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latisha's review against another edition
1.0
What a horrifically ableist book, maybe the worst I’ve ever read. Out of 4 disabled characters, only one is treated humanely. The MC dreams multiple times of his Autistic child dying. I’m honestly appalled that I finished this…it didn’t seem worse than most things we put up with until the end. I wanted to read a book about Oman but wish it wasn’t this one
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
marae216's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really enjoyed the narrative structure in this book. It was unique. I didn't find it difficult to follow even via audiobook. This book was also informative to me about the history and culture of Oman.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Rape, and Slavery
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Celestial Bodies is a multi-generational family saga, looking at the intertwined households of two Omani families. It is the first book by an Omani woman to be translated into English. It found it to be a challenging book in a couple of ways. After several attempts on audio I managed to track down an ebook and tandem read which helped considerably, although the book was still a challenge. Part of it is the structure. The chapters are mostly short and frequently switch point of view. Many are in the third person, but Abdallah’s are in the first person. The large cast of characters- the family tree in the ebook helped somewhat- and the constant switching made it difficult to settle into the story. The other challenging factor was that the chapters moved back and forward in time in no discernible order. Additionally I felt the ending was open to several interpretations and I wish I had been reading with a group so I could have discussed it with other readers.
In other words this is a book that requires plenty of effort and concentration from the reader. Thankfully I felt my effort was worth it. It was a complicated family story which I always enjoy, one which highlighted the challenges faced by women, challenges which some navigated to their own advantage better than others. However, the story also emphasised the way traditional societal practices had negative impacts on men as well. I couldn’t help but feel for Abdallah, who suffered at the hands of an abusive father and whose wife did not love him the way way he loved her. While reading this novel I built up a picture of Omani society, the way it traditionally operated and the way it changed, little by little, over the twentieth century, from an insular, patriarchal slave holding society to one where western influences and practises were more pervasive. The uneasy coexistence of the old and the new was evident, as were the class divides and disparities of wealth. While I struggled to settle into the flow of the story, the big picture as it were, many of the chapters were excellent, and the novel included some compelling character studies.
In other words this is a book that requires plenty of effort and concentration from the reader. Thankfully I felt my effort was worth it. It was a complicated family story which I always enjoy, one which highlighted the challenges faced by women, challenges which some navigated to their own advantage better than others. However, the story also emphasised the way traditional societal practices had negative impacts on men as well. I couldn’t help but feel for Abdallah, who suffered at the hands of an abusive father and whose wife did not love him the way way he loved her. While reading this novel I built up a picture of Omani society, the way it traditionally operated and the way it changed, little by little, over the twentieth century, from an insular, patriarchal slave holding society to one where western influences and practises were more pervasive. The uneasy coexistence of the old and the new was evident, as were the class divides and disparities of wealth. While I struggled to settle into the flow of the story, the big picture as it were, many of the chapters were excellent, and the novel included some compelling character studies.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Slavery
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Ableism
nyne's review
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Ableism
samisal's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
This is not really a complete review but I want to warn other people interested in this book that’s there’s a very upsetting and disturbing storyline involving a disabled child and eventually violence against that child that felt wholly unnecessary in this book. I enjoyed parts of the narrative but not enough to make up for the ending and don’t recommend it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Physical abuse, Ableism, Suicide, Child death, and Child abuse
bluejayreads's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I am not entirely sure what I just read. Celestial Bodies is vastly different from my normal reading fare, and I don’t know that I really understood it. It’s densely populated with characters, time jumps back and forth, and the story of this one family gets woven against the backdrop of a changing Oman and the tensions between tradition and modernity.
From the back cover, it seems like the story will focus on the three sisters, Mayya, Asma, and Khawla. And that’s where it starts – with the man Mayya loves never acknowledging her, her marriage to someone else, and the birth of her first child, a daughter she names London. But then it branches off to follow other people at other points in time.
Mayya’s husband Abdullah is the only one to narrate in first person as he reminisces about his childhood with his nursemaid and his abusive father, his marriage with Mayya, and their children, and interacts with his daughter London as an adult. The rest of the story is told omnisciently, with third-person narration seamlessly slipping between Khawla, Asma, the three sisters’ mother and father, Abdullah’s nursemaid, London as an adult, and many other more minor characters (including Asma’s husband, Abdullah’s nursemaid’s mother, and Mayya’s father’s lover) that provide history and context to this family’s saga.
Time is a fluid thing here. The story slips seamlessly between what I’m calling the “present” – the time where Mayya has just given birth to London and Asma and Khawla are getting ready to be married – and the past and the future. It delves into childhoods of parents and grandparents, then slides ahead to decades beyond the “present.” There are no temporal anchors here, and I’m only calling one part of the story as the “present” because that’s where the book opened.
I wanted to categorize this as magical realism, because it has a strong magical realism feel, but there is no magic in this story and nothing supernatural besides traditional superstitions. The audiobook is only 8 hours and per the StoryGraph it’s 250 pages in print, but Celestial Bodies somehow feels like a sweeping family saga anyway. There isn’t a plot, just life, the tangled timelines illustrating the interconnectedness of family and how past influences present influences future.
I am not sure I understand this book. It packs more into its 250 pages than should be possible, and balances such a massive cast of characters that it did get a little confusing at times. But it’s deftly woven and somehow kept my interest despite a complete lack of plot in the usual sense. I absolutely see how it won its awards.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Child abuse, and Infidelity
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Slavery
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Sexual content, and Domestic abuse
Other triggers: Childbirth, spousal neglect Note on Incest trigger: Many characters in this story marry their first cousins, and we in the West would categorize that as incest. But it’s clear from the book that not only is that not considered incest in Oman, marrying someone from your family is often preferable to marrying a stranger. It is still incest to us Westerners, but in the book it's treated as a very good marriage option.bookishcori's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, and Slavery
Minor: Ableism and Suicidal thoughts
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