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minkler's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
peripetia's review against another edition
DNF at 30%.
This has been on a my to-read list for a long time and I finally picked it up, fully expecting to be amazed and moved. I wasn't.
The time jumps were confusing and just felt kind of unnecessary. It was hard to tell which timeline we were following because they weren't very different from each other. The characters remained distant, expect for the anthropologist-widower, who explains his situation, thoughts, and feelings thoroughly.
I'm a very plot-driven reader and it takes a lot for a character-driven novel to hold my interest. If there is a plot in this book, I didn't grasp it, and the characters were too flat for me to be interested in.
Also I am once again confused about how people in the Mexican novels I've read make money. It's something that I pay a lot of attention to, unconsciously, and since this seems to be a pattern, I can't stop obsessing over it.
This has been on a my to-read list for a long time and I finally picked it up, fully expecting to be amazed and moved. I wasn't.
The time jumps were confusing and just felt kind of unnecessary. It was hard to tell which timeline we were following because they weren't very different from each other. The characters remained distant, expect for the anthropologist-widower, who explains his situation, thoughts, and feelings thoroughly.
I'm a very plot-driven reader and it takes a lot for a character-driven novel to hold my interest. If there is a plot in this book, I didn't grasp it, and the characters were too flat for me to be interested in.
Also I am once again confused about how people in the Mexican novels I've read make money. It's something that I pay a lot of attention to, unconsciously, and since this seems to be a pattern, I can't stop obsessing over it.
fundays1106's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. On a personal level, it's not the genre of book I would typically chose to read so I think part of the reason I didn't love it is due to my personality and personal preferences. Nonetheless, I appreciate the creativity and talent this author has. This book is unlike any other I've ever read. Aspects of this book that were unique and that I enjoyed were: how the author plays with time, sharing parts of the story from the perspectives of different characters, and how integral the setting is to the plot. It's a beautiful reflection on grief and how we all have different ways of dealing with it. I imagine if you lost a loved one, you would see your own experience reflected within these pages.
knod78's review against another edition
3.0
This completes Task 3: Read a non-European novel in translation of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge.
Hmmm...is all I have to say about this book. There were parts of I loved, parts I didn't love, and parts I just didn't care or was confused to read. I do feel like some of this could have been lost in translation. On the surface, the book has a wonderful plot and storyline. I loved the history of the tastes and Mexico and ancient gardening. I loved how they showed their unique way to handle grief be it losing your mind, a person, or a parent via abandonment. My issues with the book stems from the fact that we were just plopped into the middle without any build up or defining end. I felt like the characters needed more detail to their personal lives, more character development and we started to get it ironically in the middle part of the book only to be let down with a blaise ending. A reviewer said it best that I felt like I was being marched up a mountain only to be pushed off a literal cliff. It was anti-climatic really. And we didn't even get to know if they had their milpa garden inaugration party. I actually loved the milpa idea so much and I thought it would be the centering point for each character to bring them back to reality. It headed that way, but then, it didn't.
Pina and Marina's characters were written lazily in my opinion where we got spurts of details. However, it wasn't enough to really make me care about those characters and I felt like Pina is someone who I could identify with wholeheartedly. I also wished the tastes and Umami were brought in better and intertwined throughout each chapter instead of just haphardardly explaining umami for the umpteenth time. There was a wonderful section of Alf's story where he's explaining the history of umami, the units, and why he named the units by the tastes. That to me would have been best at the beginning to start this whole story and then have it built upon.
Again, I will say that some of this could have been lost in translation for sure. And the story really does show how people evolve with grief after a very big loss. I can't take that away from the story. I just wished there was more to each character and unit and well, story. I do think it's worth reading.
Hmmm...is all I have to say about this book. There were parts of I loved, parts I didn't love, and parts I just didn't care or was confused to read. I do feel like some of this could have been lost in translation. On the surface, the book has a wonderful plot and storyline. I loved the history of the tastes and Mexico and ancient gardening. I loved how they showed their unique way to handle grief be it losing your mind, a person, or a parent via abandonment. My issues with the book stems from the fact that we were just plopped into the middle without any build up or defining end. I felt like the characters needed more detail to their personal lives, more character development and we started to get it ironically in the middle part of the book only to be let down with a blaise ending. A reviewer said it best that I felt like I was being marched up a mountain only to be pushed off a literal cliff. It was anti-climatic really. And we didn't even get to know if they had their milpa garden inaugration party. I actually loved the milpa idea so much and I thought it would be the centering point for each character to bring them back to reality. It headed that way, but then, it didn't.
Pina and Marina's characters were written lazily in my opinion where we got spurts of details. However, it wasn't enough to really make me care about those characters and I felt like Pina is someone who I could identify with wholeheartedly. I also wished the tastes and Umami were brought in better and intertwined throughout each chapter instead of just haphardardly explaining umami for the umpteenth time. There was a wonderful section of Alf's story where he's explaining the history of umami, the units, and why he named the units by the tastes. That to me would have been best at the beginning to start this whole story and then have it built upon.
Again, I will say that some of this could have been lost in translation for sure. And the story really does show how people evolve with grief after a very big loss. I can't take that away from the story. I just wished there was more to each character and unit and well, story. I do think it's worth reading.
sophieonawalk's review against another edition
5.0
Loooved this book. Grief and family love in a Mexico City privada.
jonmicheelsleiseth's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
boygenius_'s review against another edition
4.0
A pesar de que el libro trata sobre el duelo, es muy entretenido de leer. Las voces están tan bien construidas, que podemos meternos en la vida de los personajes desde su propio lenguaje. Digo que es un libro sobre el duelo pero siento que trata muchos temas y todos muy interesantes: la condición de ser solo hijos, la comunidad en la vecindad, el tema de la comida, la identidad, cómo nos reconstruimos ante la ausencia de ese otro que nos definía con su mirada. Un libro bello e interesante.
soy_sputnik's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.5
Según la wikipedia, Umami es el uno de los sabores básicos de la lengua (o del sentido del gusto) y que significa delicioso o sabroso, cosa que a mí me parece más bien subjetivo. ¿qué determina qué es delicioso? contrario a los otros sabores del gusto, una puede saber que el limón es agrio porque hay asuntos objetivos que lo determinan, lo delicioso parte de lo que nos gusta. El umami es más bien un asunto personal. Umami, la novela de Laia Jufresa es así, un asunto personal contado por muchas voces y perspectivas, cada quién decide su umami de ciertas circunstancias de la vida. En esta historia, los personajes son tomados para crear monólogos de sus experiencias con la pérdida, el luto es una constante y cada uno de ellos lo vive de manera diferente. Lo que tienen en común además del luto es que todos viven en la privada la campana, un espacio organizado a manera de lengua que tiene casas con sabores. Estos personajes, vecinos, son reales y potentes, pareciera que lo que nos cuentan es más bien inútil pero es el cómo lo cuentan y cómo eso que cuentan se complementa como parte de un coro que hace que la novela se vuelva muy sensible, por momentos triste y eso sí muy reflexiva. Todos los personajes acá guardan secretos y tú como lectora te conviertes en la observadora de ellos y quisieras poderles resolver sus asuntos, cosa que no se puede pero es que la novela sí dialoga contigo de manera que por momentos te crees ese asunto de intervenir. Es muy real. En fin. Umami es para leerse lentito y para ponerle atención a lo que nos dicen los personajes a manera de confesión, ahí están las claves.
daveparry67's review against another edition
5.0
I bought this from the ‘signed books table’ at the Hay Festival in 2018; I took a little longer reading it than the other books I’ve read so far this year, more because of other priorities than my relationship with the book, which I must say I grew to love as I read through the 4 parts, each taking us back in time from 2004 to 2000/1 & revealing gradually more to us about the events at the centre of the book & the characters, their relationships, their foibles, their feelings and their failings.
Set in Mexico City & translated into English from the original Spanish, it’s a quirky book of huge tragedy, pain & shocking neglect, told gently & powerfully with some beautiful passages, acute observations of everyday life & great emotional insight. Somehow, as I learned more of the true horror of what happened I also came to appreciate, understand & love the characters more.
It’s about loss & what’s left over afterwards. All the characters have lost loved ones or their strength & abilities or their innocence or their hope for the future; & they share each other’s experiences because they all live next door to one another in a peculiar set of mews houses, arranged & named in accordance with a map of what used to be thought of as the 5 taste centres of the tongue; Salty, Sweet, Sour, Bitter & Umami.
The characters are as eccentric & appealing as the architecture; the professor who built the houses & pushes 2 ‘reborn’ dolls around the mews; the sister with nicknames from the English books her grandmother sends her from house clearances of her dead neighbours in Michigan; the troubled young woman who invents new colour names (how the translator pulled this off is beyond me because they work so cleverly in English) & struggles to forge a new life after a breakdown; the self-obsessed bohemian woman who ups & leaves her husband & daughter despite an attractive energy & free-spirit; the bereaved parents who struggle to regain their musical equilibrium despite running a music school from the mews; the innocent, adored, ultimately overlooked youngest sibling who tragically believes the tales & myths of the adults & older children.
The grief of the 3rd anniversary of the central death in the book is beautifully described; tetchy impatience bubbling into raw anger, noticed & accepted by others, not resented; matter of fact observations that the pain of the first day which they expected to last forever really did fade; sad little realisations that respect for the dead stops us experiencing them as we did before; when you’re dead “… nobody dares insult you any more, not even out of love.” (P.154)
Eating pizza on the sofa, still, quiet, wondering why there were no weeds on the grave; it’s gentle & everyday & powerful in its understatement. Spotting tiny flowers on a basil plant they’ve grown, they remember how little their sister was, how much she liked to be squeezed, but no-one dared squeeze her as much as she’d like for fear of hurting her. It’s so sad. 2 of the characters who have carried their dead loved ones in their arms wonder if dying is the moment you stop carrying your own weight... (p.191)
There’s something so touching & acutely painful about the contrasts in this book, even in the same sentences... beautifully written passages come thick & fast & it’s hard not to cry at the tragedies... One of the characters remembers the joy of her mum, who’s subsequently disappeared, arriving home with a red VW Campervan; “... she strokes the memory like a cat, and like a cat, the memory purrs, giving off the precise feeling of that afternoon...” (p.215) Even the ‘scum’ over Mexico City is beautifully described… “The scum swallows you and makes sure you forget all about it… how thick, how grey, and blue, and brown it is, and semi-solid, like a dirty meringue.” (p.218)
The delight of simple joys intertwines with aching emotional pain & because the book is written out of sequence we can see all too well what the characters can’t; people failing to connect, missing precious opportunities to laugh & love & not worry about trivial concerns... if only they knew how their neglect would echo through their subsequent lives...
Read this book, I can’t do it justice…
Set in Mexico City & translated into English from the original Spanish, it’s a quirky book of huge tragedy, pain & shocking neglect, told gently & powerfully with some beautiful passages, acute observations of everyday life & great emotional insight. Somehow, as I learned more of the true horror of what happened I also came to appreciate, understand & love the characters more.
It’s about loss & what’s left over afterwards. All the characters have lost loved ones or their strength & abilities or their innocence or their hope for the future; & they share each other’s experiences because they all live next door to one another in a peculiar set of mews houses, arranged & named in accordance with a map of what used to be thought of as the 5 taste centres of the tongue; Salty, Sweet, Sour, Bitter & Umami.
The characters are as eccentric & appealing as the architecture; the professor who built the houses & pushes 2 ‘reborn’ dolls around the mews; the sister with nicknames from the English books her grandmother sends her from house clearances of her dead neighbours in Michigan; the troubled young woman who invents new colour names (how the translator pulled this off is beyond me because they work so cleverly in English) & struggles to forge a new life after a breakdown; the self-obsessed bohemian woman who ups & leaves her husband & daughter despite an attractive energy & free-spirit; the bereaved parents who struggle to regain their musical equilibrium despite running a music school from the mews; the innocent, adored, ultimately overlooked youngest sibling who tragically believes the tales & myths of the adults & older children.
The grief of the 3rd anniversary of the central death in the book is beautifully described; tetchy impatience bubbling into raw anger, noticed & accepted by others, not resented; matter of fact observations that the pain of the first day which they expected to last forever really did fade; sad little realisations that respect for the dead stops us experiencing them as we did before; when you’re dead “… nobody dares insult you any more, not even out of love.” (P.154)
Eating pizza on the sofa, still, quiet, wondering why there were no weeds on the grave; it’s gentle & everyday & powerful in its understatement. Spotting tiny flowers on a basil plant they’ve grown, they remember how little their sister was, how much she liked to be squeezed, but no-one dared squeeze her as much as she’d like for fear of hurting her. It’s so sad. 2 of the characters who have carried their dead loved ones in their arms wonder if dying is the moment you stop carrying your own weight... (p.191)
There’s something so touching & acutely painful about the contrasts in this book, even in the same sentences... beautifully written passages come thick & fast & it’s hard not to cry at the tragedies... One of the characters remembers the joy of her mum, who’s subsequently disappeared, arriving home with a red VW Campervan; “... she strokes the memory like a cat, and like a cat, the memory purrs, giving off the precise feeling of that afternoon...” (p.215) Even the ‘scum’ over Mexico City is beautifully described… “The scum swallows you and makes sure you forget all about it… how thick, how grey, and blue, and brown it is, and semi-solid, like a dirty meringue.” (p.218)
The delight of simple joys intertwines with aching emotional pain & because the book is written out of sequence we can see all too well what the characters can’t; people failing to connect, missing precious opportunities to laugh & love & not worry about trivial concerns... if only they knew how their neglect would echo through their subsequent lives...
Read this book, I can’t do it justice…