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colleenlovestoread's review
4.0
I reviewed this book for www.luxuryreading.com.
When Kevern and Ailinn meet and fall in love they aren’t entirely sure if it is fate or someone else’s machinations pushing them together. Both come from such mysterious backgrounds, neither knowing really where they come from nor being entirely sure where they are going, and the fact that they have found each other in the brutal and secretive world they live in seems quite astonishing. As certain acquaintances of theirs draw closer and begin dropping information about their families’ pasts the lovers begin to realize their relationship was not an accident and there are those who would use them to make up for a horrible wrong done in the past that the world has long been trying to erase from memory and history. But is this a wrong that can be corrected or has it all gone too far? And if it can be corrected, should it?
Does my description above seem rather vague and mysterious? Well it should! J deals almost exclusively in suggestions and innuendoes, leaving the reader to discern what actually happened in the past that no one in the present story is supposed to talk about or remember and exactly how Kevern and Ailinn fit into the plan to make up for that past wrong. This shroud of mystery makes every revelation that much more delicious and startling and the casual way the situation is discussed by the secondary characters well aware of what happened makes the actual horror of what happened that much more chilling.
This is what we, the reader, know: the world the characters live in is some future time where something horrible happened in the past that has been essentially erased from history and barely lives in the minds of most of those now living. Everyone refers to what happened in the past as “what happened, if it happened” and are discouraged from discussing it or keeping things from this past time period while never being forcibly told to not do so. There are those that would like to try and correct the injustice of this past horrible act and Kevern and Ailinn are the key to starting towards this correction. The reader will figure out what this horrible act was by the end of the story but I don’t want to give it away here…the punch to the gut wouldn’t be as strong if you know ahead of time what heinous crime was committed!
I listened to J as an audiobook and I feel this is the perfect venue for this story. The main narrator did a remarkable job of giving each character their own voice and delivered this slow burn of a story perfectly so the listener is shocked when hints as to what happened are delivered amidst casual conversation or a character’s internal dialogue. The secondary narrator, voicing the diary entries of the person tasked with watching over Kevern, served throughout to show that these main characters are being monitored and also, towards the end, to highlight that the hatred and prejudice that caused the horrible incident in the past still burned within at least some of those that remained.
A part of me wishes I could give more concrete information but another part of me wants everyone to experience this story for themselves without knowing exactly what to expect. It will remind us all how far hatred can go and just how true the statement that “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it” is. This story will appeal to a wide range of readers and I would recommend it to most everyone as I found it to be a very entertaining experience.
When Kevern and Ailinn meet and fall in love they aren’t entirely sure if it is fate or someone else’s machinations pushing them together. Both come from such mysterious backgrounds, neither knowing really where they come from nor being entirely sure where they are going, and the fact that they have found each other in the brutal and secretive world they live in seems quite astonishing. As certain acquaintances of theirs draw closer and begin dropping information about their families’ pasts the lovers begin to realize their relationship was not an accident and there are those who would use them to make up for a horrible wrong done in the past that the world has long been trying to erase from memory and history. But is this a wrong that can be corrected or has it all gone too far? And if it can be corrected, should it?
Does my description above seem rather vague and mysterious? Well it should! J deals almost exclusively in suggestions and innuendoes, leaving the reader to discern what actually happened in the past that no one in the present story is supposed to talk about or remember and exactly how Kevern and Ailinn fit into the plan to make up for that past wrong. This shroud of mystery makes every revelation that much more delicious and startling and the casual way the situation is discussed by the secondary characters well aware of what happened makes the actual horror of what happened that much more chilling.
This is what we, the reader, know: the world the characters live in is some future time where something horrible happened in the past that has been essentially erased from history and barely lives in the minds of most of those now living. Everyone refers to what happened in the past as “what happened, if it happened” and are discouraged from discussing it or keeping things from this past time period while never being forcibly told to not do so. There are those that would like to try and correct the injustice of this past horrible act and Kevern and Ailinn are the key to starting towards this correction. The reader will figure out what this horrible act was by the end of the story but I don’t want to give it away here…the punch to the gut wouldn’t be as strong if you know ahead of time what heinous crime was committed!
I listened to J as an audiobook and I feel this is the perfect venue for this story. The main narrator did a remarkable job of giving each character their own voice and delivered this slow burn of a story perfectly so the listener is shocked when hints as to what happened are delivered amidst casual conversation or a character’s internal dialogue. The secondary narrator, voicing the diary entries of the person tasked with watching over Kevern, served throughout to show that these main characters are being monitored and also, towards the end, to highlight that the hatred and prejudice that caused the horrible incident in the past still burned within at least some of those that remained.
A part of me wishes I could give more concrete information but another part of me wants everyone to experience this story for themselves without knowing exactly what to expect. It will remind us all how far hatred can go and just how true the statement that “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it” is. This story will appeal to a wide range of readers and I would recommend it to most everyone as I found it to be a very entertaining experience.
womanroars's review
3.0
Do we need hate to be able to love? Evil to be good? What if something happens, and society is now different? Everybody says sorry, and there is no others. Would aggression and violence come out in strange frightening ways against the ones we love?
This was good, but very slooooow and fuzzy. It took me much longer than it normally would to read 276 pages. I also never really felt a real connection to Kavernn or Ailinn. And I don't believe the ending. So there's that.
This was good, but very slooooow and fuzzy. It took me much longer than it normally would to read 276 pages. I also never really felt a real connection to Kavernn or Ailinn. And I don't believe the ending. So there's that.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
2.0
There isn't much of a plot until Esme is revealed, and by then it's too late. I understand the idea of a novel that outlines philosophical ideas, but the execution was lacking. There was a round and round repetitiveness that served no purpose other than to possibly give the author time to get up a head of steam to make a declaration about how we define ourselves. I saw no point to the trip to the city or the murder. I hated the ending. This would have been much better as an essay. I left it at 2 stars because I did like the characters, even though they never did much.
thebobsphere's review
2.0
After adoring Jacobson's last book, The Finkler Question, I was looking forward to reading J. Afer all the idea of Jacobson writing a dystopian novel sounds great. Plus the blurb compares it to Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-four.
This is not the case. The world presented in J is a near future where culture is kept under moderation. People are watched and are renamed by the government. The central event which caused these changes is a sort of Holocaust.
The plot details with two people falling in love and as their relationship intensifies, we start finding more about their past and how this society works, leading to a great conclusion.
It's not a bad novel but 80% of it is spent faffing about and building some sort of tension then there are quite a few intelligent twists which make reading J enjoyable. There were times where I had to re read passages due to Jacobson's style - and there were parts which I found annoying.
Not the strongest of the Booker shortlist - in my opinion anyways.
ania's review
4.0
I kept thinking that I might not be this book's intended audience and feeling all those missed references going over my head. Jacobson is a very eloquent writer and J is so beautifully written. It was fun figuring it out.
It reminded me of The Believer (the film) in many ways.
It reminded me of The Believer (the film) in many ways.
catdad77a45's review
1.0
"Mysteries are always so banal when they're solved" [p. 304 of J] I really struggled reading this book to its conclusion, as it seemed to almost evaporate as I read it - I couldn't retain much of the book, because most of it was all about the characters' vague thoughts and feelings, and not much of anything HAPPENS. Although there is a putative 'mystery' about all the strange characters in the fictional Port Reuben, and why they are the way they are, the 'solution' (such as it is...you really have to read between the lines to even figure that much out) is neither terribly surprising nor revelatory. It MIGHT have made a very interesting short story.... but to drag it out to 342 pages requires too much of a reader's patience. [BTW, this is the tenth of the thirteen Man Booker Prize Long List from 2014 I have read so far, and the one I've liked least.]
marianneo's review
2.0
More my notes than a review...
This book perplexed me. The world it constructs is vague and incomplete, and made me feel uncomfortably hazy, like I'd lost 25 IQ points every time I picked it up. I couldn't even get a clear picture of the physical world, besides Kevern's possessions, Ailinn herself and the coast (which seemed hauntingly beautiful and harsh all at once). I guess that was the point, to bring me into its bland futuristic world, to set the scene and keep the past and all of the context it provides completely inaccessible. This is, after all, what all of the characters are experiencing. Still, after 200 pages, I couldn't take the vagueness any longer and opted to skim through the rest instead.
Paradoxically, Jacobson clearly writes really well and I would absolutely pick up another one of his novels. I even liked the premise and the story arc.
So I disliked the style but liked the writing. I liked the premise but disliked the execution. Yeah, I'm perplexed.
This book perplexed me. The world it constructs is vague and incomplete, and made me feel uncomfortably hazy, like I'd lost 25 IQ points every time I picked it up. I couldn't even get a clear picture of the physical world, besides Kevern's possessions, Ailinn herself and the coast (which seemed hauntingly beautiful and harsh all at once). I guess that was the point, to bring me into its bland futuristic world, to set the scene and keep the past and all of the context it provides completely inaccessible. This is, after all, what all of the characters are experiencing. Still, after 200 pages, I couldn't take the vagueness any longer and opted to skim through the rest instead.
Paradoxically, Jacobson clearly writes really well and I would absolutely pick up another one of his novels. I even liked the premise and the story arc.
So I disliked the style but liked the writing. I liked the premise but disliked the execution. Yeah, I'm perplexed.
kbc's review
3.0
I liked the big ideas of the book - how should society deal with a collective crime? Does changing our language and culture really end the hate that leads to the collective crime? When society constructs its identity in opposition to an "Other" how does that society survive when the "Other" is gone?
As a novel though, it really wasn't all that interesting.
As a novel though, it really wasn't all that interesting.