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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Beautiful book, but utterly confusing. The experience of reading it was somewhat akin to being both high and simultaneously cognizant of your own highness, and thus passively following along the events of your own trip like a spectator. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I don’t necessarily recommend this book if you like knowing what’s going on.
I never have anything up my sleeve except for the utterly fraudulent authority with which I assure you- yes, you - that you'll get through this, whatever it is, and everything will be better. We both know nothing's alright, but when I tell you it will be, you take it.
potentially just not in the right headspace for this one rn
helen oyeyemi is an amazing writer and i'm usually okay with vibing even if i don't quite understand the plot, but yeah idk it just didn't come together this time
potentially just not in the right headspace for this one rn
helen oyeyemi is an amazing writer and i'm usually okay with vibing even if i don't quite understand the plot, but yeah idk it just didn't come together this time
In this novel, Helen Oyeyemi leaves magic realism far behind, and enters the realm of the completely fantastic. Unfortunately, she also leaves behind any semblance of a plot. So even though the novel is wonderfully imaginative, and sometimes funny, it seems to have no center – or too many centers, which is the same thing.
The two main characters are Otto (the narrator) and Xavier, two athletically romantic lovers. Along with their highly intelligent pet mongoose, they take a train ride. The train, called the Lucky Day, belongs to a woman named Ava, who apparently has to live on the train to prove her sanity. An inheritance is riding on this.
Other characters turn up, some with nefarious overtones. Some may be there to protect Ava’s sanity, and others to test her, but it’s not really clear. There’s a man who can’t be seen, or perhaps it’s just Ava who can’t see him, and we never find out whether he’s real, or a mass hallucination, or just an agreed-on kindness to the man’s bereaved father. The mongoose is joined by another mongoose, and they scamper around getting into trouble, and at one point, seem to have been captured by a taxidermist, but then it turns out they are okay.
The characters do peculiar things in a seemingly random way, and the setting is equally strange. The train has a postal car, a library, a sauna – and at one point, seems to include a bazaar.
Sometimes connections are made, and it seems like all the strange twists are being woven together, but then the novel goes off on another complicated tangent. I enjoyed some of the strange, vivid images, but in general, I would’ve liked a little more substance. The book glitters but doesn’t satisfy.
Let me include some quotes.
< Moving from stall to stall I sipped tea, watched a snail race, became referee of the snail race and arbitrated a doping scandal, sipped vodka, sipped tea laced with vodka, kept forgetting I don’t have a chequebook. >
< This was not the kind of situation consciousness is in any way equipped to cope with, so my “I” fled over the hills and far away, yodeling as it went. >
Here’s the backstory on Otto’s upbringing.
< When Martha and Lieselotte had me, Martha’s legal name was still Mark, and Lieselotte was a high court judge in Bern. They’re two of the freest people I know, and somehow that seems like a by-product of the rambling conversation they’ve been in ever since they met, an exchange that draws them down by-lanes of trivia and scholarship, pettiness and poetry. When some new pact clicks into place, they meet at its corner to kiss. My professor mum made her Martha-ness official, and my Bern high court judge mum stepped down and stripped her view of justice all the way down to grass roots, servicing her god (and I really do think justice is a god for Lieselotte) as a police inspector who does her paperwork whilst sipping coffee out of a mug emblazed with a picture of her wife and son. I hate that mug. The picture on it makes us look like Ikea models who might just get thrown in as freebies if you buy enough furniture. >
The two main characters are Otto (the narrator) and Xavier, two athletically romantic lovers. Along with their highly intelligent pet mongoose, they take a train ride. The train, called the Lucky Day, belongs to a woman named Ava, who apparently has to live on the train to prove her sanity. An inheritance is riding on this.
Other characters turn up, some with nefarious overtones. Some may be there to protect Ava’s sanity, and others to test her, but it’s not really clear. There’s a man who can’t be seen, or perhaps it’s just Ava who can’t see him, and we never find out whether he’s real, or a mass hallucination, or just an agreed-on kindness to the man’s bereaved father. The mongoose is joined by another mongoose, and they scamper around getting into trouble, and at one point, seem to have been captured by a taxidermist, but then it turns out they are okay.
The characters do peculiar things in a seemingly random way, and the setting is equally strange. The train has a postal car, a library, a sauna – and at one point, seems to include a bazaar.
Sometimes connections are made, and it seems like all the strange twists are being woven together, but then the novel goes off on another complicated tangent. I enjoyed some of the strange, vivid images, but in general, I would’ve liked a little more substance. The book glitters but doesn’t satisfy.
Let me include some quotes.
< Moving from stall to stall I sipped tea, watched a snail race, became referee of the snail race and arbitrated a doping scandal, sipped vodka, sipped tea laced with vodka, kept forgetting I don’t have a chequebook. >
< This was not the kind of situation consciousness is in any way equipped to cope with, so my “I” fled over the hills and far away, yodeling as it went. >
Here’s the backstory on Otto’s upbringing.
< When Martha and Lieselotte had me, Martha’s legal name was still Mark, and Lieselotte was a high court judge in Bern. They’re two of the freest people I know, and somehow that seems like a by-product of the rambling conversation they’ve been in ever since they met, an exchange that draws them down by-lanes of trivia and scholarship, pettiness and poetry. When some new pact clicks into place, they meet at its corner to kiss. My professor mum made her Martha-ness official, and my Bern high court judge mum stepped down and stripped her view of justice all the way down to grass roots, servicing her god (and I really do think justice is a god for Lieselotte) as a police inspector who does her paperwork whilst sipping coffee out of a mug emblazed with a picture of her wife and son. I hate that mug. The picture on it makes us look like Ikea models who might just get thrown in as freebies if you buy enough furniture. >
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
[[• D N F @ 37%•]]
I didn’t realise this was such an absurdist, fantastical, Alice down the rabbit hole type book, otherwise I doubt I would have picked it up. A friend recommended it, but only when I was struggling with it did he mention ‘oh yeah, it’s all vibes no plot, let it wash over you’… 🙈
So far we’ve had several scenes that indicate all character threads are going to join together in a conclusion. But I can’t be bothered to stick with it until the end to find out. It’s whimsical. And I, like the literary fun-sponge I am, I detest whimsy.
This is a definite case of ‘not for me’, rather than a bad book. But I did see someone else use this quote from the book, and yeah 👀 … “𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰. 𝘔𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘴? 𝘖𝘩 𝘯𝘰, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴. 𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘺...”
From the first page, I got a feeling that I was being dropped into a story after it had already begun and by the time it ended, I felt like maybe there was more story that wasn't included. While parts of this book were good, I didn't end up connecting with it by the time I was finished reading.
A bright spot for me: The characters felt superb to me.
A bright spot for me: The characters felt superb to me.
Reading this book was like watching a well shot movie with no plot, only is does have a plot but you got lost in the cinematography.
Not for me. Painful to get through and extremely confusing. Some of the prose was beautiful, but few and far between.
This book was wild. I think I liked it but I’m still confused maybe?
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Something about this felt like Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea. They share the same whimsy and nonsensicality, which I love, but I can’t honestly say I knew 100% what was happening the whole way through the novel.