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lindsrobking's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes I found Dillon’s ornate style cloying and tiresome. Sometimes I found it nice.
jenni8fer's review against another edition
4.0
Fitzcarraldo Editions has just released this republishing of In the Dark Room that was first published in 2005 by Penguin Ireland. It is a passionate meditation on the memory and loss of the author's parents during his formative years, using a controlled framework of sections dealing with House, Things, Photographs, Bodies, Places, and Coda. Brian Dillon artfully weaves in the melancholic thoughts and writings of other great writers' such as Marcel Proust, St. Augustine, W.G. Sebald, and Walter Benjamin, as he seeks to understand how memory is formed and attaches itself to the external environment, and how these attachments generate emotional remembrances.
Dillon discusses growing up with his two younger brothers and his parents, his mother passing away from a long, debilitating illness when he was 16, and shortly thereafter, losing his father at 23.
Dillon discusses growing up with his two younger brothers and his parents, his mother passing away from a long, debilitating illness when he was 16, and shortly thereafter, losing his father at 23.
readingbetter's review against another edition
4.0
Devoured the first few chapters, and gradually paced through the rest.
afaultypoet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
margedalloway's review
3.0
Very good, though slightly bloodless and too much intellectualising at points. Overall quite moving.
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