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nancyjzigler's review
1.0
I always feel people shouldn’t judge a book based off of subject matter, as it simply demonstrates an ignorance to appreciate the beauty of words, and form, and all the other lovely things that make up writing. That being said, I had to put my blind spot on for this one. It felt unfair to juxtapose so much suffering alongside two sweet children, and the mother acting against her children (as in killing them) was too much for me as a mother to read and appreciate. I believe in mental illness/stigma, but if a book also acts as a political statement, I don’t think this one accomplished or gave credit to the lyricism and honesty of the writing because of the end shock value.
pallavi_sharma87's review
5.0
***5.0***
A single mother takes her two boys to the sea shore. But something is not right. what?
Narrated by an mentally unstable woman, who is mentally ill with depression, insomnia, poverty, chemical imbalance and the responsibility of motherhood where she has to look after two little sons, Kevin (5) and Stan(9).
The mother here does not like the world around her. The world terrifies her, does not understand her and she wants to save her boys from this cruel world. Extremely raw but beautifully written. Its a gut wrenching tale of sadness and also a insight on metal illness. The plot reminds me of [a:Toni Morrison|3534|Toni Morrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1494211316p2/3534.jpg]'s [b:Beloved|6149|Beloved|Toni Morrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347984578l/6149._SY75_.jpg|736076].
A very short read which makes us think - am I doing a good job? should I be proud of my accomplishments when many suffer around me? am I a reason for someone's misery or adding to it, being thoughtless?
Happy Reading!!!
A single mother takes her two boys to the sea shore. But something is not right. what?
Narrated by an mentally unstable woman, who is mentally ill with depression, insomnia, poverty, chemical imbalance and the responsibility of motherhood where she has to look after two little sons, Kevin (5) and Stan(9).
The mother here does not like the world around her. The world terrifies her, does not understand her and she wants to save her boys from this cruel world. Extremely raw but beautifully written. Its a gut wrenching tale of sadness and also a insight on metal illness. The plot reminds me of [a:Toni Morrison|3534|Toni Morrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1494211316p2/3534.jpg]'s [b:Beloved|6149|Beloved|Toni Morrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347984578l/6149._SY75_.jpg|736076].
A very short read which makes us think - am I doing a good job? should I be proud of my accomplishments when many suffer around me? am I a reason for someone's misery or adding to it, being thoughtless?
Happy Reading!!!
edwing3's review
4.0
This was tough.
I do not want to spoil anything because you want to read the book without knowing to much about it but, trust me, you will get a sense of what is happening pretty soon.
In my opinion this slim book is really powerful because of the insights into a fragile and twisted mind it provides. While reading it I could feel the same restless distress of the main character.
Absolutely recommended.
I do not want to spoil anything because you want to read the book without knowing to much about it but, trust me, you will get a sense of what is happening pretty soon.
In my opinion this slim book is really powerful because of the insights into a fragile and twisted mind it provides. While reading it I could feel the same restless distress of the main character.
Absolutely recommended.
bashbashbashbash's review
4.0
The European obsession with the Unnatural Mother has a lengthy history, from the oral folktale to the contemporary tabloid. Olmi's sharp novella is narrated by a woman whose financial and psychological deterioration lead her to the conclusion that she must murder both her beloved young sons.
This is a triumph of voice: we are immediately swept up and washed out to the muddy, bleak seaside along with this woman and her two boys. The narrator is in a constant state of oscillation: in the past, in the present; sometimes speaking only for herself, sometimes presenting herself and the boys as a complete unit; now loving her sons, now bewildered at their needs, their yearning, their anger. We are dragged through a featureless brown hotel, to the iron sea and around a shrieking, miserable funfair, until the final, irrevocable scene, when the murders are done.
Olmi plays a great narrative trick, because not only does the reader begin to understand the narrator's interior but also, through her, we begin to comprehend her sons, Kevin (5) and Stan (9). Though the narrator often projects her own mental state onto them, it's easy to see the effects of their mother's instability upon them. Stan withdraws into himself, and behaves perfectly in public in order to compensate for his mother's erratic actions and his own ill-fitted clothes, while Kevin yearns and yearns for affection, for his needs to once and for all be met. The narrator sees the signs of these things, but often she misinterprets, or else does not take them on board at all, but rather discards the signs of her sons' distress.
The translation is exceptional and effective, capturing the narrator's breathless colloquial voice perfectly. Yep, this is a good translation full of British colloquialisms. You will forget it was written first in French.
This is a triumph of voice: we are immediately swept up and washed out to the muddy, bleak seaside along with this woman and her two boys. The narrator is in a constant state of oscillation: in the past, in the present; sometimes speaking only for herself, sometimes presenting herself and the boys as a complete unit; now loving her sons, now bewildered at their needs, their yearning, their anger. We are dragged through a featureless brown hotel, to the iron sea and around a shrieking, miserable funfair, until the final, irrevocable scene, when the murders are done.
Olmi plays a great narrative trick, because not only does the reader begin to understand the narrator's interior but also, through her, we begin to comprehend her sons, Kevin (5) and Stan (9). Though the narrator often projects her own mental state onto them, it's easy to see the effects of their mother's instability upon them. Stan withdraws into himself, and behaves perfectly in public in order to compensate for his mother's erratic actions and his own ill-fitted clothes, while Kevin yearns and yearns for affection, for his needs to once and for all be met. The narrator sees the signs of these things, but often she misinterprets, or else does not take them on board at all, but rather discards the signs of her sons' distress.
The translation is exceptional and effective, capturing the narrator's breathless colloquial voice perfectly. Yep, this is a good translation full of British colloquialisms. You will forget it was written first in French.
yasmin69801's review
5.0
This book plain killed me. I'll probably write about it after I can catch my breath.
داستان مادرى فرانسوى (و احتمالا جوان و بى پول، و هرگز همسرى نداشته) و دو پسر كوچكش كه به كنار دريا ميروند احتمالا بايد داستان شادى باشد.
اين طور نيست.
اولمى اين كتاب رو بعد از خوندن يك خبر توى روزنامه مينويسه. به زيبايى و درستى خودش رو توى قالب اون مادر قرار ميده، مادرى كه خسته و خسته ست، از باران، از گرسنگى، از اينكه تمام پس اندازش رو سكه ها تشكيل ميدن و براى خرج كردن اونها هر دفعه بايد به فروشنده ها توضيح بده كه همين پولها رو فقط داره، و البته، از نا اميد كردن دو پسر كوچكش. استان نه ساله، ظاهرا بچه باهوش و با كفايتيه كه ميتونه از پس خودش و برادر كوچيكترش بربياد. كوين شش ساله، يه پسر كوچيك و شيرينه كه هنوز هرچيزى كه مامان بگه رو با تمام وجود باور ميكنه. توصيفات كتاب عالى ان. ميشه فهميد اون دهكده ى بارونى چه طور جاييه، اون هتل نفرت انگيز هميشه خلوت چه رنگايي داره، و اينكه مادر كنار درياى طوفانى چه احساسى داره كه بچه هاش رو نا اميد كرده، از ديدن "درياى آبى".
نهايتا به اين نتيجه ميرسه كه نميتونه به اونها اجازه بده تو دنيا با اين فلاكت به زندگيشون ادامه بدن، و تك تك روى صورت پسرهاى كوچيكش بالش ميذاره تا توى خواب از دنيا برن و بتونن توى اون دنيا هواى همديگه رو داشته باشن.
وحشتناك ترين اتفاقى كه ميتونه براى يك مادر بيفته، چنين نا اميدى اى هست كه منجر به كشتن فرزنداش، جگر گوشه هاى خودش بشه. چطور انسان به جايى ميرسه كه آفريده هاى خودش رو نابود ميكنه، به صرف حمايت از اونها؟
داستان عالى بود و كمكم كرد بيشتر توى ذهن اين مادر قرار بگيرم.كار فوق العاده وحشتناكش رو تأييد نميكنم، اما ميتونم دليلش رو درك كنم. ترجمه آوا قائمى هم عالى بود و خيلى به دلم نشست.
داستان مادرى فرانسوى (و احتمالا جوان و بى پول، و هرگز همسرى نداشته) و دو پسر كوچكش كه به كنار دريا ميروند احتمالا بايد داستان شادى باشد.
اين طور نيست.
اولمى اين كتاب رو بعد از خوندن يك خبر توى روزنامه مينويسه. به زيبايى و درستى خودش رو توى قالب اون مادر قرار ميده، مادرى كه خسته و خسته ست، از باران، از گرسنگى، از اينكه تمام پس اندازش رو سكه ها تشكيل ميدن و براى خرج كردن اونها هر دفعه بايد به فروشنده ها توضيح بده كه همين پولها رو فقط داره، و البته، از نا اميد كردن دو پسر كوچكش. استان نه ساله، ظاهرا بچه باهوش و با كفايتيه كه ميتونه از پس خودش و برادر كوچيكترش بربياد. كوين شش ساله، يه پسر كوچيك و شيرينه كه هنوز هرچيزى كه مامان بگه رو با تمام وجود باور ميكنه. توصيفات كتاب عالى ان. ميشه فهميد اون دهكده ى بارونى چه طور جاييه، اون هتل نفرت انگيز هميشه خلوت چه رنگايي داره، و اينكه مادر كنار درياى طوفانى چه احساسى داره كه بچه هاش رو نا اميد كرده، از ديدن "درياى آبى".
نهايتا به اين نتيجه ميرسه كه نميتونه به اونها اجازه بده تو دنيا با اين فلاكت به زندگيشون ادامه بدن، و تك تك روى صورت پسرهاى كوچيكش بالش ميذاره تا توى خواب از دنيا برن و بتونن توى اون دنيا هواى همديگه رو داشته باشن.
وحشتناك ترين اتفاقى كه ميتونه براى يك مادر بيفته، چنين نا اميدى اى هست كه منجر به كشتن فرزنداش، جگر گوشه هاى خودش بشه. چطور انسان به جايى ميرسه كه آفريده هاى خودش رو نابود ميكنه، به صرف حمايت از اونها؟
داستان عالى بود و كمكم كرد بيشتر توى ذهن اين مادر قرار بگيرم.كار فوق العاده وحشتناكش رو تأييد نميكنم، اما ميتونم دليلش رو درك كنم. ترجمه آوا قائمى هم عالى بود و خيلى به دلم نشست.
zachkuhn's review
5.0
Well then.
Absolutely terrifying and real. A true work of horror. A mother who has lost her ability to be a mother takes her two sons to the sea. I wish I'd never read it. But it's an excellent piece of writing.
Absolutely terrifying and real. A true work of horror. A mother who has lost her ability to be a mother takes her two sons to the sea. I wish I'd never read it. But it's an excellent piece of writing.
curiousreader's review
Beside the Sea is the story of a mother and her two sons, off on a trip to a small unremarkable town located near the sea. As the book opens, we can see hints at the mother having suffered from something or someone; has she gone through some psychosis that is still shaping her actions and being, has she been the victim of domestic abuse? It’s never explicitly said, although the frequent references to both social workers and psychiatrist meetings confirms that something has gone wrong in this woman’s life; and that this trip is possibly her running away from it all, from failures or fears, from other people or some part of herself. Along with her, she has her two boys; both young and unsure about the reasons for the trip or what’s to come in their futures. They seem to be sensing the slow disintegrating of their mother, but are unable to do anything about it.
The book follows a short period of time, where these three characters move around in the hotel with the six floors - their hotelroom on top, and walk around in the town, visit the raging sea and go to the local fun-fair. Ultimately this book mostly takes place in the mind of the mother though, her thoughts bouncing off of the things she sees - other people’s happiness and wealth or the moonlight through the room’s window; she looks back at her life and we see glimpses of it, while also getting hints on her future or what is about to happen.
It’s a tremendously sad book in the end, not just the way it pans out but all of it. It’s about the failure of being what you think you’re supposed to be, or failing your loved ones, being unable to protect the people whom you most cherish. All in all the most prominent theme I suppose is helplessness which gives the book an almost claustrophobic feeling, an entrapment that in the end leaves you feeling as sad as the mother on the last page.
The book follows a short period of time, where these three characters move around in the hotel with the six floors - their hotelroom on top, and walk around in the town, visit the raging sea and go to the local fun-fair. Ultimately this book mostly takes place in the mind of the mother though, her thoughts bouncing off of the things she sees - other people’s happiness and wealth or the moonlight through the room’s window; she looks back at her life and we see glimpses of it, while also getting hints on her future or what is about to happen.
It’s a tremendously sad book in the end, not just the way it pans out but all of it. It’s about the failure of being what you think you’re supposed to be, or failing your loved ones, being unable to protect the people whom you most cherish. All in all the most prominent theme I suppose is helplessness which gives the book an almost claustrophobic feeling, an entrapment that in the end leaves you feeling as sad as the mother on the last page.
saintboleyn's review
3.0
Was going to be a 2-star read, but the last 10 pages were so haunting and chilling that I bumped it up to 3.
boorrito's review
4.0
As books about a woman collapsing in on herself from her anxieties, fears and distress before deciding to murder her children go, this one's a doozy.
That might sound sarcastic, but it's not. Even though I knew from the start exactly where this book was going, that didn't make the journey any less tense or the final pages any less horrifying. Olmi made me care not only for the two sons but for their unnamed mother as she descends into such a dark place. She loves her sons, and how could she not? It just gets twisted into the most perverse way it can in her bid to protect them from the world while failing to protect them from herself.
It's good. Go read it.
That might sound sarcastic, but it's not. Even though I knew from the start exactly where this book was going, that didn't make the journey any less tense or the final pages any less horrifying. Olmi made me care not only for the two sons but for their unnamed mother as she descends into such a dark place. She loves her sons, and how could she not? It just gets twisted into the most perverse way it can in her bid to protect them from the world while failing to protect them from herself.
It's good. Go read it.