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A review by bookapotamus
The Selfless Act of Breathing by J.J. Bola
3.0
This was such a beautiful, lyrical piece of writing. that follows a Congolese-British Londoner who decides to go on one last adventure in the United States, determined to end his life once his savings run out.
I enjoyed the words, the thoughts, and the feelings that went into this story so much. But I just didn't feel as much as I had hoped I would. It was such a heartbreaking and sad premise - but Michael was a bit of an enigma to me. But maybe that was the point?
It was really hard to connect with Michael - we barely "meet" him and don't know much about him as we are kind of thrown into the story and left to put the pieces together about his life through snippets of experiences. He was sort of a stranger - even by time I finished the book, I felt like I still didn't know him well. The story jumped around a lot between place and time that I couldn't fully immerse myself into what was happening.
I also felt like the big "reveal" as to what he was struggling with was very difficult to understand - as to why he was so depressed and sad. I do understand sometimes there doesn't need to be a big reason - but the direction of the story seemed to hint that there was.
I think the plot was very surface level and it added a lot of confusion as to who Michael was and what he was feeling. I wish there had been more internal character development. And I just couldn't figure out how he made it so far and did so many things - knowing basically no-one and with so little money. So many questions and mystery - that was never really answered.
I did read it very fast though. The writing was phenomenal and I did enjoy the story - I just wish we weren't thrown into the thick of it to figure out all the pieces and how they fit together.
I enjoyed the words, the thoughts, and the feelings that went into this story so much. But I just didn't feel as much as I had hoped I would. It was such a heartbreaking and sad premise - but Michael was a bit of an enigma to me. But maybe that was the point?
It was really hard to connect with Michael - we barely "meet" him and don't know much about him as we are kind of thrown into the story and left to put the pieces together about his life through snippets of experiences. He was sort of a stranger - even by time I finished the book, I felt like I still didn't know him well. The story jumped around a lot between place and time that I couldn't fully immerse myself into what was happening.
I also felt like the big "reveal" as to what he was struggling with was very difficult to understand - as to why he was so depressed and sad. I do understand sometimes there doesn't need to be a big reason - but the direction of the story seemed to hint that there was.
I think the plot was very surface level and it added a lot of confusion as to who Michael was and what he was feeling. I wish there had been more internal character development. And I just couldn't figure out how he made it so far and did so many things - knowing basically no-one and with so little money. So many questions and mystery - that was never really answered.
I did read it very fast though. The writing was phenomenal and I did enjoy the story - I just wish we weren't thrown into the thick of it to figure out all the pieces and how they fit together.