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lunaseline's review against another edition
3.0
Jag har inte sett Orange is the new black, så för mig ger den här romanen inblick i en ny miljö; ett kvinnofängelse. San Fransisco fick jag visserligen uppleva i favoriten "The Immortalist", men nu är vi både närmare i tid (Bush, 9/11 o.s.v.) och i en annan del - och en delvis annan del; en mörkare råare, där fri kärlek har ersatts med fri kärlekslöshet.
Och det är miljön - känslan av att "vara där" som jag kommer bära med mig från boken. Kushner skriver bra - jag blir till och med förvånad först, som om att jag hade tänkt fängelse = undermåligt språk - och det gäller både språk och ingångar; hon låter huvudkaraktären Remy vara ... äkta. Rak. Inget förskönande, inga ursäkter, bara förklaringar till hur ett liv kan bli som det blir.
Det jag inte riktigt köper är alla sidohistorier. Jag - som i vanliga fall älskar flerperspektivsromaner - tycker att de delar som berättas hur tredjepersonsperspektiv och utifrån männen Remy möter bara ... stör. De är så uppenbart mindre engagerande, både utifrån berättarröst och omfång - att jag inte riktigt ser poängen. (Även om Kushner även där visar upp sin förmåga att beskriva en - inte helt sympatisk - karaktär - ärligt och eget.) Det gör att boken haltar, jag har svårt att både komma in i den och ta mig vidare vid vissa partier.
Slutet är också lite "halfway", där tonen från resten av romanen egentligen bibehålls, men som att författarinnan ändå fegar lite och vill ge oss något mer hollywoodskt ett tag.
Men: en annan typ av historia en den gängse av en kompetent skribent. Gott så!
Och det är miljön - känslan av att "vara där" som jag kommer bära med mig från boken. Kushner skriver bra - jag blir till och med förvånad först, som om att jag hade tänkt fängelse = undermåligt språk - och det gäller både språk och ingångar; hon låter huvudkaraktären Remy vara ... äkta. Rak. Inget förskönande, inga ursäkter, bara förklaringar till hur ett liv kan bli som det blir.
Det jag inte riktigt köper är alla sidohistorier. Jag - som i vanliga fall älskar flerperspektivsromaner - tycker att de delar som berättas hur tredjepersonsperspektiv och utifrån männen Remy möter bara ... stör. De är så uppenbart mindre engagerande, både utifrån berättarröst och omfång - att jag inte riktigt ser poängen. (Även om Kushner även där visar upp sin förmåga att beskriva en - inte helt sympatisk - karaktär - ärligt och eget.) Det gör att boken haltar, jag har svårt att både komma in i den och ta mig vidare vid vissa partier.
Slutet är också lite "halfway", där tonen från resten av romanen egentligen bibehålls, men som att författarinnan ändå fegar lite och vill ge oss något mer hollywoodskt ett tag.
Men: en annan typ av historia en den gängse av en kompetent skribent. Gott så!
margaretzadie's review against another edition
Disturbing and upsetting story. Full of suspense, I tore thru it in a week, which is fast for me.
It was refreshing reading a novel that wasn’t just about sad sensitive cerebral people. This story was of the world, sleazy SF and LA, prisons etc. The opening section abt “chain night” was horrifying.
There’s a great bit about thoureau woven thru: I can know and judge no one but myself. This was a dictum for a novel where many of the characters were guilty of murder and also a good reminder for me personally cuz I can be a sjithead.
At first I resisted switches in POV but I think the book found its strength in being both narrated by those incarcerated and its voyeurs.
It was refreshing reading a novel that wasn’t just about sad sensitive cerebral people. This story was of the world, sleazy SF and LA, prisons etc. The opening section abt “chain night” was horrifying.
There’s a great bit about thoureau woven thru: I can know and judge no one but myself. This was a dictum for a novel where many of the characters were guilty of murder and also a good reminder for me personally cuz I can be a sjithead.
At first I resisted switches in POV but I think the book found its strength in being both narrated by those incarcerated and its voyeurs.
rhbraun11's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
hannahgough's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
3.0
paperdavid's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
sctittle's review against another edition
4.0
Kushner delivers a glancing blow to mass incarceration in this novel that is in turn hard-bitten and transcendent. Why is Romy in a maximum security women’s prison doing consecutive life terms? We don’t ever completely find out, but Kushner keeps the possibility of the “truth” dangling over us as she jumps back and forth in time. Romy narrates her own story, but she also tells us about the other women in the prison, most of whom are helpless and hopeless against a system that holds all the cards. The grayness and vacuity of life in that prison give the novel a bleak edge, turns the humor black, and renders the occasional scenes of beauty as refreshing as a river running through a desert.
Kushner’s writes with commanding presence. She is tough/gentle in just the right way and she one-ups Joan Didion with her portrait of contemporary California, where she takes us to San Francisco’s seediest neighborhood (you can feel the damp fog); inside LA strip clubs and subpar housing; and on a memorable bus ride through the Central Valley, where the almond groves are farmed by machinery and the mountains loom in the distance as if to remind us that nature is not person-made. One of the most heartbreaking scenes takes place when Romy looks up at the night sky and sees the Milky Way for the first--and she realizes--the last time: “Where people are gone, the world opens. Where people are gone, the night falls upward, black and unmanned."
Throughout Kushner reminds us of all the contradiction this prison in California represents: there is endless space and suffocating constriction; men and women inhabiting bodies they don’t accept; breathtaking beauty and fecundity being engineered by machines; and the urge to live, even to flourish, in deadening surroundings. She also presents a foil for Romy in the form of a GED teacher whose career is going nowhere but who, ultimately, and unlike Romy, is able to escape.
Parts of this novel fell flat for me. There’s a one-dimensional cop gone bad whose presence doesn’t add much to the story and some bewildering (to me) references to Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber)’s journal. Also, there are a few passages where the fruits of Kushner’s research filter through like passages from a high-school term paper. But for the most part Kushner is driving this novel like a motorcycle over the 101, stopping every once in a while to appreciate an awesome sunset, and then riding off into it.
Kushner’s writes with commanding presence. She is tough/gentle in just the right way and she one-ups Joan Didion with her portrait of contemporary California, where she takes us to San Francisco’s seediest neighborhood (you can feel the damp fog); inside LA strip clubs and subpar housing; and on a memorable bus ride through the Central Valley, where the almond groves are farmed by machinery and the mountains loom in the distance as if to remind us that nature is not person-made. One of the most heartbreaking scenes takes place when Romy looks up at the night sky and sees the Milky Way for the first--and she realizes--the last time: “Where people are gone, the world opens. Where people are gone, the night falls upward, black and unmanned."
Throughout Kushner reminds us of all the contradiction this prison in California represents: there is endless space and suffocating constriction; men and women inhabiting bodies they don’t accept; breathtaking beauty and fecundity being engineered by machines; and the urge to live, even to flourish, in deadening surroundings. She also presents a foil for Romy in the form of a GED teacher whose career is going nowhere but who, ultimately, and unlike Romy, is able to escape.
Parts of this novel fell flat for me. There’s a one-dimensional cop gone bad whose presence doesn’t add much to the story and some bewildering (to me) references to Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber)’s journal. Also, there are a few passages where the fruits of Kushner’s research filter through like passages from a high-school term paper. But for the most part Kushner is driving this novel like a motorcycle over the 101, stopping every once in a while to appreciate an awesome sunset, and then riding off into it.
peacefulstapler's review against another edition
2.0
This book felt like reading back on an essay you left to the last minute, where you finished writing the conclusion sleep deprived and an hour before it’s due.
It undid the whole book for what was a pretty enjoyable read. Ending with none other than the most cliche and basic ‘life realisations’ - it was like another author wrote it, and it made me lose all sympathy for the character. I also don’t know why so many points of view were introduced into the book when it didn’t lead to anything? And the big reveal of her crime that the book builds up to, ends up just being… exactly what the author explained mid way through the book.
Mid as hell
It undid the whole book for what was a pretty enjoyable read. Ending with none other than the most cliche and basic ‘life realisations’ - it was like another author wrote it, and it made me lose all sympathy for the character. I also don’t know why so many points of view were introduced into the book when it didn’t lead to anything? And the big reveal of her crime that the book builds up to, ends up just being… exactly what the author explained mid way through the book.
Mid as hell
orrlydia's review against another edition
3.5
“…my memory of them would have to be corrected by facts, which are never considerate of what makes an impression.” (43)