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A review by whatjuliareads
Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany
1.0
I really, really did not enjoy this.
On the generous side, I can appreciate the stylistic choices (the stop and start narration created more suspense than situations warranted otherwise, for instance - the mundane becomes a drama) and I thought the translation was beautiful. Al Aswany is known for provoking controversy and... yeah I can see him succeeding there.
That said, the sheer amount of violence against women and the rationalizing of violence against women and so much seemingly pointless sexual content did not sit well with me. The characters were largely one dimensional - to Al Aswany's credit, there were a lot of characters, but my point stands. Characters bad habits (reprehensible, really) are excused and therefore they are not challenged to grow.
The plot also didn't grip me - and the lives of many characters seemed tangentially related to the plot at best. Nothing really drew me in and this is a genre of novel I do tend to like, so it was a let down.
There is no closure in this book, which I don't mind.
On the generous side, I can appreciate the stylistic choices (the stop and start narration created more suspense than situations warranted otherwise, for instance - the mundane becomes a drama) and I thought the translation was beautiful. Al Aswany is known for provoking controversy and... yeah I can see him succeeding there.
That said, the sheer amount of violence against women and the rationalizing of violence against women and so much seemingly pointless sexual content did not sit well with me. The characters were largely one dimensional - to Al Aswany's credit, there were a lot of characters, but my point stands. Characters bad habits (reprehensible, really) are excused and therefore they are not challenged to grow.
The plot also didn't grip me - and the lives of many characters seemed tangentially related to the plot at best. Nothing really drew me in and this is a genre of novel I do tend to like, so it was a let down.
There is no closure in this book, which I don't mind.