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caroline_norrish's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Child abuse
roenfoe's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
*Read for university*
For the first two thirds of this book, my feelings towards it were positive overall. However, the last third greatly sullied my experience with the narrative, characters, and cultural relevance of the work. It is not discussed enough that this work features (trigger warning) extensive child rape, child slavery, assault of mentally ill characters, murder, necrophilia, pedophilia, and other horrible acts of violence. I am not saying these topics have no place in literature; they are unfortunate realities of the world we live in, and thus they are fair game to be discussed and addressed in works of all kinds.
HOWEVER... my problem with these topics being so rife throughout this novel is that they seem to be purely included for shock value, especially when seen through the narrative structure. This novel takes a lot of hints from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, in that it has a non linear narrative structure that winds its way through the lives of those living in a town in Uzbekistan. The Railway also essentially steals the ending of OHYOS, but that is neither here nor there (:) The problem with this structure is that it does not have many instances of cause and effect following through to their logical conclusions. Therefore, we as the readers witness a horrible act of child rape, and then the POV cuts to a different character and it is never addressed again. I understand that there is an argument that this is to show the random cruelty of life on the steppe, but if that is the case, did we really need four separate instances of child rape to make that point? It feels gratuitous to me, and if there is ever anything you don't want to be gratuitous with in your novel, it is certainly that.
There were things I enjoyed about this work, but almost an equal number I didn't. Some of the anecdotes were beautiful folk-style tales, evoking sadness and тоска... but others were disgusting and featured repulsive depictions of mentally ill and disabled characters. While the nonlinear structure was interesting, OHYOS did it significantly better. The ending was underwhelming after 300 pages. I really wanted to like this book, but it did its best to convince me otherwise.
For the first two thirds of this book, my feelings towards it were positive overall. However, the last third greatly sullied my experience with the narrative, characters, and cultural relevance of the work. It is not discussed enough that this work features (trigger warning) extensive child rape, child slavery, assault of mentally ill characters, murder, necrophilia, pedophilia, and other horrible acts of violence. I am not saying these topics have no place in literature; they are unfortunate realities of the world we live in, and thus they are fair game to be discussed and addressed in works of all kinds.
HOWEVER... my problem with these topics being so rife throughout this novel is that they seem to be purely included for shock value, especially when seen through the narrative structure. This novel takes a lot of hints from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, in that it has a non linear narrative structure that winds its way through the lives of those living in a town in Uzbekistan. The Railway also essentially steals the ending of OHYOS, but that is neither here nor there (:) The problem with this structure is that it does not have many instances of cause and effect following through to their logical conclusions. Therefore, we as the readers witness a horrible act of child rape, and then the POV cuts to a different character and it is never addressed again. I understand that there is an argument that this is to show the random cruelty of life on the steppe, but if that is the case, did we really need four separate instances of child rape to make that point? It feels gratuitous to me, and if there is ever anything you don't want to be gratuitous with in your novel, it is certainly that.
There were things I enjoyed about this work, but almost an equal number I didn't. Some of the anecdotes were beautiful folk-style tales, evoking sadness and тоска... but others were disgusting and featured repulsive depictions of mentally ill and disabled characters. While the nonlinear structure was interesting, OHYOS did it significantly better. The ending was underwhelming after 300 pages. I really wanted to like this book, but it did its best to convince me otherwise.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, and Child death
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