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A review by inthebelljar
Aug 9 - Fog by Kathryn Scanlan
3.0
I love experimental books, ones that play with format and perspectives and such, so when I read the description of this work, I immediately went and got it from my library. This is a unique collection and rearrangement by the author of a real elderly woman's diary that spans 5 years. From reading other reviews, I'm not the only one who has struggled to classify this. I feel like poetry might feel the closest to it, but I'm not sure even then. Prose poetry maybe? I enjoyed this and I agree with another reviewer that it almost feels wrong to rate this on a 5 star scale; it wasn't written to be a book/prose poetry, after all. These are words from a diary, rearranged and presented in a new way by Scanlan.
I liked it. I really did like it, but something still did feel missing from it, which feels weird to say. I didn't want the author to, for example, start making words up and placing them in so I understand things couldn't be expanded upon but I still felt this weird sense of wanting more from this. I do think that Scanlan did a wonderful job of evoking that strange, surreal feeling of witnessing elderly relatives and friends trapped in a cycle of illness and declining health before the end all while the world keeps moving. Because things do keep moving, even while you're caring for and losing loved ones. I closed the book with a strange hollow feeling in my chest and thoughts of my grandma who I lost this year after a long struggle with dementia.
Still, even if not a 5-star read, I really do appreciate the way the author experimented and played with these already written words.
It's a short read. Maybe 20 minutes of reading while working on other things. Lots of margin space and one or two line pages, so if this is even remotely interesting-sounding, I would recommend checking it out.
I liked it. I really did like it, but something still did feel missing from it, which feels weird to say. I didn't want the author to, for example, start making words up and placing them in so I understand things couldn't be expanded upon but I still felt this weird sense of wanting more from this. I do think that Scanlan did a wonderful job of evoking that strange, surreal feeling of witnessing elderly relatives and friends trapped in a cycle of illness and declining health before the end all while the world keeps moving. Because things do keep moving, even while you're caring for and losing loved ones. I closed the book with a strange hollow feeling in my chest and thoughts of my grandma who I lost this year after a long struggle with dementia.
Still, even if not a 5-star read, I really do appreciate the way the author experimented and played with these already written words.
It's a short read. Maybe 20 minutes of reading while working on other things. Lots of margin space and one or two line pages, so if this is even remotely interesting-sounding, I would recommend checking it out.