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madalcna 's review for:
How to Breathe Underwater
by Julie Orringer
Julie Orringer looks at the ungainly, gawky, blundering period of childhood and adolescence with a razor-sharp eye -- indeed, I'm convinced she wrote these stories with a blade in hand, carving the words from the paper with surgical, mad precision.
The writing is simple and straight-to-the-point while still being able to rapture the reader's total attention. I felt there was a force pulling me into these stories, and I consumed (most of) them without blinking, honestly, without breathing. As if I was underwater. As if I was learning how to breathe.
It's all about feeling, about the exploration of womanhood and the awkwardness of bodies, of growing up, of living with grief, of understanding oneself, of overcoming it. I think there's something so unsettling about children, how the purity of their minds can be two-fold, a double-aged sword, and how girls destroy themselves most in their early ages, the catiness that is either born or forced into them. In that way, 'How to Breathe Underwater' is a stunning achievement, a true page-turner.
The writing is simple and straight-to-the-point while still being able to rapture the reader's total attention. I felt there was a force pulling me into these stories, and I consumed (most of) them without blinking, honestly, without breathing. As if I was underwater. As if I was learning how to breathe.
It's all about feeling, about the exploration of womanhood and the awkwardness of bodies, of growing up, of living with grief, of understanding oneself, of overcoming it. I think there's something so unsettling about children, how the purity of their minds can be two-fold, a double-aged sword, and how girls destroy themselves most in their early ages, the catiness that is either born or forced into them. In that way, 'How to Breathe Underwater' is a stunning achievement, a true page-turner.