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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don’t know how to rate this book. I recognize the artistic value of it, and I think Fagan executes his intentions well. The question just becomes: did I enjoy or find intellectual simulation in the reading process? I think the answer is yes, but I also think the answer is “eh... maybe.” So, I’m confused, and if the author wanted me to be confused, then I guess job well done. Three stars on account of confusion.
Writing: Fagan’s prose is well-crafted and extremely emotionally and viscerally evocative. Sentences and phrases flowed together well, and I liked that despite some confusing things happening on the page, there was no confusing syntax or unclear wording. I also appreciated that Fagan knew just how to elicit disgust (at least from me) with just the right imagery or just the right phrase. He doesn’t revel in lengthy descriptions of nasty things, but makes them seem incidental - and I found that to be somewhat unsettling.
Perhaps Fagan’s biggest strength is the ability to create an overall mood that I can only describe as hallucinatory nihilism. Characters would act in ways that didn’t seem quite logical or believable, but they seemed to have purpose - perhaps that purpose being to illustrate that sometimes, destruction (or suffering?) has no meaning. While I don’t know if I personally enjoy that kind of literary approach, it was at least evident that it was done on purpose, so props to the author.
If I had any criticism, I would say that I got rather tired of women being called “sluts” and “whores” so often. I saw this kind of language come up almost every chapter, and my personal tolerance for it became lower and lower the longer it went on. Some critics may counter with “well, the middle ages were sexist,” and that might be valid, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy myself or that historical accuracy is a valid argument here.
Plot: There’s not really a “plot” to this book, per se. Things happen, but I wouldn’t call them “plot points” that build up a grand narrative. Mostly, this book is about a town (called Nobber) that is besieged by plague, and we follow various characters as they navigate that plague.
I was kind of at a loss as to how to react to this book until the end, when I had the idea that maybe Nobber (and the surrounding area) is this space where all the bad gets condensed - a hub for the grotesque, if you will. Plague besieges the town, and no one can leave because of the curfew, so there’s this definite inside/outside boundary that seems to be important. I had that thought while reading about the crow cross (which makes no sense until you read the book) that marks the boundary of Nobber, and how characters acted once they came in contact with it (or in proximity to it). I don’t know if that’s a valid interpretation of Fagan’s work, but I found the book more easy to digest through this lens.
Characters: What to say about the characters...? They’re odd, but that’s an understatement. I didn’t find any of them likeable, but they weren’t supposed to be. I did find them alluring in a grotesque way - they rarely did anything that made logical sense, and many of them were (physically and morally) gross. But I don’t know... I couldn’t look away.
My favorite character to follow was Raghnailt - a mother who struggles with her feelings towards her adult son. I found her to be fairly complex, deciding to love her son fiercely one moment but being repulsed by him the next. Watching her try to figure out how to feel and how she tried to create a family around her was fairly touching, and I ended up really feeling for her.
TL;DR: Nobber is the kind of book that will probably appeal to fans of Irish modernism/postmodernism, but not to those looking for a historical fiction tale. With its focus on the grotesque and gaggle of unnerving characters, this book will surely appeal to those who enjoy literary explorations of nihilism.
Writing: Fagan’s prose is well-crafted and extremely emotionally and viscerally evocative. Sentences and phrases flowed together well, and I liked that despite some confusing things happening on the page, there was no confusing syntax or unclear wording. I also appreciated that Fagan knew just how to elicit disgust (at least from me) with just the right imagery or just the right phrase. He doesn’t revel in lengthy descriptions of nasty things, but makes them seem incidental - and I found that to be somewhat unsettling.
Perhaps Fagan’s biggest strength is the ability to create an overall mood that I can only describe as hallucinatory nihilism. Characters would act in ways that didn’t seem quite logical or believable, but they seemed to have purpose - perhaps that purpose being to illustrate that sometimes, destruction (or suffering?) has no meaning. While I don’t know if I personally enjoy that kind of literary approach, it was at least evident that it was done on purpose, so props to the author.
If I had any criticism, I would say that I got rather tired of women being called “sluts” and “whores” so often. I saw this kind of language come up almost every chapter, and my personal tolerance for it became lower and lower the longer it went on. Some critics may counter with “well, the middle ages were sexist,” and that might be valid, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy myself or that historical accuracy is a valid argument here.
Plot: There’s not really a “plot” to this book, per se. Things happen, but I wouldn’t call them “plot points” that build up a grand narrative. Mostly, this book is about a town (called Nobber) that is besieged by plague, and we follow various characters as they navigate that plague.
I was kind of at a loss as to how to react to this book until the end, when I had the idea that maybe Nobber (and the surrounding area) is this space where all the bad gets condensed - a hub for the grotesque, if you will. Plague besieges the town, and no one can leave because of the curfew, so there’s this definite inside/outside boundary that seems to be important. I had that thought while reading about the crow cross (which makes no sense until you read the book) that marks the boundary of Nobber, and how characters acted once they came in contact with it (or in proximity to it). I don’t know if that’s a valid interpretation of Fagan’s work, but I found the book more easy to digest through this lens.
Characters: What to say about the characters...? They’re odd, but that’s an understatement. I didn’t find any of them likeable, but they weren’t supposed to be. I did find them alluring in a grotesque way - they rarely did anything that made logical sense, and many of them were (physically and morally) gross. But I don’t know... I couldn’t look away.
My favorite character to follow was Raghnailt - a mother who struggles with her feelings towards her adult son. I found her to be fairly complex, deciding to love her son fiercely one moment but being repulsed by him the next. Watching her try to figure out how to feel and how she tried to create a family around her was fairly touching, and I ended up really feeling for her.
TL;DR: Nobber is the kind of book that will probably appeal to fans of Irish modernism/postmodernism, but not to those looking for a historical fiction tale. With its focus on the grotesque and gaggle of unnerving characters, this book will surely appeal to those who enjoy literary explorations of nihilism.
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A really interesting read. The writing is quick, a little vulgar and gross. I did like how there was the metaphor of the land being so full of different animals but the humans are the ones dying of a plague.
I did feel myself skimming the last few pages though.
I did feel myself skimming the last few pages though.
Writing is interesting and funny but I’m just not going to finish a book in which women are treated as sexual objects.
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Nobber is a wretched little book.
A crew of serving men, led by a petulant noble-boy whose morality reflects his ruthless and spoiled upbringing, navigate bubonic plague-era Ireland with the aim of haggling town representatives for the easy ownership of disease-riddled lands. That is... until they come across a town called Nobber.
This book is fascinating. Its characters are so lost in their own myopic insanities that the novel equally reads as a comedy as it does a psychological horror. Fagan has this incredible ability of diving in and out of specific points of view and streams of thought without ever disrupting the flow of his prose, a trap many tend to fall into. Speaking of his prose, it's all beautifully fucked. A solid balance is struck between how much poetry the book's surroundings, thoughts and actions deserve versus the wildly grim reality these features are bound to meet.
Should this sense of dread in the book be perfectly translated to the big screen, it could just as easily be scored by hauntingly off-pitch folk tunes as it could stoner metal ballads about witches hitting bongs midway through sacrificing a child. There is something almost cinematically perfect about what is captured within these relationships, insult tradeoffs and gruesome tragedies, but I can't put into words why I feel that way.
Nobber is an ice-cold bucket of water thrown in the face of the reader, with an excellently dark delivery and a final 50 pages that packs a punch like no other conclusion I've read. A modern classic.
A crew of serving men, led by a petulant noble-boy whose morality reflects his ruthless and spoiled upbringing, navigate bubonic plague-era Ireland with the aim of haggling town representatives for the easy ownership of disease-riddled lands. That is... until they come across a town called Nobber.
This book is fascinating. Its characters are so lost in their own myopic insanities that the novel equally reads as a comedy as it does a psychological horror. Fagan has this incredible ability of diving in and out of specific points of view and streams of thought without ever disrupting the flow of his prose, a trap many tend to fall into. Speaking of his prose, it's all beautifully fucked. A solid balance is struck between how much poetry the book's surroundings, thoughts and actions deserve versus the wildly grim reality these features are bound to meet.
Should this sense of dread in the book be perfectly translated to the big screen, it could just as easily be scored by hauntingly off-pitch folk tunes as it could stoner metal ballads about witches hitting bongs midway through sacrificing a child. There is something almost cinematically perfect about what is captured within these relationships, insult tradeoffs and gruesome tragedies, but I can't put into words why I feel that way.
Nobber is an ice-cold bucket of water thrown in the face of the reader, with an excellently dark delivery and a final 50 pages that packs a punch like no other conclusion I've read. A modern classic.
It is a book you need to concentrate on m and I got it from the library. Put it down and didn’t pick it up again I’m on time before it was due back. Was dark, funny and absurd and was enjoying just timed it wrong
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When raghnailt was a child she thought she would be twice as good at living at twenty as she was at ten; twice that again at forty, but there is no growth, no progression. Nothing ever works. The same emotions strangle her.
This book is completely unique to me. Incredible prose, sometimes poetic. Very powerful imagery, totally gross at times. Made me laugh out loud, recoil in disgust, and think about things from a new perspective.
This book is completely unique to me. Incredible prose, sometimes poetic. Very powerful imagery, totally gross at times. Made me laugh out loud, recoil in disgust, and think about things from a new perspective.