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mac_ashton's review against another edition
1.0
It's very rare for me to not finish a book, but this is my second this year. I tried very hard to get into this, but the writing is circular, confusing, and ended up feeling like a chore. I'm sure it's great for someone, but for me, I couldn't understand even the most basic elements of the story.
humphreads's review against another edition
5.0
I have no idea where to start with Tomb of Sand.I stayed up late reading it, I got up early to read it, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop thinking about it.
Oooh that’d be a good clickbait quote, but I’m being serious. This book has had me questioning how printed words can do this.
Sand of Tomb begins with a mother who is ill in bed. She’s mentally ill from a cloud of depression and/or grief (because how can one separate these things?). This is a real slow burner, with her only emerging from bed 200 pages in. Fear not though, it’s a big boy at 700 pages and despite a potential lack of movement, you will not get bored.
As well as utter loss, this book explores borders and relations between Pakistan and Israel, family ties, gender expression, the reverse roles of parents and children that come with ageing, religion, traumatic childhood. My brain is genuinely a blur because there’s SO much within these pages.
The plot it pretty amazing, but to me what makes this book spectacular is it’s language. The fact that this book is translated fiction is insane, and both Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell are stupidly talented. The narration of this book makes it feel like a story. “But it is a story?” you say, while I scratch my head because how can I articulate this magic. Remember sitting down, legs crossed and being read a story by a wise owl? This is how the book is. If you watched Jackanory, this is the vibe.
We break off the story multiple times to say things like “there’s also another son, but he’s not relevant at the moment” or “didn’t I tell you that was important?”. Additionally, there’s a very wise crow who apparently has a main voice in this book, a fairytale about how Reebok shoes were snakes and the most gorgeous prose on windows and doors.
If you like Ali Smith, you’ll love this. If you like the confusion, yep. If you want a straight forward beach read, absolutely avoid. It’s long and it’s hard but !!!! IT IS A WORK OF ART !!! and I’m genuinely in a state of confusion over this paPER WITH WORDS ON THAT HAS THIS CONTROL OVER ME. So so thankful that @thebookerprizes shone a light on this beauty.
*mic drop*
*gabby faints*
Oooh that’d be a good clickbait quote, but I’m being serious. This book has had me questioning how printed words can do this.
Sand of Tomb begins with a mother who is ill in bed. She’s mentally ill from a cloud of depression and/or grief (because how can one separate these things?). This is a real slow burner, with her only emerging from bed 200 pages in. Fear not though, it’s a big boy at 700 pages and despite a potential lack of movement, you will not get bored.
As well as utter loss, this book explores borders and relations between Pakistan and Israel, family ties, gender expression, the reverse roles of parents and children that come with ageing, religion, traumatic childhood. My brain is genuinely a blur because there’s SO much within these pages.
The plot it pretty amazing, but to me what makes this book spectacular is it’s language. The fact that this book is translated fiction is insane, and both Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell are stupidly talented. The narration of this book makes it feel like a story. “But it is a story?” you say, while I scratch my head because how can I articulate this magic. Remember sitting down, legs crossed and being read a story by a wise owl? This is how the book is. If you watched Jackanory, this is the vibe.
We break off the story multiple times to say things like “there’s also another son, but he’s not relevant at the moment” or “didn’t I tell you that was important?”. Additionally, there’s a very wise crow who apparently has a main voice in this book, a fairytale about how Reebok shoes were snakes and the most gorgeous prose on windows and doors.
If you like Ali Smith, you’ll love this. If you like the confusion, yep. If you want a straight forward beach read, absolutely avoid. It’s long and it’s hard but !!!! IT IS A WORK OF ART !!! and I’m genuinely in a state of confusion over this paPER WITH WORDS ON THAT HAS THIS CONTROL OVER ME. So so thankful that @thebookerprizes shone a light on this beauty.
*mic drop*
*gabby faints*
elizartemisbailey's review against another edition
4.0
Partition novel with marvelous prose. Under-hyped despite being the first book translated from an Indian language to win the International Booker. Do give it a whirl! 4.5 stars.
kirinmccrory's review against another edition
5.0
"Echoes and reverberations of melodies cross every border. Melodies change, music remains. Death comes, life goes on. A story is created, changes, flows. Free, from this side to that."
wordsmithreads's review against another edition
4.0
A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you've got women and a border, a story can write itself. Even women on their own are enough.
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway (thanks!) and because it was from my own library, I decided to read with a pencil in hand. If I hadn't read with the intention to annotate, I don't think I would have enjoyed this as fully.
This story must be understood as a whole. Turning to a random page, you might appreciate some of the language, but the story won't make sense. In fact, I would argue that the story is like sand itself: each page is a grain, but it doesn't start to make a difference until you get to the end, and it has accumulated and accumulated. It is only in the final chapters that you feel the weight of what you’ve read.
Shree asks such interesting questions and makes such original statements about life and our personalities. This book at its whole is about borders and boundaries, the boxes that we are made to inhabit both morally and physically.
I found myself stopping at this line in particular: ... the most important character in every person's life is the thing that they lack. In retrospect, this is a massive undercurrent of Amma's life: she has lost so much over the years (her home, her spouse, her friends, etc).
Beti, on the other hand, is suffering through trying to find who she is. She has a life that she enjoys leading, but when she's asked to take care of her mother, her personality and priorities change almost immediately, which leads me to highlight this line: Psychologists say that the aspect of our nature which comes to the fore the moment we enter a room or gathering has the strongest influence in shaping our future.
Shree asks us to confront who we really are, and what makes us those people. Our home? Our gender? Our responsibilities? I enjoyed this, because it probes at questions that are deeper than plot-level. As a plot, this is fairly meandering and unclear, and there isn't incredible characterization, which is why not a 5-star. But as a story — story, not plot — this was interesting and thought-provoking.
4 stars
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway (thanks!) and because it was from my own library, I decided to read with a pencil in hand. If I hadn't read with the intention to annotate, I don't think I would have enjoyed this as fully.
This story must be understood as a whole. Turning to a random page, you might appreciate some of the language, but the story won't make sense. In fact, I would argue that the story is like sand itself: each page is a grain, but it doesn't start to make a difference until you get to the end, and it has accumulated and accumulated. It is only in the final chapters that you feel the weight of what you’ve read.
Shree asks such interesting questions and makes such original statements about life and our personalities. This book at its whole is about borders and boundaries, the boxes that we are made to inhabit both morally and physically.
I found myself stopping at this line in particular: ... the most important character in every person's life is the thing that they lack. In retrospect, this is a massive undercurrent of Amma's life: she has lost so much over the years (her home, her spouse, her friends, etc).
Beti, on the other hand, is suffering through trying to find who she is. She has a life that she enjoys leading, but when she's asked to take care of her mother, her personality and priorities change almost immediately, which leads me to highlight this line: Psychologists say that the aspect of our nature which comes to the fore the moment we enter a room or gathering has the strongest influence in shaping our future.
Shree asks us to confront who we really are, and what makes us those people. Our home? Our gender? Our responsibilities? I enjoyed this, because it probes at questions that are deeper than plot-level. As a plot, this is fairly meandering and unclear, and there isn't incredible characterization, which is why not a 5-star. But as a story — story, not plot — this was interesting and thought-provoking.
4 stars
didsreads's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 to be precise.
Echoing my wonderful friends who had finished this tome of words, it is SUREly not for everyone but if you're committed enough, it could be rewarding. Such a humbling experience for me. This one is not an straightforward literature to be consumed easily. A 700++ pages serving flavorful Indian taste; the culture, the family-drama, the stigmas.
An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.
At the older woman's insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
What I found interesting was Geetanjali's subtle stroke on various social criticism, laced in between Bollywood and other literature references. Songs, poems, books. If you are not familiar with huge, merry Indian family setting or just Bollywood movies in general, it could be quite a Googling work but what's reading if you're not immersing yourself in the book's world?
Tomb of Sand touches on so many issues and more than once, i found myself lost in between the lines. The similes, symbolisms and foreshadowing could be overwhelming at some points i felt 'this texts were meant to be appreciated without being understood'.
Yep. I was that... clueless.
All I could say, Tomb of Sand was brilliantly done. The translation; pure magic.
Glad I could finish and appreciate this piece of literature.
Echoing my wonderful friends who had finished this tome of words, it is SUREly not for everyone but if you're committed enough, it could be rewarding. Such a humbling experience for me. This one is not an straightforward literature to be consumed easily. A 700++ pages serving flavorful Indian taste; the culture, the family-drama, the stigmas.
An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.
At the older woman's insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.
What I found interesting was Geetanjali's subtle stroke on various social criticism, laced in between Bollywood and other literature references. Songs, poems, books. If you are not familiar with huge, merry Indian family setting or just Bollywood movies in general, it could be quite a Googling work but what's reading if you're not immersing yourself in the book's world?
Tomb of Sand touches on so many issues and more than once, i found myself lost in between the lines. The similes, symbolisms and foreshadowing could be overwhelming at some points i felt 'this texts were meant to be appreciated without being understood'.
Yep. I was that... clueless.
All I could say, Tomb of Sand was brilliantly done. The translation; pure magic.
Glad I could finish and appreciate this piece of literature.
margaret21's review against another edition
2.0
I really shouldn't rate this book. It was the right book at the wrong time and it seems I was unable to give it long enough to get under my skin. The reviews I've read show that this is a story told in a way which commands respect and admiration, and I probably just didn't give it long enough. I found the writing beautiful, often poetic in a stream-of consciousness kind of way, but the plot seemed to ramble, and to do so in a haphazard kind of way. Maybe I should return later and have another go, as the many positive reviews seem to indicate that I am missing out. I shan't surprise myself if I don't though.
abisolutelyfabulous's review against another edition
It was so boring. The half that I read was just flashbacks.
kerim's review against another edition
5.0
The story keeps changing in provoking and surprising ways.