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mandi4886's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Absolutely phenomenal! This is an incredibly written, very powerful, emotional, and heartbreaking story. Once I began reading it, I was unable to put it down. I think this is the best book that I have read all year! I would definitely give this more than 5 stars if that was possible!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Death and Violence
writer09's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mdunajcik's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, and Violence
klarastrube's review against another edition
5.0
The writing. The beauty. The relevance. The impact. I can't remember the last time a book touched me this deeply.
bookishfarmwife's review against another edition
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
roshreviews's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is the first ever fictional story I've read that talks of Kurdish struggles. I had requested the ARC simply by virtue of the plot summary and to a certain extent, this book delivers.
Plot summary:
Olivia, an American and an aspiring photojournalist, decides to accompany her Kurdish boyfriend Delan to his village in northern Iraq for a family wedding. While they both are aware of the dangers there, nothing can prepare them for the actual state of affairs and the visit upturns their lives forever.
Olivia, an American and an aspiring photojournalist, decides to accompany her Kurdish boyfriend Delan to his village in northern Iraq for a family wedding. While they both are aware of the dangers there, nothing can prepare them for the actual state of affairs and the visit upturns their lives forever.
Where the book clicked with me:
- The story is set in 1979 and though fictional, relies on some family memories of the author's Kurdish relatives. As such, there is a sense of authenticity to the narrative and you can't help but wonder how terrifying it must be to live your routine life without knowing whether it is your last day on earth. In terms of revealing the harrowing truth of the daily struggles, and in creating an awareness of the problems faced by the largest ethnicity in the world not to have its own nation, "Take What You Can Carry" fulfills its role adequately.
- One question that the book raises time and again is about the ethical dilemma faced by photojournalists. Where can they draw the line between art and invasion of privacy? That factor is handled extremely well in the book.
- The ending is also a redeeming factor and provides hope and closure to the reader.
Where the book could have been better:
- Unnecessarily complicating the writing style:
Remember all those old riddles about a snail who climbs up three feet during the day and falls back one foot at night? I felt like that snail for the first half of this book. The writing is so heavily embellished with descriptions and thoughts and allusions that you simply can't read it smoothly. The point of the content vanishes under layers of verbal padding. The writing is in third person from Olivia's point of view, and her narrative moves from present to past to present to past to present.... The frequent jumps in the timeline create even more hurdles to the reading flow. The second half is much better in comparison, especially as the focus stays more on action than intellection.
2. Providing a meagre background about the conflict:
Two things made me complete this book: I wanted to know more about the Kurds, and I didn't want to DNF an ARC. At the end of the book though, I am left with more questions than answers as this book doesn't give much background about the struggle but jumps into it headlong. For instance, the "peshmerga" are mentioned multiple times along with what they do but I had to Google the meaning to find out who they actually are. Incomplete tidbits of facts don't help an outsider in comprehending the gravity of the problem.
I am not aware of many other fictional books based on the Kurdish struggles except for Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa and I Stared at the Night of the City by Bakhtiyar Ali. I want to give a try to these books and see if they handle the topic better.
3. Focusing so much on the writing that it loses the plot:
In literary fiction, using descriptive phrases, fanciful writing, random time leaps, et all are justified and necessary because they add to the "literary" beauty of the book. But when you have a book that seeks to educate through fiction, that aims to create an awareness about the past, that means to shock you at the extent of human heinousness, then all such literary devices take away from the impact of the narrative. The writing distracts you from the key content and reduces its emotional force, which is a sad waste for such a stunner of a story.
There are shades of The Kite Runner in this book, but Khaled Hosseini kept his narrative so straightforward that one could concentrate on the plot without being distracted by its writing. This book would have made a much greater impact if it had followed a similar style.
Two things made me complete this book: I wanted to know more about the Kurds, and I didn't want to DNF an ARC. At the end of the book though, I am left with more questions than answers as this book doesn't give much background about the struggle but jumps into it headlong. For instance, the "peshmerga" are mentioned multiple times along with what they do but I had to Google the meaning to find out who they actually are. Incomplete tidbits of facts don't help an outsider in comprehending the gravity of the problem.
I am not aware of many other fictional books based on the Kurdish struggles except for Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa and I Stared at the Night of the City by Bakhtiyar Ali. I want to give a try to these books and see if they handle the topic better.
3. Focusing so much on the writing that it loses the plot:
In literary fiction, using descriptive phrases, fanciful writing, random time leaps, et all are justified and necessary because they add to the "literary" beauty of the book. But when you have a book that seeks to educate through fiction, that aims to create an awareness about the past, that means to shock you at the extent of human heinousness, then all such literary devices take away from the impact of the narrative. The writing distracts you from the key content and reduces its emotional force, which is a sad waste for such a stunner of a story.
There are shades of The Kite Runner in this book, but Khaled Hosseini kept his narrative so straightforward that one could concentrate on the plot without being distracted by its writing. This book would have made a much greater impact if it had followed a similar style.
One more thing is that the book is marked as Women's Fiction on NetGalley. It would have worked better if categorised as Historical Fiction. Women’s Fiction conjures up quite different expectations in the mind of the reader.
Overall, I do not regret reading this book as it did benefit me in my awareness about the Kurds. But I did hope to have a better reading experience. If you aren't as fussy as me about the brain-numbing writing style (and I'm sure most of you aren't; I’m really very stringent at times…), do give this book a try for the intent behind the content.
For the content: 4.25 stars
For the writing style: 2 stars
Final rating: 3 stars.
For the writing style: 2 stars
Final rating: 3 stars.
Thank you, NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
caroline_244's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
pixiekp's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Violence
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