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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Veldig rare og urealistiske beskriver av karakterer og situasjoner.
Please, take this rating with a big grain of big salt. Because, it's a great effort to portray an extreme feeling of loneliness through words (I'm assuming). It's just that I likely read this book judging it for how it could've been better. How? No idea. But it just didn't do it for me.
My mind is very busy trying to come up with an explanation as to, Why?
Maybe I'm just grumpy, grumpy now, grumpy whilst reading The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I am (grumpy always?). I know I have a hard time dealing with other people's moods, when I feel I should/could do something to change them. I can turn cold, blank, annoyed. Or empathize whilst wondering whether I'm faking empathy or not. So, I guess I shouldn't feel surprised that those same responses could be there while reading, subtly - because, there's no action to take. However, IF it's the same feeling, triggered by a book, it's precisely the no action part that could make me feel irritated.
Is this a book about someones mood, you might ask? Hm, kind of, rather a state of mind. It's a portrait of an elderly lady, thinking back and forth in time, thinking (imagining) about how people must be perceiving her, feeling invisible, looking for meaning. And I couldn't feel these things, wasn't connecting. Or trying too much to imagine it, since to me it felt like the focus was on the word play, a character 'showing of' silly phrases. A character without meaning. Thus, a book without meaning?
Precisely above mentioned might make this a great book! (I suddenly think.) Because, we actually get a feeling of how other people might be perceiving her, from the outside, or not even, making her invisible. Which she feels she is. So that fits. I'm adding an extra star to my rating because that just clicked even though it's a hard to grasp click still.
My mind is very busy trying to come up with an explanation as to, Why?
Maybe I'm just grumpy, grumpy now, grumpy whilst reading The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I am (grumpy always?). I know I have a hard time dealing with other people's moods, when I feel I should/could do something to change them. I can turn cold, blank, annoyed. Or empathize whilst wondering whether I'm faking empathy or not. So, I guess I shouldn't feel surprised that those same responses could be there while reading, subtly - because, there's no action to take. However, IF it's the same feeling, triggered by a book, it's precisely the no action part that could make me feel irritated.
Is this a book about someones mood, you might ask? Hm, kind of, rather a state of mind. It's a portrait of an elderly lady, thinking back and forth in time, thinking (imagining) about how people must be perceiving her, feeling invisible, looking for meaning. And I couldn't feel these things, wasn't connecting. Or trying too much to imagine it, since to me it felt like the focus was on the word play, a character 'showing of' silly phrases. A character without meaning. Thus, a book without meaning?
Precisely above mentioned might make this a great book! (I suddenly think.) Because, we actually get a feeling of how other people might be perceiving her, from the outside, or not even, making her invisible. Which she feels she is. So that fits. I'm adding an extra star to my rating because that just clicked even though it's a hard to grasp click still.
ay 9 gün boyunca okumuşum bu kısacık kitabı. yaşlanmak hakkındaki kurgusal eserlerle bağ kuramadığım için okurken ilgimi kaybetmemek zor oluyor benim için. bu kitaba en az üç hafta öncesinden stres olmaya başladığım bir sözlü sınavdan hemen sonra başlamıştım, böyle bi dönemden sonra okuması kolay ve keyifli bir şey seçmek istemiştim... *insert "honey, you got a big storm coming" vine here*
I don't quite understand how people can call this a sad feel-good novel; I found it very sad, this is a strange, funny and sad story. Told in the naïve perspective of an elderly lady who hasn't done much with her life, and now finally starts to realise it.
This book has some of the naïve, funny qualities of an Erlend Loe novel, but I feel it understands the psychology of anxiety and fear of life and death on a deeper level.
I'm not too fond of the style of writing; it's rather minimalistic, reticent and quiet, but it still manages to portray great feelings and deep thoughts - everything just lies between the lines.
This book has some of the naïve, funny qualities of an Erlend Loe novel, but I feel it understands the psychology of anxiety and fear of life and death on a deeper level.
I'm not too fond of the style of writing; it's rather minimalistic, reticent and quiet, but it still manages to portray great feelings and deep thoughts - everything just lies between the lines.
This one surprised me.
The writing style is a bit baffling at the start - but as you connect with it the story is easy to follow. It's like stream of consciousness, but not in the normal sense. The narrator doesn't go through things they do. It is more the thoughts they are thinking, so there is repetition, dark thoughts, etc.
It is a dark novel, but it leaves a strangely sad but happy feeling at the end. Well worth the quick read.
The writing style is a bit baffling at the start - but as you connect with it the story is easy to follow. It's like stream of consciousness, but not in the normal sense. The narrator doesn't go through things they do. It is more the thoughts they are thinking, so there is repetition, dark thoughts, etc.
It is a dark novel, but it leaves a strangely sad but happy feeling at the end. Well worth the quick read.
4.5/5 :) will chat about it in my next wrap up www.youtube.com/jenvcampbell
This review can also be found at I read therefore I am
After Tales of the city, I went on with another book out of my literary comfort zone. Sounds like February is the month of literary experiments! Indeed, I seldom read contemporary novels, let alone contemporary novels featuring elderly people. But it was an interesting read. Not one I’ll remember for the rest of my life, but a pretty nice read nevertheless.
The faster I walk, the smaller I am is the story of Mathea, an old woman of over 90 years old who comes to realize that the moment of her death is coming closer and closer, and that there will most probably be no one to remember that she has ever lived when her life is over. So she’s determined to do something to change that.
This book is very short (less than 200 pages), and so will my review be. There only is one fact that is worth emphasizing about this novel, and this is its strongest point: it is both dark and light at the same time, and leaves you with two opposite feelings. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all? It’s quite hard to explain, but let me clear things up. The main theme of the story is loneliness and oblivion, which aren’t really joyful subjects. But the way the story is written makes it a light and even funny one despite the quite dark and sad subjects it tackles.
And same goes with the main character, Mathea. You also have these opposite feelings towards this old woman. On the one hand, she’s utterly naïve and often gives the impression of a little girl while what you’d expect from a 90-year-old is that she has seen enough in her life to have become wise by now. So the contrast between her age and her behavior makes her quite ridiculous, also her obsession with making sentences that rhyme is, and you like to kindly laugh at her. Yet on the other hand, you can’t help feeling sorry for this poor woman who has absolutely no one, who’s going to die in full ignorance and who is left to call the telephone information service asking for her own number to have some semblance of social life! There was one scene towards the end of the book that made my heart ache for the poor woman: she makes the effort of leaving her home and attends some event at the senior club (which is a real effort for her as she’s very shy and a home body) but there everyone, including the staff, ignore her as if she was a ghost! Although it isn’t told in a sad way, this scene tore my heart apart.
In short, this book was a very nice read. Well, I never felt compelled to read it, I needed something like 4 or 5 days to go through while if it had been amazing I would probably have finished it in a day or two given how thin it is. But overall it was a very nice discovery. I should really try to branch out my reading more often.
I recommend this book to you if: I don’t know… Well I guess that if you’re reading my blog it’s because we less or more have the same reading taste, so I’ll recommend it to those who’d like to read something out of their literary comfort zone.
After Tales of the city, I went on with another book out of my literary comfort zone. Sounds like February is the month of literary experiments! Indeed, I seldom read contemporary novels, let alone contemporary novels featuring elderly people. But it was an interesting read. Not one I’ll remember for the rest of my life, but a pretty nice read nevertheless.
The faster I walk, the smaller I am is the story of Mathea, an old woman of over 90 years old who comes to realize that the moment of her death is coming closer and closer, and that there will most probably be no one to remember that she has ever lived when her life is over. So she’s determined to do something to change that.
This book is very short (less than 200 pages), and so will my review be. There only is one fact that is worth emphasizing about this novel, and this is its strongest point: it is both dark and light at the same time, and leaves you with two opposite feelings. I don’t know if that makes any sense at all? It’s quite hard to explain, but let me clear things up. The main theme of the story is loneliness and oblivion, which aren’t really joyful subjects. But the way the story is written makes it a light and even funny one despite the quite dark and sad subjects it tackles.
And same goes with the main character, Mathea. You also have these opposite feelings towards this old woman. On the one hand, she’s utterly naïve and often gives the impression of a little girl while what you’d expect from a 90-year-old is that she has seen enough in her life to have become wise by now. So the contrast between her age and her behavior makes her quite ridiculous, also her obsession with making sentences that rhyme is, and you like to kindly laugh at her. Yet on the other hand, you can’t help feeling sorry for this poor woman who has absolutely no one, who’s going to die in full ignorance and who is left to call the telephone information service asking for her own number to have some semblance of social life! There was one scene towards the end of the book that made my heart ache for the poor woman: she makes the effort of leaving her home and attends some event at the senior club (which is a real effort for her as she’s very shy and a home body) but there everyone, including the staff, ignore her as if she was a ghost! Although it isn’t told in a sad way, this scene tore my heart apart.
In short, this book was a very nice read. Well, I never felt compelled to read it, I needed something like 4 or 5 days to go through while if it had been amazing I would probably have finished it in a day or two given how thin it is. But overall it was a very nice discovery. I should really try to branch out my reading more often.
I recommend this book to you if: I don’t know… Well I guess that if you’re reading my blog it’s because we less or more have the same reading taste, so I’ll recommend it to those who’d like to read something out of their literary comfort zone.
Genç ölmek, yaşlanmak, çok yaşlanmak, yalnız ölmek, hayatı severken ölmek, hayatı sevemeden ölmek ve ölmek gerçekliği üzerine yıllardır içli içli, umutsuz ve sinirli bir şekilde düşünüyorum. Bu kitap son zamanlarda okuduklarım içinde çok iyi bir zamana düştü ve onların söylediklerine ekledi diyeceklerini. Yüz yaşına gelir miyim bilmiyorum ama bu kitabı okumayı kaç kere tecrübe edeceğim, merak ediyorum. Daha çok ayrı yaşlarda ne hissettireceğini merak ediyorum.
Kitaplara puan vermeyi beceremiyorum hiç ve burada genellikle "defalarca okumalıyım" dediğim kitaplara onlarca yıldız vermek istiyorum.
Kitaplara puan vermeyi beceremiyorum hiç ve burada genellikle "defalarca okumalıyım" dediğim kitaplara onlarca yıldız vermek istiyorum.