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A review by versmonesprit
A Cup of Rage by Raduan Nassar
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What a shame this book has made its way into the hands of people who think every book is moralistic, and if its contents do not match the reader’s own sentiments, then the author must be a terrible person… Rest assured, the low scores are completely unjustified, and are clearly based on uncritical reading. Raduan Nassar is one hell of a writer.
But then you might ask why this wasn’t a 5-star read for me either, and that’s something I can’t quite justify either. It comes down to there not being enough rage for me. Once you read it, this might sound bollocks, because this book is indeed dominated by very tumultuous emotions. However, the underlying emotion sounded more like hatred to me than rage.
A Cup of Rage is a novelette in several parts, focusing on the toxic dynamic of one couple, and the total passion of their relationship. To the enthusiast of The Human Condition, it will come as no surprise that passion is not a pure sentiment; the higher it gets, the more destructive it becomes. This is true for the fictional relationship at hand. Lovers destroy each other, remake one another in their hateful love’s shape, only to begin all over again with the unstoppable pull before the cathartic push.
Each part is a single sentence, with just one full stop at the very end. I found the criticism of this truly laughable. I’m sorry you live in a hell in which nothing that’s not written like a mass market book can get through to you. It must be a miserable reading time for you guys.
It’s not easy to pull off such a structure, and this is where both Nassar and the translator Stefan Tobler shine: never once does it trip up, never once does it get tiresome. It flows with such a remarkable ease, you would need to be the dimmest bulb in the shed not to see the talent and the prowess. Nassar nailed a brilliant rhythm, and Tobler did him justice. Such a form intensifies the emotions and the tensions in a way no other structure could.
While I was mesmerised by the book, I still wished for the dial to be turned all the way up, to the point of potentially frying the machine. Rage is a boundless emotion, and I found this fictional fight to be a little constrained in contrast, as if there was still something pulling back the characters from fully tuning out and blacking into pure rage.
For a unique voice in literature, and clearly one of the gems of Brazilian literature, do not miss out on A Cup of Rage. It’s spectacular.
But then you might ask why this wasn’t a 5-star read for me either, and that’s something I can’t quite justify either. It comes down to there not being enough rage for me. Once you read it, this might sound bollocks, because this book is indeed dominated by very tumultuous emotions. However, the underlying emotion sounded more like hatred to me than rage.
A Cup of Rage is a novelette in several parts, focusing on the toxic dynamic of one couple, and the total passion of their relationship. To the enthusiast of The Human Condition, it will come as no surprise that passion is not a pure sentiment; the higher it gets, the more destructive it becomes. This is true for the fictional relationship at hand. Lovers destroy each other, remake one another in their hateful love’s shape, only to begin all over again with the unstoppable pull before the cathartic push.
Each part is a single sentence, with just one full stop at the very end. I found the criticism of this truly laughable. I’m sorry you live in a hell in which nothing that’s not written like a mass market book can get through to you. It must be a miserable reading time for you guys.
It’s not easy to pull off such a structure, and this is where both Nassar and the translator Stefan Tobler shine: never once does it trip up, never once does it get tiresome. It flows with such a remarkable ease, you would need to be the dimmest bulb in the shed not to see the talent and the prowess. Nassar nailed a brilliant rhythm, and Tobler did him justice. Such a form intensifies the emotions and the tensions in a way no other structure could.
While I was mesmerised by the book, I still wished for the dial to be turned all the way up, to the point of potentially frying the machine. Rage is a boundless emotion, and I found this fictional fight to be a little constrained in contrast, as if there was still something pulling back the characters from fully tuning out and blacking into pure rage.
For a unique voice in literature, and clearly one of the gems of Brazilian literature, do not miss out on A Cup of Rage. It’s spectacular.