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waytoomanybooks's review
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a beautifully written and sensitively told story about grief, loss, and love in the respective queer communities of the two main characters (approximately from the 1930s to the 1990s). The novel is an interesting blend of fact and fiction, and is told through blackout/erasure poetry, as well as narratives from the two leads. I found the erasure poetry and the inserted images to add positively to my reading experience.
The main characters also experience literal memory blackouts that influence the narrative, which makes it a bit tricky to follow at some points, but if you take the time to math it out, you can make a decent timeline of important dates and the characters’ ages. Sometimes it is tricky to tell what is a memory and what is a dream/hope/wish/fear/desire, which is an intentional stylistic choice, but one that I don’t personally like.
One aspect I don’t like about any book—not just this one—is when a book just ends without closure or a hint at closure. I can’t stand it when the narrative does a hard cut into acknowledgments.
Though just because this book isn’t stylistically my jam, I would still recommend reading it.
The main characters also experience literal memory blackouts that influence the narrative, which makes it a bit tricky to follow at some points, but if you take the time to math it out, you can make a decent timeline of important dates and the characters’ ages. Sometimes it is tricky to tell what is a memory and what is a dream/hope/wish/fear/desire, which is an intentional stylistic choice, but one that I don’t personally like.
One aspect I don’t like about any book—not just this one—is when a book just ends without closure or a hint at closure. I can’t stand it when the narrative does a hard cut into acknowledgments.
Though just because this book isn’t stylistically my jam, I would still recommend reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Child abuse, Outing, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Transphobia, Ableism, Chronic illness, Dementia, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Self harm, and Homophobia
takecoverbooksptbo's review
challenging
mysterious
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
A mixture of Calvino's polyphonous Invisible Cities, Mendelsohn's myserious memoir of queer New York The Elusive Embrace, and the touching diasporic dissonance Noor Naga's autofiction If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, Justin Torres' Blackouts is a multifaceted love story.
There are so many different types of love explored in the novel: friendship, romance, familial love, carnality, love of art, romanticization of the past, care work, among many others. While it's not a clear-eyed novel whose beginning-middle-end structure is immediately satisfying, the miasmal atmosphere and haunting presences of the book resonate far beyond its conclusion.
In a way, Torres gives us a ghost story, but, in another way, Blackouts could be considered a truthful synopsis of our mediated existence. A novel of ideas, it asks, what is biographical or personal truth when it can only ever be revealed through the cleaning-up process of storytelling? Is the past meaningless in the face of an inexhaustible present? Or, alternatively, is the past the only thing that can bestow meaning, given that our personhood can only be defined by the collage of memory and documentation that exists to tell us who we are? Torres doesn't embark on the journey to answer these questions, but to get the reader to think about them, to meditate upon our fragile bodies in relation to the deep time of our actions.
Blackouts is a remarkable book, but it's certainly not for everyone. At times, its elliptical structure gets in the way of the story being told, and the characters floating through the narrative seem too vaporous to picture without the substantial archival material bound up with the text. Having said that, I think most who pick it up will find something to love.
There are so many different types of love explored in the novel: friendship, romance, familial love, carnality, love of art, romanticization of the past, care work, among many others. While it's not a clear-eyed novel whose beginning-middle-end structure is immediately satisfying, the miasmal atmosphere and haunting presences of the book resonate far beyond its conclusion.
In a way, Torres gives us a ghost story, but, in another way, Blackouts could be considered a truthful synopsis of our mediated existence. A novel of ideas, it asks, what is biographical or personal truth when it can only ever be revealed through the cleaning-up process of storytelling? Is the past meaningless in the face of an inexhaustible present? Or, alternatively, is the past the only thing that can bestow meaning, given that our personhood can only be defined by the collage of memory and documentation that exists to tell us who we are? Torres doesn't embark on the journey to answer these questions, but to get the reader to think about them, to meditate upon our fragile bodies in relation to the deep time of our actions.
Blackouts is a remarkable book, but it's certainly not for everyone. At times, its elliptical structure gets in the way of the story being told, and the characters floating through the narrative seem too vaporous to picture without the substantial archival material bound up with the text. Having said that, I think most who pick it up will find something to love.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Infidelity, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Mental illness
sarah984's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was a really interesting book, a sort of auto-fiction/historical fiction combination about telling stories and being interpreted and pathologized. I liked it a lot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, and Racism
Minor: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
mikeybjones's review
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Death, and Lesbophobia
finnc's review
challenging
emotional
slow-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? No
4.5
Black Outs is incredibly creative, subversive, relevant, and in a league of its own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Homophobia
bella_ruth's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Homophobia, Death, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
siriface's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Death
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
In many ways Blackouts is a challenging book to read. At one level it is the story of an old man dying, the young man who visits him, and the life stories they share- often in small vignettes. Within this set up we learn about Jan Gay and her partner Zhenya Gay. They were both actual people and this book reads very much like non-fiction at times, although it is not. Jan Gay was an activist and researcher, who focussed on the lives of gay men and women, hoping to normalise their sexuality. However, her research was co-opted and misused for a major publication, which pathologised homosexuality and never officially credited her work. Aspects of this study, and other actual historical documents, including illustrations, were included in the novel. Many were redacted, giving them the appearance of found poetry, deliberately subverting the documents’ original message. This served to blur the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, while also highlighting how much historical fact, especially that related to marginalised groups, has been lost, deliberately buried and/or deliberately misconstrued. And of course it made an important point about homosexuality and its history. This book worked for me on an intellectual level, prompting a lot of thought and reflection. Its experimental structure - which I really liked - meant it wasn’t the sort of story I could sink into, nor was it the sort of book I found emotionally satisfying. And that’s not a bad thing. I enjoy a wide bookish diet, and not every book can or should satisfy both the heart and the head. For me this was a stimulating head book, aspects of which reminded me of The New Life. For other readers, especially those more directly impacted by the erasure and distortion of gay history, it may be a heart book as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content and Homophobia
mirandyli's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
A beautifully written, heart wrenching story about intergenerational queer friendship. Will make you want to hug and kiss the queer elders in your life. This book won a bunch of awards and deserved all of them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Dementia, Drug use, Infidelity, Biphobia, Child abuse, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Racism, Addiction, Homophobia, Medical content, Death of parent, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship
natalee_martino's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Sexism