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A review by _rusalka
The Railway by Robert Chandler, Hamid Ismailov
1.0
If I had to choose a two word phrase to sum up this book it would be "Semen Sprinkler".
I hated this book. I do not know if I wasn't clever enough for it. Maybe I wasn't able to suspend disbelief enough. Maybe I have less tolerance than others for shit, semen, child rape, or rape than others.
Magical realism is a thing which I appreciate and get and realise it will be hit and miss. That wasn't my problem with the book although I realised early on this was not going to be a book I enjoyed. The book is non-linear, looking at all the weird and wonderful creatures/people that live in this town over a century. Lives and stories tangle. That all makes sense.
But there was an off vibe from the beginning of the book that solidifies as the book goes on. And that I have no time for. I feel ikky from reading it. I don't really find shit or semen jokes funny. And I don't know if they are jokes or not in this book. But the amount of people that turned into a fricking semen sprinkler system in this book was ridiculous. Could have put a timer system on them and saved the world from drought. And I didn't understand why! All of the sudden these men would turn into a torrent of semen.
Less emotional and back to the world of practicality - the footnotes are at the end of the book. And they are numerous, and exhausting, and when you do not give a shit about what you are reading and have to flick 200 pages to find the footnote, you get annoyed. And then the footnotes reference the footnotes. Just fuck off at that stage, honestly.
Lexx asked if I was going to write an amusing review of this book, and I just can't. I feel sick I have read it. It was a bloody slog and I gained very little from the process besides mental images I will be trying to expunge from my brain forevermore. Just... don't.
I hated this book. I do not know if I wasn't clever enough for it. Maybe I wasn't able to suspend disbelief enough. Maybe I have less tolerance than others for shit, semen, child rape, or rape than others.
Magical realism is a thing which I appreciate and get and realise it will be hit and miss. That wasn't my problem with the book although I realised early on this was not going to be a book I enjoyed. The book is non-linear, looking at all the weird and wonderful creatures/people that live in this town over a century. Lives and stories tangle. That all makes sense.
But there was an off vibe from the beginning of the book that solidifies as the book goes on. And that I have no time for. I feel ikky from reading it. I don't really find shit or semen jokes funny. And I don't know if they are jokes or not in this book. But the amount of people that turned into a fricking semen sprinkler system in this book was ridiculous. Could have put a timer system on them and saved the world from drought. And I didn't understand why! All of the sudden these men would turn into a torrent of semen.
Less emotional and back to the world of practicality - the footnotes are at the end of the book. And they are numerous, and exhausting, and when you do not give a shit about what you are reading and have to flick 200 pages to find the footnote, you get annoyed. And then the footnotes reference the footnotes. Just fuck off at that stage, honestly.
Lexx asked if I was going to write an amusing review of this book, and I just can't. I feel sick I have read it. It was a bloody slog and I gained very little from the process besides mental images I will be trying to expunge from my brain forevermore. Just... don't.