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3.18 AVERAGE
3.18 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
dark
tense
actually not sure how i feel abt it so will have to think but basically just more “three women whose lives are frustratingly and completely fucked up by men”
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It's a collection of three novellas set in Senegal, and besides a recommendation from a friend who lived in Senegal for several years, the title grabbed me. But overall, this was a too much "in their heads" collection for me than a unity of moving narratives.
I really loved the third novella and really hated the second one, which was the only one told through a male character's perspective. He was just too much of a villain for me to relate to him. The first novella was ok but felt unfinished, and I felt lurched out of time and space in the end.
The third novella is a powerful immigration narrative (though painful and hard to digest because of its honesty).
Ndiaye has some beautiful writing on the sentence level, but I just was not drawn into her plots and characters the way I'd hoped to be.
I really loved the third novella and really hated the second one, which was the only one told through a male character's perspective. He was just too much of a villain for me to relate to him. The first novella was ok but felt unfinished, and I felt lurched out of time and space in the end.
The third novella is a powerful immigration narrative (though painful and hard to digest because of its honesty).
Ndiaye has some beautiful writing on the sentence level, but I just was not drawn into her plots and characters the way I'd hoped to be.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first story is weird and not in a good way and the second story is way too long and repetitive
I'm struggling to rate books like these on their own merits and not just as a part of a tedious trend of tedious books. But I do feel as though there's something about a lot of contemporary literature that just doesn't mesh with my tastes. And that's too bad.
This book was, above all else, boring. The translation, as has been noted by other reviewers here, seems to have created some problems. Other problems were caused by the writer's own habits. For the life of me, I can't figure out why she chose to explore certain moments in the way that she did. More than once, I felt like I was witnessing a bad bit of writing that had been papered over with language that suggests profundity, yet is empty.
It's unfortunate, because the points of view of a couple of the characters ought to have been really interesting to read. They just weren't. I was just glad this book was short.
This book was, above all else, boring. The translation, as has been noted by other reviewers here, seems to have created some problems. Other problems were caused by the writer's own habits. For the life of me, I can't figure out why she chose to explore certain moments in the way that she did. More than once, I felt like I was witnessing a bad bit of writing that had been papered over with language that suggests profundity, yet is empty.
It's unfortunate, because the points of view of a couple of the characters ought to have been really interesting to read. They just weren't. I was just glad this book was short.
I wasn't enjoying the writing style, it could have been the translation, im not sure
I didn't find the translation aspect very smooth or fluid, but it's impossible to tell if that's just due to translation or if that's how it was in original French. I was definitely interested in the story about the first woman but gave up after about 65 pages.