Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Die Geschichte einer kurzen Ehe by Anuk Arudpragasam

7 reviews

not_another_ana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

He couldn't even remember what it was like to spend time with another person, to simply be in someone else's company, and perhaps it would be worthwhile to do so if he could.

In an evacuee camp in the middle of Sri Lanka's civil war Dinesh, a Tamil youth, is shaken out of the monotony of surviving by a sudden proposal: to marry Ganga, a young woman he has never met before. Ganga's father believes that their union will make sure his daughter is taken care of, while Dinesh might avoid being conscripted by the militia. Thus starts this short odd marriage, between two people who don't know each other and must come to terms with what this means for them, for their future if there's any left, and what being close to someone after so long can do to someone in the middle of a war zone.

Meditative and detail oriented, this is a book that focuses on how the experience of war, of being displaced, bombed, losing everything marks people. Dinesh is disconnected from himself as a way to protect his sanity. He can't feel anything because if he does, even for a second, he won't be able to go on. He's all alone surrounded by death doing the same thing day in and day out. The marriage proposal and wedding break that monotony and force him to reckon with the situation and with himself, and the author expresses this through Dinesh's relationship with his body.

The prose is detail oriented and takes us on this reconnection journey with a slight stream of consciousness. It mostly happens internally in the main character and, while interesting and lovingly crafted, can get a bit heavy at times. There's long descriptions of bodily functions that never manage to be too crass because they're balanced by the poetry of it all. It is deeply sad and moving, the title being an inescapable premonition for the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gore, and Excrement

The book takes place during Sri Lanka's civil war, specifically in an evacuee camp that gets bombed daily. There are descriptions of death, body parts, amputations, children suffering, etc.

gilnean's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

victoriathuyvi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Excrement

amysou0204's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book started off very slow, then in the middle there were some interesting parts, followed by more slow parts, and then an exciting part, only to finish on a somewhat unresolved ending. While the writing is very descriptive and paints vivid images where you can truly see the horrors of the war and what the main character's life is like, the entire book spans about 2 or 3 days so it is extremely slow paced and it took me a very long time to finish as I had a hard time finding the motivation to keep reading in certain parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Vomit, War, and Injury/Injury detail

flavoredfaeman's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

lalaboots's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Beautiful book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emmagrace's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

A lot of the author's writing style that I liked in A Passage North just got on my nerves here. Most of the tangents of thought did little to serve a theme or the plot and just felt like filler. A rough start to the techniques that were mastered in A Passage North.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Excrement