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labeet 's review for:
To Paradise
by Hanya Yanagihara
Wauw, that was some book!!! Both counterfactual historic fiction and dystopian sci-fi in one novel spanning 200 years. Like in older Russian novels it's a struggle to keep all the characters in your head, not least because they share the same names across centuries. But also like old Russian novels, it's well worth the struggle!
However, it is not as complicated as it sounds, it is rather ingenious! We begin in New York in the late 19th century and follow a family dynasty struggling with succession. At the most thrilling moment we move on to the 1980's where a family struggles with identity, racial as well as sexual. In both these time periods, homosexuality is completely normalised. In the third and longest part of the novel we're well into this century in a world ravaged by both climate change and pandemics. This part of the novel has chilling similarities with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. However, the lead character in this part of the novel is such an unlikely heroin – it's simply a stroke of genius!
A long novel – and the middle part could have been shorter – but well worth spending the time on and very thought provoking in more ways than one.
However, it is not as complicated as it sounds, it is rather ingenious! We begin in New York in the late 19th century and follow a family dynasty struggling with succession. At the most thrilling moment we move on to the 1980's where a family struggles with identity, racial as well as sexual. In both these time periods, homosexuality is completely normalised. In the third and longest part of the novel we're well into this century in a world ravaged by both climate change and pandemics. This part of the novel has chilling similarities with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. However, the lead character in this part of the novel is such an unlikely heroin – it's simply a stroke of genius!
A long novel – and the middle part could have been shorter – but well worth spending the time on and very thought provoking in more ways than one.