Reviews

The Disappearance of Seth by Kazim Ali

rachelmatsuoka's review against another edition

4.0

The Disappearance of Seth is an example of a novel that, despite being short, did an amazing job with character development. You get to know the ensemble cast intimately--not so much their age, race, job, etc, but by their insecurities, values, what role they play in their circle of family and friends. The exception being Seth, who was intended to be enigmatic. However, not understanding his motivations or much of his character left a gaping hole in the book for me. I loved how the storylines were all interwoven, as in the film Crash or Love Actually, and everyone had a relationship with one another in some way--a statement on humanity. Kazim Ali's prose is moody, classy, and rife with poetry, and made me want to look up more of his work. A great example of how the personal is political.

thepoemreeder's review against another edition

3.0

This book contains absolutely breathtaking lines, pure beauty in single compact sentences. My problem was that I had a hard time wading through the collection of sentence images, piled one atop the other, to follow a plot. Time seemed to be fluid, with events being referred to or described in any order but chronological. I do think this was purposeful and reflective of ideas presented in the text, but it still made it hard to become involved in the story or characters when everything seemed to be more random lines from poems thrown together than a cohesive plot.