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bmsartori 's review for:
White Tears
by Hari Kunzru
This book was nothing like I expected but in all the wrong ways.
I was expecting to be made uncomfortable by a hard hitting novel that would be unforgiving in its exposition of racism, especially in relation to the theft of black music. Instead, we're given a few quotable quotes jumbled up inside a book that's all about white men. The two young white men at the center of the story are the only characters that are developed in any real way. And for a book that's supposed to be critical of cultural appropriation I find it ironic that there is no solid attempt to tell black stories - the black characters are cliches and their stories are background noise to the story of two white people.
The plot itself was also unbelievable. I was not convinced by any of it and the further on it went, the more messy it became. It didn't help that all of the characters besides Seth and Carter were stereotypes. The way Leonie, the solitary female character, was conveyed just made me cringe. She was in no way a real person to me.
I strongly disliked the way this was written. It's my first Kunzru and my last. Kunzru seemed more concerned with flaunting how much research he did than actually telling a story. It honestly felt that all of those little factoids were included just to mask the fact that he actually didn't understand the music and engineering himself. This is also another novel that mistakes documenting bodily functions, drug use, sex and a lack of personal hygiene/cleanliness with having an insight into human nature. The whole thing felt so fake.
I was expecting to be made uncomfortable by a hard hitting novel that would be unforgiving in its exposition of racism, especially in relation to the theft of black music. Instead, we're given a few quotable quotes jumbled up inside a book that's all about white men. The two young white men at the center of the story are the only characters that are developed in any real way. And for a book that's supposed to be critical of cultural appropriation I find it ironic that there is no solid attempt to tell black stories - the black characters are cliches and their stories are background noise to the story of two white people.
The plot itself was also unbelievable. I was not convinced by any of it and the further on it went, the more messy it became. It didn't help that all of the characters besides Seth and Carter were stereotypes. The way Leonie, the solitary female character, was conveyed just made me cringe. She was in no way a real person to me.
I strongly disliked the way this was written. It's my first Kunzru and my last. Kunzru seemed more concerned with flaunting how much research he did than actually telling a story. It honestly felt that all of those little factoids were included just to mask the fact that he actually didn't understand the music and engineering himself. This is also another novel that mistakes documenting bodily functions, drug use, sex and a lack of personal hygiene/cleanliness with having an insight into human nature. The whole thing felt so fake.