Scan barcode
A review by nematome
The God of War by Marisa Silver
3.0
This book is a very descriptive, unhurried meditation on the weight of history and guilt. Which is something that I think about quite a lot. I think about my Mom, who was raised in a rigid, military home and resented it so much that as a parent she was afraid to say no to anything, ever. I think about my Dad, who was raised with an absentee father, and eventually became one himself. I think about all the illogical things that I do in direct reaction to the way I was raised. My mom has and always will be a non-punctual, chronically late person, and now I am a chronically early, time-conscious person. I wonder what my kids will become, because of me.
Ares is twelve, right at that edge between childhood and adolescence. He lives in a small trailer with his non-conformist Mom and his brother Malcolm. Ares’ Mom refuses to acknowledge that Malcolm is anything but special, loved, and normal. But he’s not, and Ares knows that it’s his fault. As Malcolm becomes more difficult to care for in school, their Mom is arm-wrestled into allowing him to attend special out of school sessions with the librarian, Mrs. Poole. There, Ares finds a structured, disciplined home, which feels like everything that he’s missing. But he also finds Mrs. Poole’s son Kevin, who is weighed down with a history and guilt of his own. The story begins when Ares is in his forties, and is his recollections of that year in the 1970’s.
I really love the whole idea of this book, and I love that the author really explores Ares’ complicated emotions – his resentment, his all-consuming guilt, his growing desire to be everything that his mother isn’t. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past the writing style. It feels slow at the best of times, tedious and overdone at the worst of times. Here’s a passage from the beginning about Mrs. Poole. I might add that this is written as we’re first meeting Mrs. Poole, and is an introduction to an extremely brief scene. She’s not in the story for a long while after this part (which caused me to wonder why we needed to know so much about a person who wasn’t even in the story):
”She looked up at me expectantly. She wore an alert, somewhat wary expression, caused I thought by children speaking too loudly and wrongly-shelved books. Most of the children at school were careful around her. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but one short strand had broken loose and she repeatedly tucked it behind her ear as though something more private than a lock of hair had escaped confinement. Her cheeks were puffy at the bottom as if she were storing two caramels or some other secrets there. She dressed in shirtwaists and boxy skirts and plain blouses – clothes that made no statement about the body underneath. She seemed like someone who was trying very hard to keep her colors from bleeding over the lines. The order of her desk top made me feel like I had just shouted in a church. I thought she was too organized, to have a murderer for a son. She eyed me with vague disapproval as if she expected that bad things always preceded good, but then allowed a smile that so altered her expression that it seemed as though another person were hiding inside her, one who only came out occasionally and then ran back inside as if unprepared for the weather.”
Not my cup of tea, but this should give you an idea if this would be something that you’ll enjoy or not. There are just about five too many descriptions in that passage for me. Yes, she’s a rigid, contained person - the expression, the hair, the clothes, the colors, the desk, the smile…I GET IT. Although, caramels in her cheeks? Not really sure what that one is going for. That she has hidden depths? Secrets? That she’s a sugar junkie?! Most of the writing here is similarly overdone and much of the time I didn’t feel that it added anything important to the story. It became frustrating to wade through it all.
The climax is a good release and it hits all the right notes, but it’s very brief. And I’m not sure about how everything ends with Kevin. I really would expect a bit more trauma there. Ares reflections on Kevin as a boy “of no value” also seem callous and closed minded. That part didn’t feel totally realistic.
The ending is so utterly slow and drawn out that I felt like saying, “OH MY GOD JUST END IT.” And I probably did once or twice. Out loud. Like a crazy person.
Perfect Musical Pairing
The Kinks – Some Mother’s Son
This is exactly the sort of song that I would have hated as a teenager, solely and specifically because my Mom loved it. And this is also my song for Kevin, who is a damaged, violent character but nonetheless, matters to Mrs. Poole. We all have history and it's meaningless to judge someone without taking that into account.
Ares is twelve, right at that edge between childhood and adolescence. He lives in a small trailer with his non-conformist Mom and his brother Malcolm. Ares’ Mom refuses to acknowledge that Malcolm is anything but special, loved, and normal. But he’s not, and Ares knows that it’s his fault. As Malcolm becomes more difficult to care for in school, their Mom is arm-wrestled into allowing him to attend special out of school sessions with the librarian, Mrs. Poole. There, Ares finds a structured, disciplined home, which feels like everything that he’s missing. But he also finds Mrs. Poole’s son Kevin, who is weighed down with a history and guilt of his own. The story begins when Ares is in his forties, and is his recollections of that year in the 1970’s.
I really love the whole idea of this book, and I love that the author really explores Ares’ complicated emotions – his resentment, his all-consuming guilt, his growing desire to be everything that his mother isn’t. Unfortunately I couldn’t get past the writing style. It feels slow at the best of times, tedious and overdone at the worst of times. Here’s a passage from the beginning about Mrs. Poole. I might add that this is written as we’re first meeting Mrs. Poole, and is an introduction to an extremely brief scene. She’s not in the story for a long while after this part (which caused me to wonder why we needed to know so much about a person who wasn’t even in the story):
”She looked up at me expectantly. She wore an alert, somewhat wary expression, caused I thought by children speaking too loudly and wrongly-shelved books. Most of the children at school were careful around her. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but one short strand had broken loose and she repeatedly tucked it behind her ear as though something more private than a lock of hair had escaped confinement. Her cheeks were puffy at the bottom as if she were storing two caramels or some other secrets there. She dressed in shirtwaists and boxy skirts and plain blouses – clothes that made no statement about the body underneath. She seemed like someone who was trying very hard to keep her colors from bleeding over the lines. The order of her desk top made me feel like I had just shouted in a church. I thought she was too organized, to have a murderer for a son. She eyed me with vague disapproval as if she expected that bad things always preceded good, but then allowed a smile that so altered her expression that it seemed as though another person were hiding inside her, one who only came out occasionally and then ran back inside as if unprepared for the weather.”
Not my cup of tea, but this should give you an idea if this would be something that you’ll enjoy or not. There are just about five too many descriptions in that passage for me. Yes, she’s a rigid, contained person - the expression, the hair, the clothes, the colors, the desk, the smile…I GET IT. Although, caramels in her cheeks? Not really sure what that one is going for. That she has hidden depths? Secrets? That she’s a sugar junkie?! Most of the writing here is similarly overdone and much of the time I didn’t feel that it added anything important to the story. It became frustrating to wade through it all.
The climax is a good release and it hits all the right notes, but it’s very brief. And I’m not sure about how everything ends with Kevin. I really would expect a bit more trauma there. Ares reflections on Kevin as a boy “of no value” also seem callous and closed minded. That part didn’t feel totally realistic.
The ending is so utterly slow and drawn out that I felt like saying, “OH MY GOD JUST END IT.” And I probably did once or twice. Out loud. Like a crazy person.
Perfect Musical Pairing
The Kinks – Some Mother’s Son
This is exactly the sort of song that I would have hated as a teenager, solely and specifically because my Mom loved it. And this is also my song for Kevin, who is a damaged, violent character but nonetheless, matters to Mrs. Poole. We all have history and it's meaningless to judge someone without taking that into account.