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A review by ocurtsinger
Inland by Téa Obreht
5.0
The Tiger's Wife was one of my favorite books in the past 10 years, and although Inland was a tougher nut to crack, it did not disappoint. I can sympathize with some readers who found transitions between past and present jarring, but I didn't find them jarring enough to lose the narrative thread or want to put the book down. Once you accept and come to expect these transitions, they fill out the story in a way that has more emotion and effect than if Obreht had built them up chronologically.
The narrative thread of Lurie and his journey with the cameleers is other-wordly and enticing, told in a nostalgic and ghostly way that readers of The Tiger's Wife will recognize and now has become Obreht's signature. I couldn't wait for more of Lurie's bizarre and haunting adventures to unfold.
The narrative thread of Nora is quite different but not without it's own sense of being haunted. Nora is haunted by rumors of a beast roaming the desert, haunted by her lost daughter, haunted by the mysterious absence of her husband and two sons, haunted by the social and economic blight descending upon her town, and haunted by her thirst as she tries and fails to find a drink of water. The tension in these chapters does not quit, and had me eagerly reading, hoping for some water or the appearance of her family.
Inland and The Tiger's Wife are two very different beasts (and about two very different beasts!) but I would be quick to recommend it to anybody who enjoyed the latter novel or is patient and adventurous enough to journey through narrative jumps and recollections and vast distances without water.
The narrative thread of Lurie and his journey with the cameleers is other-wordly and enticing, told in a nostalgic and ghostly way that readers of The Tiger's Wife will recognize and now has become Obreht's signature. I couldn't wait for more of Lurie's bizarre and haunting adventures to unfold.
The narrative thread of Nora is quite different but not without it's own sense of being haunted. Nora is haunted by rumors of a beast roaming the desert, haunted by her lost daughter, haunted by the mysterious absence of her husband and two sons, haunted by the social and economic blight descending upon her town, and haunted by her thirst as she tries and fails to find a drink of water. The tension in these chapters does not quit, and had me eagerly reading, hoping for some water or the appearance of her family.
Inland and The Tiger's Wife are two very different beasts (and about two very different beasts!) but I would be quick to recommend it to anybody who enjoyed the latter novel or is patient and adventurous enough to journey through narrative jumps and recollections and vast distances without water.