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intoblossom's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Child abuse, Violence, and Homophobia
Moderate: Death of parent and Racism
thebobsphere's review
3.0
Having adored Selva Almada’s The Wind that Lays Waste and enjoyed Dead Girls , I was looking forward to her second novel. I’ll get into my feelings later on in the review.
The novel opens with two men lying on the ground at a funfair, they are on the ground dying. As they are taking their last breaths their memories are coming back to them, in other words we readers are seeing, in a non chronological way, how these two ended up in this situation.
What we get is a tale about abuse, family traditions, same sex relations and a couple of supernatural elements. Brickmakers is a snapshot of how a typical toxic male environment can create a lot of damage. There are many powerful scenes of machismo here counterbalanced by a certain sensitivity.
Unfortunately where Wind was a sparse novel, Brickmakers felt too choppy, even unnecessarily maximalist at times. I was tired of the messed up timeline and I was exhausted by the end of these brief 200 pages. I’m not saying that the book is bad but I just felt more of an emotional resonance with the previous books.
Her new one, It’s not a River, will be published in 2024 and I am well excited for that. I have definitely not giving up on this author as her works are genuinely exciting.
The novel opens with two men lying on the ground at a funfair, they are on the ground dying. As they are taking their last breaths their memories are coming back to them, in other words we readers are seeing, in a non chronological way, how these two ended up in this situation.
What we get is a tale about abuse, family traditions, same sex relations and a couple of supernatural elements. Brickmakers is a snapshot of how a typical toxic male environment can create a lot of damage. There are many powerful scenes of machismo here counterbalanced by a certain sensitivity.
Unfortunately where Wind was a sparse novel, Brickmakers felt too choppy, even unnecessarily maximalist at times. I was tired of the messed up timeline and I was exhausted by the end of these brief 200 pages. I’m not saying that the book is bad but I just felt more of an emotional resonance with the previous books.
Her new one, It’s not a River, will be published in 2024 and I am well excited for that. I have definitely not giving up on this author as her works are genuinely exciting.
steve_urick's review
5.0
Hell. And now I don't have to read Dante. Brilliantly written and translated. These poor people; they saw no other way to live. I got a little confused reading this as I was drinking for about 50 percent of it and hung over for about 30 percent, but I was able to follow the story. Some people compared this to Faulkner, but it is not as hard to understand as say, Sound and Fury, or something like that.
tensy's review
5.0
A tour de force novel of feuding families where the hatred is fueled by toxic masculinity and young men pay the price. The writing, by renowned Argentine writer, Selva Almada, spares no punches and in this short novel she manages to make us care about these two families living in a town "where everything is hard, dry, spiky, covered in dust...[and where] all anyone know is violence and force."
booksnpunks's review
4.0
4.5 stars. I am so obsessed with this. Brickmakers opens with two young men dying on the floor of a fairground after stabbing each other. The novel goes back in time to look at the feud between their fathers and where the rift between the families first started.
Something about this book just really clicked with me and I couldn’t stop reading. I’m really loving books at the moment which are examining and critiquing Latin American masculine violence and this one just does it in such an intense way, whilst still keeping the humanity. I loved the writing and brilliant translation from Annie McDermott who is becoming one of my favourite translators.
The characters, the plot, the atmosphere, everything was just perfect in this novel. I absolutely loved it. Need to immediately read the rest of Selva Almada’s books.
Something about this book just really clicked with me and I couldn’t stop reading. I’m really loving books at the moment which are examining and critiquing Latin American masculine violence and this one just does it in such an intense way, whilst still keeping the humanity. I loved the writing and brilliant translation from Annie McDermott who is becoming one of my favourite translators.
The characters, the plot, the atmosphere, everything was just perfect in this novel. I absolutely loved it. Need to immediately read the rest of Selva Almada’s books.
steveurick's review
5.0
Hell. And now I don't have to read Dante. Brilliantly written and translated. These poor people; they saw no other way to live. I got a little confused reading this as I was drinking for about 50 percent of it and hung over for about 30 percent, but I was able to follow the story. Some people compared this to Faulkner, but it is not as hard to understand as say, Sound and Fury, or something like that.
zoechristyna's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 rounded up, loved the characters and the surreal parts
fenestration86's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25