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A review by caroleugenepark
In Every Moment We Are Still Alive by Tom Malmquist
2.0
This book had so much potential. There were moments where I thought, "YES!" or where I felt emotional. Some passage were beautiful. Others very relatable: moments between Tom and his father Thomas, the resentment and admiration.
But at the end of the day, I could not completely connect with the novel. The first half of the novel had me hooked but when I began to realize the emotional build up I was hoping for would never come to fruition, my interested waned. The ending was fantastic. The writing style suited the plot, but the lack of emotion and a climactic plot was what lost me in the mid to second half of the book.
As some reviewers noted, there was a lot of "telling" and not enough "showing." The dialogue between all the characters were confusing and at times, unsatisfactory. There were so many implications in the unclear communication between Tom and Karin, so much potential in what was actually being said to each other, but they were not flushed out well enough, and left me incredibly confused. I kept thinking, "what are they really talking about? why do they seem so cold to each other? are they truly life partners?"
It was very unsatisfactory. And perhaps that was simply because the English translation didn't do it justice. I don't know. I really wanted to like the novel, since it's never easy to write a novel that's based on your life to some extent.
But at the end of the day, I could not completely connect with the novel. The first half of the novel had me hooked but when I began to realize the emotional build up I was hoping for would never come to fruition, my interested waned. The ending was fantastic. The writing style suited the plot, but the lack of emotion and a climactic plot was what lost me in the mid to second half of the book.
As some reviewers noted, there was a lot of "telling" and not enough "showing." The dialogue between all the characters were confusing and at times, unsatisfactory. There were so many implications in the unclear communication between Tom and Karin, so much potential in what was actually being said to each other, but they were not flushed out well enough, and left me incredibly confused. I kept thinking, "what are they really talking about? why do they seem so cold to each other? are they truly life partners?"
It was very unsatisfactory. And perhaps that was simply because the English translation didn't do it justice. I don't know. I really wanted to like the novel, since it's never easy to write a novel that's based on your life to some extent.