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ninetalevixen's review against another edition
1.0
I received a free copy of this book through Edelweiss for review purposes. This does not affect my rating or opinions.
1.5 stars.Definitely not because that's the only rating I haven't given out yet this year and I want to even out my book stats bar graph.
Honestly, I never meant to finish this book - but I kept finding myself thinking, Oh, I'll stop after I finish this chapter, just in case something exciting happens, and nothing exciting would happen but for some reason I would keep reading? So I guess it gets an extra half star for making me do that, though I hated the ending. Hated. That's not a word I use lightly: I'm okay with ambiguous/open endings, I'm okay with closure, but I hate when we get neither and the book just ... stops.
I couldn't connect with the main character at all, possibly partly because he was "the man" throughout and never got a name. I have a history of staying emotionally remote from unnamed protagonists; I suspect it's not the namelessness itself but the writing style that often accompanies such a choice: denser, with a lot of figurative language that may not make sense (ravens compared to black fruit in a tree, an apartment building "waiting patiently like a huge dog"), and arbitrary or just really poor decisions being made.
There was a flicker of interest when linguistics came up, because language learning and linguistic theory are really interesting to me, but the discussions in this book didn't feel nuanced enough - just constant incidents in which the man couldn't understand what the people around him were saying, or super-convenient double meanings for certain phrases, or recurrence of the name "Mol."
And there's a lot of objectionable content in this book, which didn't really do anything for me except make me extremely uncomfortable. There's a blunt (if clinical) rape scene - the word "rape" is used several times by the perpetrator, but he feels no remorse and even blames the victim, his wife, for provoking him; there's violence and murder towards rats and other people; and there's just a lot of general grossness with the trash piled everywhere in District 4 and the lack of hygiene among the homeless and the graphic violence.
I can vaguely see the literary value in this kind of book, but it's definitely not my type of read.
1.5 stars.
Honestly, I never meant to finish this book - but I kept finding myself thinking, Oh, I'll stop after I finish this chapter, just in case something exciting happens, and nothing exciting would happen but for some reason I would keep reading? So I guess it gets an extra half star for making me do that, though I hated the ending. Hated. That's not a word I use lightly: I'm okay with ambiguous/open endings, I'm okay with closure, but I hate when we get neither and the book just ... stops.
I couldn't connect with the main character at all, possibly partly because he was "the man" throughout and never got a name. I have a history of staying emotionally remote from unnamed protagonists; I suspect it's not the namelessness itself but the writing style that often accompanies such a choice: denser, with a lot of figurative language that may not make sense (ravens compared to black fruit in a tree, an apartment building "waiting patiently like a huge dog"), and arbitrary or just really poor decisions being made.
There was a flicker of interest when linguistics came up, because language learning and linguistic theory are really interesting to me, but the discussions in this book didn't feel nuanced enough - just constant incidents in which the man couldn't understand what the people around him were saying, or super-convenient double meanings for certain phrases, or recurrence of the name "Mol."
And there's a lot of objectionable content in this book, which didn't really do anything for me except make me extremely uncomfortable. There's a blunt (if clinical) rape scene - the word "rape" is used several times by the perpetrator, but he feels no remorse and even blames the victim, his wife, for provoking him; there's violence and murder towards rats and other people; and there's just a lot of general grossness with the trash piled everywhere in District 4 and the lack of hygiene among the homeless and the graphic violence.
I can vaguely see the literary value in this kind of book, but it's definitely not my type of read.
tinyviolet's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bookjunkie1975's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
juanita618's review against another edition
5.0
Favorite line: "And being the same as everyone else meant not having to think about your own existence. It meant that, other than becoming infected and having your everyday life ruined, you had nothing to fear."
abookishtype's review against another edition
3.0
The beginning of Hye-young Pyun’s novel, City of Ash and Red, (translated by Sora Kim-Russell), terrified me because it presents one of my worst fears. An unnamed man arrives in a foreign city to take up a job, only to end up without his phone, documents, most of his possessions, and eventually the apartment his new employer set up. He doesn’t speak the language well. All the phone numbers he might call were stored in his phone. He’s on his own. Meanwhile, an epidemic and a garbage strike are making conditions in the city district he’s fetched up in downright hellish...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
ratbaggy's review against another edition
4.0
Ordered this after reading and loving The Hole. It is about a pandemic, with very clear links to the current world situation. From 2010. Many of the same debates about social distancing, quarantining, etc. Also, many of the same deniers.
annmarie_reads's review against another edition
1.0
If you like rats, trash and sewers, this book is for you. Otherwise it is a waste of time.
tamarama's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
maxwelldunn's review against another edition
3.0
This is a disgusting novel—and I mean that literally. The setting, the atmosphere, and the main character inspire disgust. It's an odd thing to read something that seems to make you want to hate everything about it, yet is still compulsively readable. The translation is excellent and the plot is compelling. However, in the end I found myself a bit ambivalent about the book's meaning and purpose. If it meant only to get a visceral reaction out of the reader, it has succeeded. But left with not much to ponder, I can only say that it was unique and page-turning, and ultimately a tad unsatisfactory.
dreesreads's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this up from the New Fiction section at the library for WIT month--and finally got to it a month late.
This novel is strange. It's a little dystopian and a little not. The narrator seems reliable and seems not. He is unnamed, so the text is somewhat awkward to read (he, his, he, his, ad nauseum), but I did get used to it. I also can't tell if that is because of the translation, and if that actually works better in Korean.
A man works for an extermination company in Country A. He receives a transfer to the home office in Country C--he took it because why not? Maybe he will move up in the company. He's divorced with no kids, so the move doesn't really matter.
When he arrives, he finds both the office and his apartment are in a section of the city that is dangerous, the heart of a new epidemic, where trash is dumped everywhere and trash fires burn. His stuff is stolen. He knows few phone numbers. Few people are out. It stinks. There are fumigation trucks everywhere. And his life spirals out of control before he settles down again.
At first he seems very reliable--though the narration style is so awkward, so maybe that is a clue? IN the end though, I was wondering if anything at all was how he perceived/told his story. I also wonder if this is actually meant as an allegory for something in Korean history/current events that I don't recognize.
This novel is strange. It's a little dystopian and a little not. The narrator seems reliable and seems not. He is unnamed, so the text is somewhat awkward to read (he, his, he, his, ad nauseum), but I did get used to it. I also can't tell if that is because of the translation, and if that actually works better in Korean.
A man works for an extermination company in Country A. He receives a transfer to the home office in Country C--he took it because why not? Maybe he will move up in the company. He's divorced with no kids, so the move doesn't really matter.
When he arrives, he finds both the office and his apartment are in a section of the city that is dangerous, the heart of a new epidemic, where trash is dumped everywhere and trash fires burn. His stuff is stolen. He knows few phone numbers. Few people are out. It stinks. There are fumigation trucks everywhere. And his life spirals out of control before he settles down again.
At first he seems very reliable--though the narration style is so awkward, so maybe that is a clue? IN the end though, I was wondering if anything at all was how he perceived/told his story. I also wonder if this is actually meant as an allegory for something in Korean history/current events that I don't recognize.