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kxiong5's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
5.0
this book resists definition in such an incredible way. took notes in my journal so won't rehash this here, but the conversation with Heart of Darkness is palpable (and this book knows just as well as HoD how to use language as a violent colonial tool & adds the layers of recognition on how the use of colonial logics / living under the colonizer's rules explodes the possibility of identity / continued existence (think Franz Fanon and Invisible Man in that kind of violent misrecognition and motion) & yet ALSO does not let the men of the novel off the hook for how their 'emasculation' under coloniality directly links to the violent pursuit of / conquest of women & also has the most convincing Kurtz-figure & expands the Marlowe figure in the interplay between Mustafa Saeed and the unnamed narrator...and also isn't didactic or one-dimensional with any of its characters "representing" any concepts & all having such clearly social existences (even the stranger Mustafa -- who is so characterized by mobility and antisociality, is also an intensely social being?) and it's just such a startling and intricate novel and makes palpable the way in which violence (linguistic, colonial, self-directed, etc.) can reduce all life to a plane of incomprehensibility and yet *still* we find ways to plod on and try to live with this inability to act...or are we able to make that choice at all??? (and the ending encapsulates that so well). so many more thoughts (actually once I get my own copy and am no longer sticking shit in my library copy I might just reread it in a week, which is the first time in ages I've been so drawn to a book that I actively do not want to move on from it) + so much to study with how Tayeb Salih uses motion throughout the novel and often has such poetic passages shore up a fundamental and growing sense of emptiness // contrast the narrator's emptiness with the richness of the lives of the people around him...jdkafhkjdhf this was just off the charts. I think I need to sit with this forever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Murder, Colonisation, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment
mx_lucacv's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Really interesting book. I really like the Othello vibes, except it's not Othello at all. I would absolutely recommend it to everyone. It's a really interesting read and will make you think about all the hidden meanings for at least a week.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Body horror
Moderate: Rape and Misogyny
somturtle's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Sexual violence, Rape, Misogyny, Alcohol, Body horror, Physical abuse, Racism, Alcoholism, Blood, Violence, Colonisation, and Domestic abuse
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