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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I don't know what this book did that The Handmaid's Tale didn't already cover. The author used a colored woman and made a concern about evolution but ultimately it was the same story. Even Cedar, who is narrating the story from a Native American point of view doesn't sound like a Native American. She was raised by white people in a white community.
SPOILERS:
It might just be me but I didn't understand the point of the story. The woman visits her original family and it really didn't seem that important. Then, she's in hiding and we hear how that sucks for her, then she gets caught which is more exciting since she's helping to plan an escape (she had to be told a lot on how to survive in the hospital). She's free and then goes back to her Native American side of her family and hangs out, THEN gets caught. She sounds like she's on heavy drugs at the end and then she gives birth and it's over. Cedar goes through a bunch of shit only for her perfect baby to be taken away. So why did I read this book? Why should I have felt anything for Cedar that I didn't feel for any of the other background characters that were put in the exact same situation? The author didn't really put Cedar in a situation that someone in the Handmaids Tale didn't go through so I don't understand what she offered to the reader that was new.
SPOILERS:
It might just be me but I didn't understand the point of the story. The woman visits her original family and it really didn't seem that important. Then, she's in hiding and we hear how that sucks for her, then she gets caught which is more exciting since she's helping to plan an escape (she had to be told a lot on how to survive in the hospital). She's free and then goes back to her Native American side of her family and hangs out, THEN gets caught. She sounds like she's on heavy drugs at the end and then she gives birth and it's over. Cedar goes through a bunch of shit only for her perfect baby to be taken away. So why did I read this book? Why should I have felt anything for Cedar that I didn't feel for any of the other background characters that were put in the exact same situation? The author didn't really put Cedar in a situation that someone in the Handmaids Tale didn't go through so I don't understand what she offered to the reader that was new.
This book didn't seem to know what it wanted to be, so it was 3 different books crammed into 1. Sometimes 3 contradictory books. I did appreciate that there was very little hand-holding and tedious world building. It was a quick enough read, even if it did leave me confused.
Heartbreaking, beautiful and fierce. Erdrich is a master of lyrical narrative!
Anyone else find Cedar completely unbearable? Stay in the damn house for 9 months and stop being so careless. I hate this book.
So the premise for Erdrich’s latest novel is really interesting. The world is ending as we know it with evolution seemingly reversing (though you only really see this once with a sabre toothed tiger that I loved) and healthy ‘normal’ babies becoming scarce. Fascinating right? Yet sadly this book feels a slog. The first 70 pages being spent on the aloof narrator, pregnant obviously, finding her biological parents rather than paying attention to the end of the world and the safety of her child... then finally goes into hiding (not even on the run) and then a twist and then repeat cycle. A shame. I had heard amazing things about Erdrich and saw glimmers but the payoff was almost non existent. Like the future of the human race in this book ironically. Or not.
Existential fiction set in a world of global warming and dna breakdown. Hard and good to read.
You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
I wanted to like this book way more than I actually did. There were elements that I really enjoyed, don’t get me wrong. The premise was great, and the writing was masterful. It just didn’t land, unfortunately. While I didn’t hate this book, neither was I able to love it. It wasn’t bad; it was merely forgettable.
I loved the process of Cedar getting in touch with her Native American heritage through meeting her birth mother and that side of her family. The premise, that evolution suddenly begins regressing and women find themselves losing their reproductive rights, was an intriguing one. The lack of said rights reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Pregnant women are being taken off the streets to be observed and who knows what else. Other women are being forcibly drafted into womb service, being artificially inseminated by frozen eggs and sperm in order to prolong Homo sapiens’ reign over the earth before their evolutionary forefathers begin reappearing in infant form.
Evolutionary reversal to this extent is a unique take on the apocalypse. One of my favorite elements of this story was the role the U.S. Postal Service played. Strange, I know. But suddenly the postal service is the only reliable method of long distance communication, and in a way they are keeping the nation together. Protected by the National Guard, the postal service delivers letters and passes along news and, on occasion, helps smuggle pregnant women across the border.
The thing I loved most about Cedar Songmaker was honestly her name. I tried so hard to like her. She’s intelligent and religious, but not blindly so. But there was something about her personality and her choices that grated on me. So much anguish could’ve been avoided if she would have just STAYED INSIDE. I know that her parentage was supposed to be a plot twist, but too many hints had been dropped for it to come as a surprise. I didn’t actively dislike her, but I was never able to form a true connection with her character.
But my least favorite element of this book is something common among literary fiction: it was marred by an ambiguous ending. I understand the reasoning behind authors’ decisions to leave endings vague and open-ended, but I am always frustrated by such endings. While they’re possibly truer to real life, I read to escape. I want an ending, and am always left unsatisfied when I finish a last page without receiving any closure.
Future Home of the Living God has an interesting plot, and is told well. It just didn’t land for me.
Actual rating: 2.5 stars
I wanted to like this book way more than I actually did. There were elements that I really enjoyed, don’t get me wrong. The premise was great, and the writing was masterful. It just didn’t land, unfortunately. While I didn’t hate this book, neither was I able to love it. It wasn’t bad; it was merely forgettable.
“We are so brief. A one-day dandelion. A seedpod skittering across the ice. We are a feather falling from the wing of a bird. I don’t know why it is given to us to be so mortal and to feel so much. It is a cruel trick, and glorious.”
I loved the process of Cedar getting in touch with her Native American heritage through meeting her birth mother and that side of her family. The premise, that evolution suddenly begins regressing and women find themselves losing their reproductive rights, was an intriguing one. The lack of said rights reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Pregnant women are being taken off the streets to be observed and who knows what else. Other women are being forcibly drafted into womb service, being artificially inseminated by frozen eggs and sperm in order to prolong Homo sapiens’ reign over the earth before their evolutionary forefathers begin reappearing in infant form.
Evolutionary reversal to this extent is a unique take on the apocalypse. One of my favorite elements of this story was the role the U.S. Postal Service played. Strange, I know. But suddenly the postal service is the only reliable method of long distance communication, and in a way they are keeping the nation together. Protected by the National Guard, the postal service delivers letters and passes along news and, on occasion, helps smuggle pregnant women across the border.
The thing I loved most about Cedar Songmaker was honestly her name. I tried so hard to like her. She’s intelligent and religious, but not blindly so. But there was something about her personality and her choices that grated on me. So much anguish could’ve been avoided if she would have just STAYED INSIDE. I know that her parentage was supposed to be a plot twist, but too many hints had been dropped for it to come as a surprise. I didn’t actively dislike her, but I was never able to form a true connection with her character.
But my least favorite element of this book is something common among literary fiction: it was marred by an ambiguous ending. I understand the reasoning behind authors’ decisions to leave endings vague and open-ended, but I am always frustrated by such endings. While they’re possibly truer to real life, I read to escape. I want an ending, and am always left unsatisfied when I finish a last page without receiving any closure.
Future Home of the Living God has an interesting plot, and is told well. It just didn’t land for me.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes