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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
really beautiful book. you have to read it out loud and stick with it for the first 50-100 pages to get the rhythm of it but it really pays off if you do. in particular it captures the way children think astonishingly well. I will say that it’s very concerned with the abject — rotting things, body fluids, filth — so be warned about that. it’s not concerned with those things in a shock-jock way, more in as part of a larger attention to detail and reality, the filth and horror of domestic life
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Pedophilia, Rape
I couldn't follow the plot and found it hard to connect with the characters. It jerked me around a lot and the constant character backgrounds pulled me out of the story.
This was DEVASTATING. It deserves every bit of the hype and praise it has ever received. I hope it will continue to receive them for decades to come.
Yes, the prose is 'tiresome' and elaborate. Yes, the timeline is disjointed. So what? It's art. It's asking you to pay attention -- just like you should pay attention to the small and big injustices happening, both on a community-level and on a societal one. It pulls no punches and alternates between being jaw-droppingly gorgeous and utterly gross. Family and caste and all the lives it ruins, the use of the English language within a highly specific Indian context, the reflection of more worldly affairs inside a smaller sphere... Brilliant.
Very happy I read it, doubly happy I bought it physically. I will be leafing through it as often as possible.
Yes, the prose is 'tiresome' and elaborate. Yes, the timeline is disjointed. So what? It's art. It's asking you to pay attention -- just like you should pay attention to the small and big injustices happening, both on a community-level and on a societal one. It pulls no punches and alternates between being jaw-droppingly gorgeous and utterly gross. Family and caste and all the lives it ruins, the use of the English language within a highly specific Indian context, the reflection of more worldly affairs inside a smaller sphere... Brilliant.
Very happy I read it, doubly happy I bought it physically. I will be leafing through it as often as possible.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A reread from maybe a decade ago. It holds up well and I think I like it even more after rereading. I'm kind of in awe of how the author has a knack for recontextualizing events they drop in the start of the book when put into perspective later on. Very evocative prose.
Ich war anfangs ziemlich gefesselt von der bildreichen, poetischen Sprache der Geschichte (Deutsche Übersetzung von Anette Grube). Leider zieht sich das Buch unnötig in die Länge, sodass ich irgendwann nur noch genervt war von noch einer und noch einer blumigen Umschreibung irgendeines belanglosen Details. So musste das EINE große Ereignis denn auch immer wieder für kleine Vorausahnungen herhalten, um den Leser bei der Stange zu halten. Dadurch blieb der Autorin am Ende, als das Ereignis dann schließlich eintrat, nur noch wenig neues zu erzählen.
Zugute halten muss man dem Buch aber (neben der sprachlichen Schönheit), dass die Kritik u.a. am indischen Kastensystem, aber auch an mangelnden Frauenrechten und dem Verhältnis zur ehemaligen Kolonialmacht, tief in die Geschichte eingewoben und damit unaufdringlich aber dennoch deutlich spürbar ist.
Zugute halten muss man dem Buch aber (neben der sprachlichen Schönheit), dass die Kritik u.a. am indischen Kastensystem, aber auch an mangelnden Frauenrechten und dem Verhältnis zur ehemaligen Kolonialmacht, tief in die Geschichte eingewoben und damit unaufdringlich aber dennoch deutlich spürbar ist.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Este libro me dejó muy confundido. Además del contenido (que, ciertamente, es suficiente para tenerte en shock) ciertos capítulos me parecieron geniales y otros parecían pura paja. En ocasiones quería que no se acabara, en otras me hartaba, y en otras ni siquiera sabía qué estaba pasando. Sin embargo, la historia que cuenta Arundhati Roy es apasionante y su prosa, a pesar de perder bastante de su peso en la traducción, es muy bella (aunque a veces llegue a parecer repetitiva). Leer a Roy es una experiencia que no se encuentra muy seguido en la literatura. Es una experiencia cruel, muy cruel, pero muy bella también.
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
emotional
sad
never overlooking the small things again