You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
“I remember what you like and you do too. There’s a thrill though, of us not being the same people, of our skins having changed, of our mouths being the same.”
Imagine you’re wandering in a territory, where you don’t know the people & yet you know them. You know them through their language, behaviour, thoughts, ecstasy, grief, intimacy and what not. You know them through their love towards one unknown person who has been part of their life some time or the other. You know them through the nine chambered heart that is loved and hurt, softened and hardened, unstitched and stitched, cried and smiled. They reveal her through the only means they have: Words; only to make us believe that it’s not easy to love yet IT IS EASY TO LOVE.
In this book, we see/experience/read a girl (woman) through 9 different people who describe her as they love her or she loves them at different stages of life. The second person narration with romanticism of minutest, delicate, mundane yet beautiful things spread the warmth of the sun at dawn, coolness of evening breeze, peace of full moon night, aroma of fresh bakery cakes and smell of old books.
The characters are flawed, incomplete yet seem wholesome in their own world. And that’s what we all are at the end, aren’t we? The poetic prose and metaphors flow like a river whose water is as pure as flawed character’s feelings.
I find the names of each nine chapters quite intriguing. For eg: The Saint, The Crusader, etc. One should have a deep understanding to relate these names or adjectives, Pariat has given to each chapter, who is basically a person who falls in love with that girl. I’m yet to analyze this thing as I think it requires intimate study of each character.
If you wanna read something unique, poetic, metaphoric, delicate, adorable, heartful, soulful and experience lingering grief & dissatisfaction love brings in any relationship, The Nine Chambered Heart is the perfect book!
Is it easy to love? If so, why?
Imagine you’re wandering in a territory, where you don’t know the people & yet you know them. You know them through their language, behaviour, thoughts, ecstasy, grief, intimacy and what not. You know them through their love towards one unknown person who has been part of their life some time or the other. You know them through the nine chambered heart that is loved and hurt, softened and hardened, unstitched and stitched, cried and smiled. They reveal her through the only means they have: Words; only to make us believe that it’s not easy to love yet IT IS EASY TO LOVE.
In this book, we see/experience/read a girl (woman) through 9 different people who describe her as they love her or she loves them at different stages of life. The second person narration with romanticism of minutest, delicate, mundane yet beautiful things spread the warmth of the sun at dawn, coolness of evening breeze, peace of full moon night, aroma of fresh bakery cakes and smell of old books.
The characters are flawed, incomplete yet seem wholesome in their own world. And that’s what we all are at the end, aren’t we? The poetic prose and metaphors flow like a river whose water is as pure as flawed character’s feelings.
I find the names of each nine chapters quite intriguing. For eg: The Saint, The Crusader, etc. One should have a deep understanding to relate these names or adjectives, Pariat has given to each chapter, who is basically a person who falls in love with that girl. I’m yet to analyze this thing as I think it requires intimate study of each character.
If you wanna read something unique, poetic, metaphoric, delicate, adorable, heartful, soulful and experience lingering grief & dissatisfaction love brings in any relationship, The Nine Chambered Heart is the perfect book!
Is it easy to love? If so, why?
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Once I read the blurb of this book, I knew I just HAD to get it. And I'm so glad I did. This is such a BEAUTIFUL book. This seemed like one of those books which you need to read and reread time and again to grasp the beauty of each and every line, each and every sentence. At the end of every chapter, you'll feel the need to just close your eyes for a few minutes, and just marvel at the beauty of the words. This book will make you cry, will make you hope about a special kind of love and will make you think "This is so me" (for me, personally it was the chapter of the Florist, the one where the man is struggling to keep up with his partner's 'aesthete').
This books talks about the different kinds of love that can enter your life, not necessary all of them 'pure' or the same kind of attraction for the opposite sex, but LOVE all the same. This book also talks about how it's the little things that your love notices, perhaps something you wouldn't even have given a second thought to, yourself.
'The Nine-Chambered Heart' has been one of my best reads of 2017, and I will forever recommend the book to everyone.
This books talks about the different kinds of love that can enter your life, not necessary all of them 'pure' or the same kind of attraction for the opposite sex, but LOVE all the same. This book also talks about how it's the little things that your love notices, perhaps something you wouldn't even have given a second thought to, yourself.
'The Nine-Chambered Heart' has been one of my best reads of 2017, and I will forever recommend the book to everyone.
https://baos.pub/the-heart-and-all-its-mysteries-7f956872d24b
emotional
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Nine-Chambered Heart is a collection of nine short stories written by people who have loved the protagonist at one point or who were loved by her.
Janice Pariat does a great job of maintaining the essence of the book even though the stories were narrated by eight different people.
•
The writing is raw and will touch your heart. I was getting major Murakami-esque feels, which I absolutely loved.
Read the full review here -
https://musingsofalazywriter.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/bookreview-the-nine-chambered-heart/
Janice Pariat does a great job of maintaining the essence of the book even though the stories were narrated by eight different people.
•
The writing is raw and will touch your heart. I was getting major Murakami-esque feels, which I absolutely loved.
Read the full review here -
https://musingsofalazywriter.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/bookreview-the-nine-chambered-heart/
I'm confused what to say about this book. It's something that I have never came across. It was really amazing and a but weird to read that a woman is in relationship with her teacher at the age of twelve and at different stage of life she is in relationship someone till the age of 40s.
There was only one thing which I was curious to know at the end of the book was the name of that woman about which this nine men are talking about. But there was no clue about the name of any characters, only few geographic explanation was given about that places where those men spent time with that women. Yes, right this is a story where there is not a single name. And. I think this makes it more interesting (at least for me). Author has done a phenomenal job while writing this. I have learned from this book that admiring someone is not only about love or lust but it also print a memory of that person in our heart and mind which is nearly impossible to forget through out our life and same was with this nine men
They have remembered each and every moment which they have spent with her so sharp that it seems it just took yesterday.
Author poetry knowledge was also reflected in this book as it has remarkable lines. Language was moderate and writing style is amazing. Cover and name of the book is wowww.... these was also one of the reason I picked up this book and really loved it.
Just give it a try you won't regret.
“How can I tell you this is not love? It isn’t
and cannot be.”
There was only one thing which I was curious to know at the end of the book was the name of that woman about which this nine men are talking about. But there was no clue about the name of any characters, only few geographic explanation was given about that places where those men spent time with that women. Yes, right this is a story where there is not a single name. And. I think this makes it more interesting (at least for me). Author has done a phenomenal job while writing this. I have learned from this book that admiring someone is not only about love or lust but it also print a memory of that person in our heart and mind which is nearly impossible to forget through out our life and same was with this nine men
They have remembered each and every moment which they have spent with her so sharp that it seems it just took yesterday.
Author poetry knowledge was also reflected in this book as it has remarkable lines. Language was moderate and writing style is amazing. Cover and name of the book is wowww.... these was also one of the reason I picked up this book and really loved it.
Just give it a try you won't regret.
“How can I tell you this is not love? It isn’t
and cannot be.”
Might contain spoilers, I'm not so sure.
Do I start with saying I love the idea that the book was said to be intentionally written with ? Absolutely.
"...We piece her together, much like we do with others in our lives, in incomplete but illuminating silvers...
...novel is about the fragile, fragmented nature of identity - how others see us only in bits and pieces, and how sometimes we become what others perceive us to be."
But do I really love the ideas put forth by the book itself ? Coming from the back, but a very stoic no.
And affirmative, I do think both of those faintly or more so differ throughout the course of the book.
"Nine characters recall their relationship with a young woman - the same woman - whom they have loved, or who had loved them"
Sounds beautiful.
But errmmm....excuse me Ma'am, you sure about that ?
I'd have appreciated it more if it said something like -- the same woman - whom they wanted in their lives, and/or who once wanted them.
EVEN -- whom they "thought" they loved, or whom she "thought" she loved -- WOULD HAVE DONE TOO.
I think that's a HUGE mistake there.
Because there are many many many instances amidst chapters where the narration (although sometimes simultaneously pretty, and summery, and breezy, and flowy, and at times even a bit genuinely sweet) doesn't seem like it. And I don't think it's only me.
No, I'm not sorry and I'm not really that old-school, but it's just not it.
I would call them anything but love.
Desires. Would rather be the word I'm looking for.
Desires; all material, physical, emotional.
Which, of course, aren't all bad or anything on their own, but lady, it becomes all too much when you often and I repeat, OFTEN cross that thin line and come out as an extremely self-centred b*tch; especially, even more so around the end. Probably the only character I've read till date that doesn't even try to redeem a little, let alone actually mature. Constantly has there been a mention of things lacking in both people and spaces; but never once in the entirety of the book did it seem that she, herself, bothered to make any effort to get up and have a look at her own being in the mirror.
Also, what about this lady that's been said to be loved by almost everyone around her?
I mean, I really need tips. No kidding.
And please don't tell me she's Aphrodite.
"It's easy to love." (a quote from the book)
Girl, please. Please no.
Here, I admit. I admit it does more or less sound like the most beautiful thing to say in this ridiculously small but all encompassing and confusing world; and indeed, was a beautiful sight given the circumstance and the soliloquoy-feel to it, but it's very highly possible that you're missing the point.
It might be easy to fall in love. It might also be easy to think you're in love.
But not so easy to love. And that's exactly the reason why it's almost sacred.
Might wanna check the facts? 'cause that cliché doesn't make sense.
I did find myself sympathising with our vague protagonist at weird times though. The times when any and every thing around you just doesn't seem enough, some sort of strange inexplicable helplessness;
when to know what to know, and knowing that you more or less ought to know it but at the same subsequent time also having to deal with knowing that you-just-don't-know.
How does one never know. :(
(But nothing that changes my already spoken text)
Apart from the occasional and obsessively cliché dialogues and stacks of things I've been going at and about now, the writing style sure deserves a happy whole star from me. Very seldom have I come across books, so very seemingly simple in manner of speech and other apparent aspects, YET capable of keeping my interest needle at a steady weight at all times. I'm genuinely giving you that, Janice Pariat.
Once in awhile, I did sight the writer referencing the same things over and over again. Likewise, a bit of this and a couple of that(significant?) left out, but I wonder if that was actually something intentional and not just her letting loose. I'd like to think so.
Final thoughts:
I did enjoy reading the book, even though I'm not very much appreciative of the decisions the characters; more so, of the millennial ease at which they've repeatedly shown to 'just let go'. (It's both, disturbingly -- exaggerated and oversimplified, in my opinion.)
This once, I can't seem to grab a quick side. Middle ground, it is.
Do I start with saying I love the idea that the book was said to be intentionally written with ? Absolutely.
"...We piece her together, much like we do with others in our lives, in incomplete but illuminating silvers...
...novel is about the fragile, fragmented nature of identity - how others see us only in bits and pieces, and how sometimes we become what others perceive us to be."
But do I really love the ideas put forth by the book itself ? Coming from the back, but a very stoic no.
And affirmative, I do think both of those faintly or more so differ throughout the course of the book.
"Nine characters recall their relationship with a young woman - the same woman - whom they have loved, or who had loved them"
Sounds beautiful.
But errmmm....excuse me Ma'am, you sure about that ?
I'd have appreciated it more if it said something like -- the same woman - whom they wanted in their lives, and/or who once wanted them.
EVEN -- whom they "thought" they loved, or whom she "thought" she loved -- WOULD HAVE DONE TOO.
I think that's a HUGE mistake there.
Because there are many many many instances amidst chapters where the narration (although sometimes simultaneously pretty, and summery, and breezy, and flowy, and at times even a bit genuinely sweet) doesn't seem like it. And I don't think it's only me.
No, I'm not sorry and I'm not really that old-school, but it's just not it.
I would call them anything but love.
Desires. Would rather be the word I'm looking for.
Desires; all material, physical, emotional.
Which, of course, aren't all bad or anything on their own, but lady, it becomes all too much when you often and I repeat, OFTEN cross that thin line and come out as an extremely self-centred b*tch; especially, even more so around the end. Probably the only character I've read till date that doesn't even try to redeem a little, let alone actually mature. Constantly has there been a mention of things lacking in both people and spaces; but never once in the entirety of the book did it seem that she, herself, bothered to make any effort to get up and have a look at her own being in the mirror.
Also, what about this lady that's been said to be loved by almost everyone around her?
I mean, I really need tips. No kidding.
And please don't tell me she's Aphrodite.
"It's easy to love." (a quote from the book)
Girl, please. Please no.
Here, I admit. I admit it does more or less sound like the most beautiful thing to say in this ridiculously small but all encompassing and confusing world; and indeed, was a beautiful sight given the circumstance and the soliloquoy-feel to it, but it's very highly possible that you're missing the point.
It might be easy to fall in love. It might also be easy to think you're in love.
But not so easy to love. And that's exactly the reason why it's almost sacred.
Might wanna check the facts? 'cause that cliché doesn't make sense.
I did find myself sympathising with our vague protagonist at weird times though. The times when any and every thing around you just doesn't seem enough, some sort of strange inexplicable helplessness;
when to know what to know, and knowing that you more or less ought to know it but at the same subsequent time also having to deal with knowing that you-just-don't-know.
How does one never know. :(
(But nothing that changes my already spoken text)
Apart from the occasional and obsessively cliché dialogues and stacks of things I've been going at and about now, the writing style sure deserves a happy whole star from me. Very seldom have I come across books, so very seemingly simple in manner of speech and other apparent aspects, YET capable of keeping my interest needle at a steady weight at all times. I'm genuinely giving you that, Janice Pariat.
Once in awhile, I did sight the writer referencing the same things over and over again. Likewise, a bit of this and a couple of that(significant?) left out, but I wonder if that was actually something intentional and not just her letting loose. I'd like to think so.
Final thoughts:
I did enjoy reading the book, even though I'm not very much appreciative of the decisions the characters; more so, of the millennial ease at which they've repeatedly shown to 'just let go'. (It's both, disturbingly -- exaggerated and oversimplified, in my opinion.)
This once, I can't seem to grab a quick side. Middle ground, it is.
Having read Boats on Land and absolutely loving it, I was looking forward to reading The Nine Chambered Heart.
An interesting premise no doubt, but it felt a bit too melancholic and vague for my liking. I feel a part of me was looking for references to the author's northeastern roots; the writing felt more like it was catering to the white audience.
Maybe I'll give it another shot in the near future, maybe not.
After all tbf the frame of mind you're in matters while reading too.
An interesting premise no doubt, but it felt a bit too melancholic and vague for my liking. I feel a part of me was looking for references to the author's northeastern roots; the writing felt more like it was catering to the white audience.
Maybe I'll give it another shot in the near future, maybe not.
After all tbf the frame of mind you're in matters while reading too.
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A