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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
So I started reading the second Colson Whitehead Harlem crime novel and within 10 pages I was bored, so instead I read this, a book with the first line “Oh. He shat himself.”
The two stories - one short, one long - don’t have any crossover I see besides thematic, but I particularly adored the meet-up and end of the elderly couple in the first.
Printz’s story periodically veered interminable - I was reminded of the never ending cut-and-paste of Max Frisch’s “Man in the Holocene”, a book I like but also often skimmed - but nailed the landing.
The two stories - one short, one long - don’t have any crossover I see besides thematic, but I particularly adored the meet-up and end of the elderly couple in the first.
Printz’s story periodically veered interminable - I was reminded of the never ending cut-and-paste of Max Frisch’s “Man in the Holocene”, a book I like but also often skimmed - but nailed the landing.
challenging
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
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
It’s pretty hard to figure out what this book is about, if not at all unclear who the characters are and what they are doing.
More curious to me are the dotted lines with scissors indicating where the reader is invited to cut the story into segments and rearrange them. (NOTE: I was reading a library copy of the book so chopping it up was out of the question.)
You could have rearranged the segments and out them into chronological order. Would this have yielded more meaning, or would it have buried the intrinsic meaning of the text?
It’s a good question, and one I’m not sure the author answers.
The tale is littered with unspeakable horrors including shipping off Jews to the gas chambers, mass shootings in the Balkan Wars, informants, domestic violence and child molestation. In this way history can’t be linear. If so the world is not getting better so linear history makes no sense.
What we have is a cycle of barbarity punctuated a pause in the action.
Arrange the parts however, you return to the mystery of the beginning.
Like a big bang.
More curious to me are the dotted lines with scissors indicating where the reader is invited to cut the story into segments and rearrange them. (NOTE: I was reading a library copy of the book so chopping it up was out of the question.)
You could have rearranged the segments and out them into chronological order. Would this have yielded more meaning, or would it have buried the intrinsic meaning of the text?
It’s a good question, and one I’m not sure the author answers.
The tale is littered with unspeakable horrors including shipping off Jews to the gas chambers, mass shootings in the Balkan Wars, informants, domestic violence and child molestation. In this way history can’t be linear. If so the world is not getting better so linear history makes no sense.
What we have is a cycle of barbarity punctuated a pause in the action.
Arrange the parts however, you return to the mystery of the beginning.
Like a big bang.
reflective
medium-paced
I liked the contemplation on loneliness, on obsession with materiality and with the past. However, while I liked the brief encounter of Artur and Isabella, the longer length of Pupi's story was less appealing. Like the first story, there was a lot of repetition but it was fine for a shorter story. With Pupi, the repetition combined with rambling wasn't great. In fact, if we took out the repetitive parts , this might be a much more pleasant read for me.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
That was gross and unsettling and weird. Lots of bodily fluids and genitals described in deliberately off-putting ways. But this author clearly knew what she was doing, because although I don't enjoy grotesque novels, I can see the literary merit in sections of this. There are some thought-provoking passages and beautiful turns of phrase. Still, I would have liked there to be less emphasis on poop and pee and vaginas and penises. And suicide.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Excrement, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Suicide
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
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
Weirdest book I’ve ever read. So weird that I was intrigued enough to keep reading but also relieved when it was done.
It’s quite disturbing in places. Lots of content warnings.
It’s quite disturbing in places. Lots of content warnings.