Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
I picked this book up after finishing "Shuggie Bain," by Douglas Stuart. That novel is a little long and very sad--a semi-autobiographical account of a boy, caring for his alcoholic mother and being bullied by his peers. "At Night All Blood is Black" is much shorter (only 145 pages), but no less challenging. Alfa Ndiaye, a 20-year-old Senegalese man, fighting for the French during WWI, continually recounts the traumatic death of his friend, Mademba Diop, on the battlefield and his own madness that ensues. The novel is dark, filled with both the horror of modern war and folkloric myth--it makes for a surreal, satisfying, but somewhat opaque, combination.
Diop probably does and says a lot more in this novel than I was able to pick up on. There are familiar elements to the story--an unreliable narrator, the accepted racism of colonialism, the meaninglessness of war (“So they love to sprint onto the battlefield to be beautifully massacred while screaming like madmen, regulation rifle in the left hand and savage machete in the right.” 14-15). But there are also other, less familiar strains--soul-devouring demms, the European cultural influence (e.g., futurism) on Africans, allegorical folklore. Jessi Jezewska Stevens, in her review, "In the Trenches with the Colonizer," seems to get at a lot of these while also elucidating the book's confusing last few chapters.
Looming under the entire novel are feelings of darkness, regret, and a slide into madness. Diop seems to connect those feelings to the compromising nature of translation--“To translate is never simple. To translate is to betray at the borders, it’s to cheat, it’s to trade one sentence for another. To translate is one of the only human activities in which one is required to lie about the details to convey the truth at large.” 138. Madness, with its skewed perspective, seems similar to translation, with its imperfections.
Diop probably does and says a lot more in this novel than I was able to pick up on. There are familiar elements to the story--an unreliable narrator, the accepted racism of colonialism, the meaninglessness of war (“So they love to sprint onto the battlefield to be beautifully massacred while screaming like madmen, regulation rifle in the left hand and savage machete in the right.” 14-15). But there are also other, less familiar strains--soul-devouring demms, the European cultural influence (e.g., futurism) on Africans, allegorical folklore. Jessi Jezewska Stevens, in her review, "In the Trenches with the Colonizer," seems to get at a lot of these while also elucidating the book's confusing last few chapters.
Looming under the entire novel are feelings of darkness, regret, and a slide into madness. Diop seems to connect those feelings to the compromising nature of translation--“To translate is never simple. To translate is to betray at the borders, it’s to cheat, it’s to trade one sentence for another. To translate is one of the only human activities in which one is required to lie about the details to convey the truth at large.” 138. Madness, with its skewed perspective, seems similar to translation, with its imperfections.
Interesting and thought provoking. Pretty different read for me. I don’t typically read about war because it’s almost always tropey. This, however, was anything but. It grows more complex and interesting as you go on, and the final chapter was really great. The story feels like it’s morphing and so different and that makes you look harder for the answer. I enjoyed that a lot.
The only thing I disliked, which unfortunately needled me constantly, was the repetition of information already given to the reader. It creates a unique cadence but it’s really annoying retreading so much ground, especially in the first half. Just constantly circling the exact same thing that happened. Not in a new way either. Just exactly the same thought in the way that telling a story form memory sometimes will do. But just like with dialogue, the reader doesn’t need that aspect to understand; or I feel I don’t anyway. Ultra Realism is not a particular quality I like in dialogue, nor other aspects of fiction. We decide what we look at in a scene with intentionality, so it bugged me a lot. Otherwise it’d probably have been a 5 star read or a 4.5 rounded up.
The only thing I disliked, which unfortunately needled me constantly, was the repetition of information already given to the reader. It creates a unique cadence but it’s really annoying retreading so much ground, especially in the first half. Just constantly circling the exact same thing that happened. Not in a new way either. Just exactly the same thought in the way that telling a story form memory sometimes will do. But just like with dialogue, the reader doesn’t need that aspect to understand; or I feel I don’t anyway. Ultra Realism is not a particular quality I like in dialogue, nor other aspects of fiction. We decide what we look at in a scene with intentionality, so it bugged me a lot. Otherwise it’d probably have been a 5 star read or a 4.5 rounded up.
Generally not a fan of very sparse, clean books. Unless it's this. The form serves the story in a way that I've rarely seen before. The brutal, simple repetitivenes of the traumatised mind. The words sharp and heavy, hammering. The whole world disappearing, irrelevant when confronted with the enormity of loss. Deserved the booker prize for sure
I listened to the audiobook of this and while Dion Graham is one of my favorite narrators, I struggled to understand the heavy accent he used. I do understand that it is probably appropriate, but my unaccustomed ears had a hard time with it. I found myself sometimes trying to interpret what I heard and because of that I'd miss things. I'll give this a read with my eyeballs and see what I can get from it.
medium-paced
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I now have a YouTube channel that I run with my brother, called 'The Brothers Gwynne'. Check it out - The Brothers Gwynne
When this won the Booker Prize recently, I looked at the blurb and was immediately drawn in. This is a story about the effects of war, the dehumanising consequences of conflict and the dramatic effects of loss, all whilst also engaging with race, masculinity, identity and more.
This is a shocking and engaging read which begins powerfully and maintains that intensity throughout. Some of the phrases come across as slightly clunky, but that is inevitable when English was not the original language. It has been translated from French and is not jarring at all so far, but merely has phrases that sound a bit out of place.
At Night All Blood is Black is certainly disturbing. It is unnerving and disturbing, through showing how someone. becomes dehumanised, and the presentation of this is masterful, but still unsettling. The exploration of psychology was amazing to read, and an experience I will remember for a long, long time.
When this won the Booker Prize recently, I looked at the blurb and was immediately drawn in. This is a story about the effects of war, the dehumanising consequences of conflict and the dramatic effects of loss, all whilst also engaging with race, masculinity, identity and more.
This is a shocking and engaging read which begins powerfully and maintains that intensity throughout. Some of the phrases come across as slightly clunky, but that is inevitable when English was not the original language. It has been translated from French and is not jarring at all so far, but merely has phrases that sound a bit out of place.
At Night All Blood is Black is certainly disturbing. It is unnerving and disturbing, through showing how someone. becomes dehumanised, and the presentation of this is masterful, but still unsettling. The exploration of psychology was amazing to read, and an experience I will remember for a long, long time.