A review by n_asyikin_
Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic

challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


'Sympathy' followed Alice as she moved across the pond to New York & discovered more than what she'd intended. It depicted how people's lives can overlapped, particularly with the increasing advent in technology & dependency on social networking sites. I thought the book would explored astutely the increasingly blurred lines between the physical & virtual world modulated by direct social & parasocial interactions; Alice's interest in physics alluded to the seemingly abstract yet absolute complexity in our being, implying the evocation of universal intrigues.

Unfortunately, I thought the writing fell short. The book was structured in a non-linear timeline with little contexts included, earlier on in the story. The scenes also tended to change quickly between the past and present, focusing on many characters, all within a given chapter (sometimes within the same paragraph) that left it compact & dull. As a reader, I struggled to understand where we were in the timeline & what significance many scenes carried. 

The narration by Alice also felt rather disingenous at times. The way it was written felt forcedly philosophical. But rather than being engaged in her contemplation, I was too caught in the unnecessarily complicated way her views were structured, i.e., the sentence structuring were really messy at times, where it even gotten difficult to discern which action belonged to which subject. Sometimes, it gave me the impression of being dishonestly intellectual (if that makes sense).

Furthermore, I thought that Alice was a bit of an empty speaker. What I meant was, she seemed verbose about many pointless things but tended to gloss over critical issues. For example,
there was this one scene involving Robin that I felt was an attempt at depicting nuances in sexual relation. It came off as dismissive of the very serious issue of sexual harrassment being discussed proceeding it.


The book should definitely be approached as a character study of the MC, Alice. But the lack of aforementioned context was especially clear when I don't really perceived a clear indication of who Alice was as a person; her intent & purpose went over me for a significant portion of the book. To be fair, Alice was written as this lost young woman trying to find herself in this world. But the missing precedents contributed to difficulty in comprehension. 

However, the story did flow better half-way through & the timeline stabilized as well, i.e. one chapter focused on a specific time, or there were clear paragraph break in between. Then, Alice's background & intention came to the forefront. Her misguided needs to connect with Mizuko was frustrating, shockingly unhealthy, but made for quite an interesting read. Alice's voice was also becoming clear as she became more honest with her intention & motivation; her introspections were sharper when directed to her own life -
a process that reflected her increasing awareness (even if it was never "fully" achieved at the end).
I quite enjoyed the story towards the end.

Much like Alice, 'Sympathy' was a bit lost in its direction at the start. The element of interconnectedness either made via online interactions or analogy in physics weren't central to the story, which disappointed me a bit as I thought the book was marketed to explore them at its core; they were more of a machination that powered the plot. Towards the end though, Alice's voice held some volume. Through her, human imperfections & desperate need for a sense of belongliness were shown in quite an interesting, even if macabre way.
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