shanviolinlove 's review for:

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

4.0

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Intriguing. The eccentric narrator Sanchez Sanchez, his colorful life story and family tree (lots of tongue-in-cheek name-dropping) made this an engaging character study. I see and understand conflicting reviews about the execution of this novel, as the plot line is weird (the plot itself is weird, too) and is retold in different perspectives, including a historic timeline. I myself am partial to quirky literature, and this novel reminded me in ways of early Jonathan Safran Foer, of Salman Rushdie, of Alice in Wonderland. It's a novel of ideas and questions, of self-exploration, of humor and sadness. Luiselli's crisp writing voice and three-dimensional narrator are arresting. I'm definitely going to look out for more of her work.