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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
DNFed the audiobook just over half way.
I was reallllyyyy slogging through this but I just watched Mercedes video on why she DNFed it and she explained PERFECTLY what I was feeling about the novel up until the point I read to. (You can watch it here, I basically agree with everything she said about why she wasn't enjoying it- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7h9Ptyqng&list=WL&index=2 ) and yeah, she basically made me realise that I'm getting nothing from this reading experience and I've decided to just stop at this point.
I was reallllyyyy slogging through this but I just watched Mercedes video on why she DNFed it and she explained PERFECTLY what I was feeling about the novel up until the point I read to. (You can watch it here, I basically agree with everything she said about why she wasn't enjoying it- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7h9Ptyqng&list=WL&index=2 ) and yeah, she basically made me realise that I'm getting nothing from this reading experience and I've decided to just stop at this point.
Need to get a physical book of this, since I didn’t like the narration in the second half of the book and so I’m probably the only person I’ve seen so far, that was annoyed by the end and not emotionally destroyed 🙃
There is so much in this book and it’s something new and different and deserves to be read by many many people!
There is so much in this book and it’s something new and different and deserves to be read by many many people!
This is a novel that is masterfully written, and beautifully imagined, and generously referenced, but do not read it if you're not in a place to be emotionally broken by a book. I think this one will live in my head for a long time.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Lovely and chewable, way smarter than I am in terms of literary allusions but still enjoyable as a story. I have some extra books to look up now as well.
*minor quibble* I was hoping the photos would be more integrated with the text
*minor quibble* I was hoping the photos would be more integrated with the text
It took me a long time to finish this book - I started it but it didn't hold my interest and then picked it up again nearly two months later. I found it difficult to finish, but I did get to the end. It is an intense book, very strong on sense of place on the family's road trip. It's full of deep ideas and connections from history to the present day, intertwined with a fictional story-within-a-story of the children on the train. It is worthy but dense and hard to fully understand - I'm actually surprised that it won the Dublin Literary Award as I found it more inaccessible than most books that win that prize.
Holy shit, the novel has been reinvented for me!
I read Lost Children Archive in hopes of finding a more intimate portrayal of the children migrating alone to the southern US border. The book delivers that, sure, but it goes above and beyond in myth making, legend, poetry, and its emotional pull into the world of children. Every form and turn of the book was unexpected, and speaks to the expansive references and genius of Luiselli. I'd recommend this book to anyone, but be careful: you will take on much more than the book purports to be.
"Euphemisms hide, erase, coat. Euphemisms lead us to tolerate the unacceptable. And, eventually, to forget. Against a euphemism, remembrance. In order to not repeat. Remember terms and meanings. Their absurd disjointedness. Term: Our Peculiar Institution. Meaning: slavery. (Epitome of all euphemisms.) Term: Removal. Meaning: expulsion and dispossession of people from their lands. Term: Placing Out. Meaning: expulsion of abandoned children from the East Coast. Term: Relocation. Meaning: confining people in reservations. Term: Reservation. Meaning: a wasteland, a sentence to perpetual poverty. Term: Removal. Meaning: expulsion of people seeking refuge. Term: Undocumented. Meaning: people who will be removed."
I read Lost Children Archive in hopes of finding a more intimate portrayal of the children migrating alone to the southern US border. The book delivers that, sure, but it goes above and beyond in myth making, legend, poetry, and its emotional pull into the world of children. Every form and turn of the book was unexpected, and speaks to the expansive references and genius of Luiselli. I'd recommend this book to anyone, but be careful: you will take on much more than the book purports to be.
"Euphemisms hide, erase, coat. Euphemisms lead us to tolerate the unacceptable. And, eventually, to forget. Against a euphemism, remembrance. In order to not repeat. Remember terms and meanings. Their absurd disjointedness. Term: Our Peculiar Institution. Meaning: slavery. (Epitome of all euphemisms.) Term: Removal. Meaning: expulsion and dispossession of people from their lands. Term: Placing Out. Meaning: expulsion of abandoned children from the East Coast. Term: Relocation. Meaning: confining people in reservations. Term: Reservation. Meaning: a wasteland, a sentence to perpetual poverty. Term: Removal. Meaning: expulsion of people seeking refuge. Term: Undocumented. Meaning: people who will be removed."
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
4.5
This was like reading a dream. I really enjoyed the author's style of writing and the many allusions to other works of literature and media. The book focused on a family that is lost in its own way. The parents and two children are traveling to where Geronmino lived. None of the characters are named and you don't really find out much about the backgrounds of the adults. The mother has a goal of finding two lost migrant girls. On the way, they make many pitstops and document and make observations of how the land and the people have been affected by so-called progress.
While this was a work of fiction, the author provides many resources to find out more about migrant children, other lost children, and the Apaches. I also liked how there were real photos of some of the events the characters talk about. I had recently read [b:Orphan Train|15818107|Orphan Train|Christina Baker Kline|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1362409483l/15818107._SY75_.jpg|21545713] and this book has real documents and photos relating to that. The main point of this novel was how inimical and inhumane the US policies have been towards brown people, starting with the original natives and continue to this day. The book does have some harrowing parts but that is to be expected. There were events that happened at the end of the novel and that made me a little frustrated but then the author didn't disappoint me. My favorite parts were the boy's point of view about how he sees his family and his sister. I really liked this novel and I am going to explore her other works.
This was like reading a dream. I really enjoyed the author's style of writing and the many allusions to other works of literature and media. The book focused on a family that is lost in its own way. The parents and two children are traveling to where Geronmino lived. None of the characters are named and you don't really find out much about the backgrounds of the adults. The mother has a goal of finding two lost migrant girls. On the way, they make many pitstops and document and make observations of how the land and the people have been affected by so-called progress.
While this was a work of fiction, the author provides many resources to find out more about migrant children, other lost children, and the Apaches. I also liked how there were real photos of some of the events the characters talk about. I had recently read [b:Orphan Train|15818107|Orphan Train|Christina Baker Kline|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1362409483l/15818107._SY75_.jpg|21545713] and this book has real documents and photos relating to that. The main point of this novel was how inimical and inhumane the US policies have been towards brown people, starting with the original natives and continue to this day. The book does have some harrowing parts but that is to be expected. There were events that happened at the end of the novel and that made me a little frustrated but then the author didn't disappoint me. My favorite parts were the boy's point of view about how he sees his family and his sister. I really liked this novel and I am going to explore her other works.