Take a photo of a barcode or cover
berenikeasteria 's review for:
Bright Air Black
by David Vann
Ah, the sentence fragment. Often misused to clunky and pompous effect, it is frequently bemoaned in reviews, and I can say that I have done so myself. It is not a literary device that always works well. However, it is absolutely perfect for David Vann’s Bright Air Black. Too long to be a novella, not long enough to be a novel, Bright Air Black is a modernist retelling of the life of Medea, she who aided Jason and the Argonauts, repeatedly betrayed, and later found her way into the story of Theseus. The story is almost entirely told in sentence fragments, and it is ideal for what Vann wants to do with Medea. This is not a redeemed tale, or a reimagining of an empathetic, misunderstood Medea. This Medea owns her brutality, her power, unapologetically shocking those around her, and perhaps most importantly, she craves more. She is at once aflame with the fire of action, and, behind her eyes, awash in cool, observant calculation. Vann’s fragmentary style captures and conveys the immediacy of the chaos that swirls around Medea’s life and actions, and that dispassionate drive for power, no matter what the dark coast, which Medea pays eagerly and wholeheartedly. The book flirts back and forth between a feminist lens of a woman demanding power and ruthlessly doing what it takes to get it, foolishly scorned by bigoted rivals, and the portrait of a narcissistic psychopath, dismissive of any world view but her own and with a compulsively violent streak. A thought-provoking read.
7 out of 10