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A review by schmoterp
The Untelling by Tayari Jones
4.0
The Untelling was listed by John Green in his 2014 YouTube video of 18 obscure books that should be read. It's been over five years, and this was my 5th book read from that list. Suffice it to say that without this video, I would likely never have considered Tayari Jones second novel, and that would have been a shame.
However, in that video, John Green states that it "captures the precariousness of working class life just beautifully," and this summary just isn't anywhere close to correct. It's so bad, I wonder if he mistakenly referenced the wrong book. TU is about personal loss and grief. It explores the permanency of blood relations and the power of honesty, or the lack thereof. The lessons we can learn from Ariadne and her family and friends are profound and I found the experience quite rewarding.
Jones brings us into Aria's thoughts, good, bad, and everything else. She's a flawed person. She's been hurt. And she certainly has been holding on to things she ought to share. The emotions that wring her tired body and soul spill out into the page and you ache along side her. It's not very often I can feel so touched by a book so engrossed from a female perspective. It's also written from a black perspective, something that is also foreign to me, and yet still felt so close and personal.
For me, this book was a 5-star almost from the beginning. But, ultimately, when the book ended in the way it did, I didn't have that overwhelming sensation of closure, finality, or completion. It just ended and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied. Perhaps Jones did this on purpose. In her epilogue, she states that one never gets over anything so perhaps closure isn't what she's going for. Life is hard and the loss we feel is so real - perhaps that's what Jones wants us to think about. And there really is no closure to that.
This is a really good book.
However, in that video, John Green states that it "captures the precariousness of working class life just beautifully," and this summary just isn't anywhere close to correct. It's so bad, I wonder if he mistakenly referenced the wrong book. TU is about personal loss and grief. It explores the permanency of blood relations and the power of honesty, or the lack thereof. The lessons we can learn from Ariadne and her family and friends are profound and I found the experience quite rewarding.
Jones brings us into Aria's thoughts, good, bad, and everything else. She's a flawed person. She's been hurt. And she certainly has been holding on to things she ought to share. The emotions that wring her tired body and soul spill out into the page and you ache along side her. It's not very often I can feel so touched by a book so engrossed from a female perspective. It's also written from a black perspective, something that is also foreign to me, and yet still felt so close and personal.
For me, this book was a 5-star almost from the beginning. But, ultimately, when the book ended in the way it did, I didn't have that overwhelming sensation of closure, finality, or completion. It just ended and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied. Perhaps Jones did this on purpose. In her epilogue, she states that one never gets over anything so perhaps closure isn't what she's going for. Life is hard and the loss we feel is so real - perhaps that's what Jones wants us to think about. And there really is no closure to that.
This is a really good book.