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benreadssometimes 's review for:
A Minor Detail
by Adania Shibli
This book is best described as haunting. The way it feels as a reader, your connection to the characters, and how the ending leaves you. I would like to add a caveat, that this style of book is not very up my alley, but I found the story compelling, and important, the prose interesting, and much more. I feel comfortable rating it a 4, but these kinds of books I rate way more on how it was written and the possible impact it will have on my life less on the remendability to others.
First off, this story is very important. I have rarely found a title that was so well penned for the story and what it was conveying. Our lives, and minutes are summations of tiny details, the way the keyboard feels on my fingers, if I am choosing to listen to music while reading or typing, where I am able to read, the choice that my parents had to encourage reading, and the choice I made to try to be myself. The minor details in this book became all consuming. The heat of a bite that initially gets brushed off, the delusion of a commander, the smell of gasoline, and the haunting nature of this book makes it compel especially as many of the minor details are called back at the end of the second part of this book. The choices of narrators, one being the commander obsessed with order and beginning to die from a bite, the other being a character who cannot not act and live semi-impulsively, make everything feel very unreal. None of the side characters feel real despite the first part being based on a real story, and rarely does the author convey anyone in an emotional and negative light despite the context of this book. The story, and tragedy while horrible are conveyed in a this is life manner, causing it to resonate when you know that shouldn't be life truly make me feel haunted. The changing of the prose with both of the POV's obsessed with order, but one being unable to look and react internally and the other being unable to get out of their head are reflected in the prose, and length of paragraphs. I don't know if I love this book, but I don't think I will ever forget it, or not think about it when I consider political and personal situations the relate to this story.
First off, this story is very important. I have rarely found a title that was so well penned for the story and what it was conveying. Our lives, and minutes are summations of tiny details, the way the keyboard feels on my fingers, if I am choosing to listen to music while reading or typing, where I am able to read, the choice that my parents had to encourage reading, and the choice I made to try to be myself. The minor details in this book became all consuming. The heat of a bite that initially gets brushed off, the delusion of a commander, the smell of gasoline, and the haunting nature of this book makes it compel especially as many of the minor details are called back at the end of the second part of this book. The choices of narrators, one being the commander obsessed with order and beginning to die from a bite, the other being a character who cannot not act and live semi-impulsively, make everything feel very unreal. None of the side characters feel real despite the first part being based on a real story, and rarely does the author convey anyone in an emotional and negative light despite the context of this book. The story, and tragedy while horrible are conveyed in a this is life manner, causing it to resonate when you know that shouldn't be life truly make me feel haunted. The changing of the prose with both of the POV's obsessed with order, but one being unable to look and react internally and the other being unable to get out of their head are reflected in the prose, and length of paragraphs. I don't know if I love this book, but I don't think I will ever forget it, or not think about it when I consider political and personal situations the relate to this story.