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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In this book, a schoolteacher on an insect collecting trip ends up trapped in a village where people live at the bottom holes in the sand and must constantly clean out the sand to avoid the sand filling in. The village feels (and is described) almost like an insect colony. But mainly it's a metaphor for the drudgery of every day life and life being a lot more boring than imagined when young. People can react by drinking, violence, hobbies, acceptance, or joy. This book is about the main character gradually accepting his role and becoming more human to his fellow prisoners/jailers, which again is a metaphor for life.
Despite the transparent symbolism, this was very well done, and actually had. alot of insight into life. Clearly it was a reaction to and synthesis of Kafka and reminded me of the allegorical surrealism of Saramago and Ballard.
Despite the transparent symbolism, this was very well done, and actually had. alot of insight into life. Clearly it was a reaction to and synthesis of Kafka and reminded me of the allegorical surrealism of Saramago and Ballard.
Revulsion, ennui, alienation, and weird sex. Philosophically interesting, but yeah, those aren’t my favorite things to read about. But Kafka and Murakami fans will surely rejoice at this unsettling novel.
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-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
Eerie, Claustrophobic, and Atmospheric!
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
This book is deeply uncomfortable to read despite containing no subject matter that is outright transgressive. A man stumbles upon a poor strange hamlet in the middle of impossible windswept sand dunes and is imprisoned with one of the resident women at the bottom of a hole. He's told his job is to keep the shifting sand from overwhelming the house (and thus the larger hamlet). What follows is a Kafka-esque nightmarish short book in which our protagonist rages against his forced captivity, the servile, diffident nature of his female companion, musing about his freedom, his escape plans and his past life - though barely lived - while the ground is literally shifting beneath his feet.
There are some unnamed captors involved but the chief antagonist as well as the setting is the sand itself, and here the author is able to invest such incredible detail and metaphor into the nature of this tiny inorganic composite rock - that nonetheless, seen as a wider system is teeming with movement, strange behaviour, indifference or maleficence to the plight of humans, and a lot of surprising complexity in which the reader and protagonist can't help but allegorize to their own affairs. Besides entertaining a bubbling, somewhat deviant, barely repressed sexual desire, which complements and heightens the protagonist's own utter lack of consent of being held in this dune, there is nothing in the book that might traditionally invoke horror - and yet the stomach undeniably tightens as you read further on; correctly guessing how it might end does nothing to alleviate the emotion of reading it happen. Predictably, though, the actually woman in this book is treated without much depth at all, subjected to an exclusively male view making her meek, sexualized, stupid and without a hint of the psychological depth that is invested in the main character. This book is lean, and yet there are tons of symbolism to unearth and more to uncover upon successive rereads if one can stomach and appreciate the unsettling atmosphere.
There are some unnamed captors involved but the chief antagonist as well as the setting is the sand itself, and here the author is able to invest such incredible detail and metaphor into the nature of this tiny inorganic composite rock - that nonetheless, seen as a wider system is teeming with movement, strange behaviour, indifference or maleficence to the plight of humans, and a lot of surprising complexity in which the reader and protagonist can't help but allegorize to their own affairs. Besides entertaining a bubbling, somewhat deviant, barely repressed sexual desire, which complements and heightens the protagonist's own utter lack of consent of being held in this dune, there is nothing in the book that might traditionally invoke horror - and yet the stomach undeniably tightens as you read further on; correctly guessing how it might end does nothing to alleviate the emotion of reading it happen. Predictably, though, the actually woman in this book is treated without much depth at all, subjected to an exclusively male view making her meek, sexualized, stupid and without a hint of the psychological depth that is invested in the main character. This book is lean, and yet there are tons of symbolism to unearth and more to uncover upon successive rereads if one can stomach and appreciate the unsettling atmosphere.