they make grand statements about how it just doesn't get better than a physical book. Usually they expect me to agree with them, so I am constantly gently (and not so gently) reminding people that as a librarian I advocate for accessibility of information. This means I support books being made available in as many forms as possible - including audiobooks, eBooks, Large Print books etc. Because of Shaka's muscle disorder and curvature of the spine reading physical books is dangerous due to the weight. At one point Shaka references a disability advocate speaking on TV: 

"On air, she had spoken eloquently about the difficulties she had with physical books, which she couldn't read unless she had a carer there to turn the pages for her...all those able-bodied people didn't know how good they had it. They could make erudite-sounding pronouncements about how they just liked the smell of books, or the feel of the paper, or the sense of tension that came from the thickness of the remaining pages reducing beneath their fingers, and others would listen unquestioningly to what they were saying."

I wish this book had been a novel. While it was engaging there were many angles and characters touched on that I would have liked to have seen fleshed out and fully explored. While the middle part of the book was engaging, I found the beginning and the ending quite jarring, especially as I didn't see the ending coming. I like the interpretation that the ending is a piece of the protagonist's fiction. This theory makes sense to me as that is how the novella starts, and also the piece is in keeping with the style of Shaka's other writing.

Saou Ichikawa is the first physically disabled author to win the Akutagawa Prize - one of Japan's top literary awards. Hunchback is her debut and I would be interested to read more from her in the future. 

Thanks to Penguin for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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