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A review by jennms_qkw
The Dove's Necklace by Raja Alem
4.0
This is my most challenging book this year. First woman to win the Arabic Prize in Fiction. Prize-winning German translation. 474 pages of emotionally dense and labyrinthine writing. Started in Sept, had to turn it back in to the library because I exhausted renewals, and picked it up again 4 weeks and 2 days ago. 10 pages. So much magical realism, blocks of italic text, so much surrealism (my friends lovingly point out my literalness from time to time). 50 pages. Read a few reviews. 50 more. Thought about reading it every day I wasn't actually reading it. I was at 278p last night and I drew a bath and thought, maybe I will just stay in the tub until I am done. And I did. I am proud that I kept with it, and I did like the book, even though I am still digesting the ending. I will be reading light fiction until the first Sunday of Advent, when I start Dear Church (A Lutheran book).
Additional on this book: The writing is clever and the phrase about fever dream in the description is accurate. I do not read a lot of this kind of literature, but this reminded me of Gabriel García Márquez. The blocks of italic text on 4 solid pages were hard, visually. Maybe I should go to a class to read and understand the symbolism and techniques better.
Additional on this book: The writing is clever and the phrase about fever dream in the description is accurate. I do not read a lot of this kind of literature, but this reminded me of Gabriel García Márquez. The blocks of italic text on 4 solid pages were hard, visually. Maybe I should go to a class to read and understand the symbolism and techniques better.