Reviews

The Invisible Land by Sam Taylor, Hubert Mingarelli

jenrkeeling's review

dark emotional sad

5.0

Devastating, beautiful, haunted by the words left unwritten. A masterpiece of literary fiction. 

fruitysaz's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

this is really beautiful. slow, subtle, and does its job perfectly. this book really catches an idea i’ve always agreed with: that a people are not the same as their government. the people that the war photographer meets in this book are just that: people. they’re not these irrevocably evil caricatures. they’re just people who lived through an unbelievably difficult time and are trying to make it out the other side, often dealing with the trauma they’ve gathered along the way. our narrator, the war photographer, is dealing with his own similar traumas by fleeing from them through his work - which ultimately only leads him back to said trauma. at times, this book is almost painfully slow. it holds you in a moment with the photographer, and forces you to sit in it with him. even though it’s just shy of 150 pages, this is NOT an easy read - and it’s all the better for it. 

lenalol's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

chiara_lr's review

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

brettcarl's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

2.0

A puzzling novel that's somehow simultaneously thought-provoking and intriguingly, as well as tedious and bland. Following an unnamed photographer and his armed solider escort, O'Leary, Mingarelli subtly hints at the haunting and complex reality of war, specifically how uncertainty and unease still lingers and seems to infect the environment and its occupants even once the fighting has ceased and victory is secured. Critically, the plot is admirable in a way, however not enough happens in order to justify such subtly from Mingarelli and this gives the story an air of vacancy and vagueness that's desperately in need of being satisfyingly filled and clarified. 
Significantly, Mingarelli's intentions seem pretty clear throughout the novel, yet its his execution of these intentions which ultimately lets himself and the novel down. By the end, while I felt like I'd read something interesting and original, conclusively, I felt underwhelmed and disappointed with not just the conclusion but the overall quality of the novel - whether it be its plot, characters, world-building, themes or prose. 

e_f_p21's review

dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A

3.0

05hamiltonk's review

3.0

A quiet and interesting book. Not much happens, but there is a lot of emotion captured and I think it portrays the feelings at the end of a war very well. I didn't really understand the relationship between the men at all and some of the dialogue between them threw me off.

tasmanian_bibliophile's review

4.0

‘I didn’t know why I stayed on.’

The voice belongs to our unnamed narrator, a war photographer. He is in Dinslaken, Germany, in 1945, and reluctant to return home. While the damage around him is being assessed, he sets out to photograph ordinary German people in front of their homes. He is assigned a driver, a young soldier named O’Leary, a car with some fuel and other provisions.

As they drive, seemingly aimlessly, from place to place, we learn that O’Leary, who came to late too do any fighting, is also reluctant to return home. The fighting may have finished, but the aftermath is all around them. German people, ordinary German people, trying to pick up their lives. Our narrator, who has no language in common with them (and often seems insensitive to their needs and feelings) directs them (through gestures). Not everyone agrees to be photographed.

I read on, wondering what it is that our narrator is looking for, what purpose will his photographs serve? I wonder too about O’Leary, about his reluctance to return home.

And then, just as I think their travels are about to conclude, with a family who have offered hospitality, I am jerked out of my complacency by a violent act. I had been lulled into a false sense of safety, with non-combatants at the end of a dreadful war. I am reminded, yet again, that violence exists outside war. I observe the ‘how’ but have no answer for the ‘why’, just sadness and regret for the fact and impact. I am left thinking.

‘We walked into the forest amid almost total darkness and when we came out again the stars, more numerous than above the clearing, guided us towards the road.’

I was sad, too, to learn that Hubert Mingarelli died earlier this year. I have read ‘A Meal in winter’ and ‘Four Soldiers’ and hope to read his other work as it is translated into English.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

caoimhe97's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

bannerheldhigh's review

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Nice imagery but otherwise, this short book bored me in all honesty.