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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
4.5.
so beautiful and intimate. it really feels like reading a stranger's annotations to a lover in a secondhand book, wondering how it ended up discarded and seeing a piece of someone that was never exposed to you. the prose is easy to read (i really wish i can read in the original french and i hope i can do so soon) but it's still so vivid and striking. there is a repetition i find unnecessary but i think that might be to really settle in that nostalgia. i don't mind it much. the second half falls flat compared to the first half for me but i think that's moreso because the first half is just that good. otherwise this is just a beautiful meditation on queerness in the past and present, in fiction and in reality. i feel if i reread with complete context this might be a 5 star, considering i devoured it in less than a day, but who knows
so beautiful and intimate. it really feels like reading a stranger's annotations to a lover in a secondhand book, wondering how it ended up discarded and seeing a piece of someone that was never exposed to you. the prose is easy to read (i really wish i can read in the original french and i hope i can do so soon) but it's still so vivid and striking. there is a repetition i find unnecessary but i think that might be to really settle in that nostalgia. i don't mind it much. the second half falls flat compared to the first half for me but i think that's moreso because the first half is just that good. otherwise this is just a beautiful meditation on queerness in the past and present, in fiction and in reality. i feel if i reread with complete context this might be a 5 star, considering i devoured it in less than a day, but who knows
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
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
This book didn’t do for me what it, apparently, did for a lot of other readers. I sat with it for a few days after finishing it to see if maybe my mind would change, but it didn’t. While I do respect the story and have huge respect for the writing skill of the author, I was just very bored throughout most of it. Also, the “love” part of the story wasn’t convincing for me. It didn’t feel like love to me. The main dude just seemed to have huge obsessive crush (which prepubescent me can relate to), but I didn’t get “love”, and Thomas just came off extremely indifferent. And I know that was the point since he was in the closet and fighting his true feelings. Still, it seemed like ol boy was just a f*ck buddy for him. So the revelation at the end felt like it was just there to push the emotional impact. I just wasn’t convinced. I did cry, and pretty fucking hard, but not because I was emotionally invested. I just know the feeling of being in love and losing that love, and I know how it feels to have some kind of connection to “the one that got away”. So the tears were really for myself. Lol! I felt very little for their experience because I didn’t believe it. I do respect it, though, because I think that was kind of intentional. The MC was painted in the beginning as kind of an unreliable narrator and, even in the book club suggested questions at the end, there was a question about whether or not we can even trust his whole telling of Thomas’s side of the story. I found that interesting, so it did make me give it a bit of a pass on that. So, again, I do respect it. But yeah, this is way too long so I’m going to wrap it up here. Sheesh. I be yapping. Gotdamn!
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
didn’t like this as much as i thought i would for a number of reasons, but the ending paragraph has to be one of the most soul crushing things i’ve ever read
Oh, this was such a fantastic book. I normally don't go for romantic coming-of-age novels, but every now and then there's a book that just puts me in a melancholic and pensive mood. This is one of them.
This book narrates the story of Philippe, a novelist, and his first relationship with a boy, Thomas, back when they were 17 years old. There's a big autobiographical aspect to this novel. After all, it begins with a dedication to the memory of Thomas Andrieu, which makes me think whether the book was fiction at all or not. In any case, that's also part of the book's allure. The narrator is a successful novelist, who one day, while being interviewed by a journalist, sees a boy that is the splitting image of his first love. This triggers a large flashback, recounting how this first relationship went and came to an end.
The boy in the present turns out to be the son of his first partner, and the story moves forward from that point on for another ten years. Eventually, there's a sad ending, which I won't explicitly mention here, but in any case, this is one of those novels that make one think about possible worlds: what if one didn't hesitate to come out, what if one made decisions that went against the societal expectations, what if one did things so that one would not live in regret, how would life turn out if these were instead what one did in the past?
There's plenty of drama in this rather small book, as it only clocks in around 150 pages. Yet there's plenty of emotional colour filling its pages. I definitely like it. I wonder what about this book do I like, given that the other recent LGBT literature I have read were disappointing. I think because this strikes a chord, I think because this book talks about real-world problems, and not just about superficial elements like hooking up. It's about real emotional issues, which encompass large parts of one's life, not just the night life. So yes, I can definitely relate to this. I am glad that I am living my life in a way that I am minimising the things I regret, and yes, I am aware that for some of us, this is still not a possibility.
I am normally not a sucker for emotional novels, but this one definitely is emotional, and quite gripping. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
See my other book reviews here.
This book narrates the story of Philippe, a novelist, and his first relationship with a boy, Thomas, back when they were 17 years old. There's a big autobiographical aspect to this novel. After all, it begins with a dedication to the memory of Thomas Andrieu, which makes me think whether the book was fiction at all or not. In any case, that's also part of the book's allure. The narrator is a successful novelist, who one day, while being interviewed by a journalist, sees a boy that is the splitting image of his first love. This triggers a large flashback, recounting how this first relationship went and came to an end.
The boy in the present turns out to be the son of his first partner, and the story moves forward from that point on for another ten years. Eventually, there's a sad ending, which I won't explicitly mention here, but in any case, this is one of those novels that make one think about possible worlds: what if one didn't hesitate to come out, what if one made decisions that went against the societal expectations, what if one did things so that one would not live in regret, how would life turn out if these were instead what one did in the past?
There's plenty of drama in this rather small book, as it only clocks in around 150 pages. Yet there's plenty of emotional colour filling its pages. I definitely like it. I wonder what about this book do I like, given that the other recent LGBT literature I have read were disappointing. I think because this strikes a chord, I think because this book talks about real-world problems, and not just about superficial elements like hooking up. It's about real emotional issues, which encompass large parts of one's life, not just the night life. So yes, I can definitely relate to this. I am glad that I am living my life in a way that I am minimising the things I regret, and yes, I am aware that for some of us, this is still not a possibility.
I am normally not a sucker for emotional novels, but this one definitely is emotional, and quite gripping. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
See my other book reviews here.
Funnily enough, the narrator's mention/praise of "literary minimalism" managed to pinpoint exactly why this novel wasn't working for me. Everything was simply too stripped back. I would call this "restraint" except I also found the prose to be lacking in subtlety. It really felt like I was having this relationship and its significance *explained* at me rather than being able to just watch it play out and develop my own interpretations. I'm generally not a fan of novels that are more summary than scene. There are exceptions, but that's in the case of exceptional prose which this book did not have in my opinion. It is a perfectly decent book but really just clashes with my taste. A couple of moments where I felt a flicker of potential for something more but it never materialised. Unfortunately I was never able to fully buy into it.
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No