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A review by ramblingsofareader
The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld
I can’t give a rating because I did not finish the book. So I will just write my thoughts; what I felt during reading and some afterthoughts.
I started this book before it won The Man Booker International Prize. I was going to read the shortlisted books before they announce the winner. But life happened and I finished this book only today. And I started this book again because it won the prize..
The book is narrated by a 10 year old Jas, who lives with her family in a farm. She wants to go ice skating with her brother. But she is not allowed to go. She is very angry. But then her brother dies drowning during ice skating. The story revolves around how Jas and her family deals with the loss of their loved one.
The story is written in short sentences, in a way that a ten year old girl sees the world. She is very observant. Her family members doesn’t deal with their grief. They shut themselves completely. And each of the family members develop a certain way to handle their grief.
This is a book which really lived up to the title. Reading this was a discomfort to me by every sense. Let me explain why it was a discomfort. It is written in a very dark manner. There are very graphic descriptions about bodily fluids and both human and animal excrement. There are raw and detailed descriptions about the discovery of sexuality in pre pubescents. The siblings discover their sexuality in a violent and abusive manner. The content is sexually explicit. Its very disturbing that it made me nauseated and uneasy. That’s when I stopped after reading about 2/3 of the book.
But after that I read a bit about the author. They are a Dutch author. They are only 29 years old. They have lost a brother at a young age and their family did the same, shutting themselves out. This is the author’s way of dealing with the loss. I think they have done a tremendous job in purposely provoking the uneasiness in the reader. And I think the author is brilliant and wonderful to win the Man Booker International Prize at such a young age, although its not for the faint hearts like me.
PS : My first language is not English and this is the first time I wrote about a person who uses they/them pronoun to identify themselves. If there is any error, please excuse and feel free to correct me.
I started this book before it won The Man Booker International Prize. I was going to read the shortlisted books before they announce the winner. But life happened and I finished this book only today. And I started this book again because it won the prize..
The book is narrated by a 10 year old Jas, who lives with her family in a farm. She wants to go ice skating with her brother. But she is not allowed to go. She is very angry. But then her brother dies drowning during ice skating. The story revolves around how Jas and her family deals with the loss of their loved one.
The story is written in short sentences, in a way that a ten year old girl sees the world. She is very observant. Her family members doesn’t deal with their grief. They shut themselves completely. And each of the family members develop a certain way to handle their grief.
This is a book which really lived up to the title. Reading this was a discomfort to me by every sense. Let me explain why it was a discomfort. It is written in a very dark manner. There are very graphic descriptions about bodily fluids and both human and animal excrement. There are raw and detailed descriptions about the discovery of sexuality in pre pubescents. The siblings discover their sexuality in a violent and abusive manner. The content is sexually explicit. Its very disturbing that it made me nauseated and uneasy. That’s when I stopped after reading about 2/3 of the book.
But after that I read a bit about the author. They are a Dutch author. They are only 29 years old. They have lost a brother at a young age and their family did the same, shutting themselves out. This is the author’s way of dealing with the loss. I think they have done a tremendous job in purposely provoking the uneasiness in the reader. And I think the author is brilliant and wonderful to win the Man Booker International Prize at such a young age, although its not for the faint hearts like me.
PS : My first language is not English and this is the first time I wrote about a person who uses they/them pronoun to identify themselves. If there is any error, please excuse and feel free to correct me.