Take a photo of a barcode or cover
florasin 's review for:
Study for Obedience
by Sarah Bernstein
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has no real sense of time or place to me. The main character is an unreliable narrator.
To me, this book is for people looking to analyze something. It has such a vagueness that I can picture English class arguments about it.
I do tend to like analyzing and overthinking aspects of what I read, but this one just didn't do it for me.
It's easy to forget that this story is in a modern setting, but she uses YouTube to learn things and her brother takes meetings on Microsoft Teams. That said, she tells the reader that she could not pick up the language, despite her best efforts before arriving. She never tries again. Doesn't do a google to find out how to order a coffee or install a translator app.
She decides they hate her (and they probably do becauseshe engages in a lot of behaviour that reads as pagan and they appear to be religious ). She says she wants to overcome that, but then doesn't do anything that a normal person would do.
This feels like a self pity party for the lady who thinks that anyone around her not speaking English must be talking about her. She's a martyr and she needs to tell you all about it.
The prose is not my cup of tea. Long sentences with heavy comma use. A lot of repitition. It feels like the author was trying to hit a word count on a creative writing assignment.
Additional context for my opinion: I've been revisiting Shirley Jackson's "We have always lived in the castle" as an audiobook while doing housework at the same time I've been reading this book. Perhaps that creates an unfair comparison for this novel because there are a few similarities (like being hated by the townspeople). It wasn't intentional as I try to go into Giller shortlist books blind.
I've since looked up the book online and found:
"For readers of Shirley Jackson, Iain Reid, and Claire-Louise Bennett, a haunting, compressed masterwork from an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction."
Clearly, I disagree. The only feelings this brewed inside me were irritation and eagerness to be done with it.
I also learned in looking it up that the author teaches creative writing and that actually explains everything, in my opinion.
To me, this book is for people looking to analyze something. It has such a vagueness that I can picture English class arguments about it.
I do tend to like analyzing and overthinking aspects of what I read, but this one just didn't do it for me.
It's easy to forget that this story is in a modern setting, but she uses YouTube to learn things and her brother takes meetings on Microsoft Teams. That said, she tells the reader that she could not pick up the language, despite her best efforts before arriving. She never tries again. Doesn't do a google to find out how to order a coffee or install a translator app.
She decides they hate her (and they probably do because
This feels like a self pity party for the lady who thinks that anyone around her not speaking English must be talking about her. She's a martyr and she needs to tell you all about it.
The prose is not my cup of tea. Long sentences with heavy comma use. A lot of repitition. It feels like the author was trying to hit a word count on a creative writing assignment.
Additional context for my opinion: I've been revisiting Shirley Jackson's "We have always lived in the castle" as an audiobook while doing housework at the same time I've been reading this book. Perhaps that creates an unfair comparison for this novel because there are a few similarities (like being hated by the townspeople). It wasn't intentional as I try to go into Giller shortlist books blind.
I've since looked up the book online and found:
"For readers of Shirley Jackson, Iain Reid, and Claire-Louise Bennett, a haunting, compressed masterwork from an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction."
Clearly, I disagree. The only feelings this brewed inside me were irritation and eagerness to be done with it.
I also learned in looking it up that the author teaches creative writing and that actually explains everything, in my opinion.