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A review by anusha_reads
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
5.0
I know we don't judge a book by its cover. We can't assess a book after reading a few lines. A few pages? A few Chapters? I could say nothing about this book. Even now I am in a haze. Not sure what to make of it!
I closed the book and looked out of the window, and I contemplated: What did I read exactly? It's profound. It just makes you think and look at life and death from a different perspective.
The book is neither plot-driven nor character-driven. The narrator digresses into various topics like feminism, climate change, loneliness aging, etc. through various anecdotes. For example, there is one in which a cat narrates its story. The cat talks about people who are not kind to it and finally finds people who are nice and caring. I found the cat narration Murakamiesque!
The book has quaint humour and genuine pathos that’s indescribable! I think she has tried to present the serene topic of death with a mild undertone by sprinkling unrelated yet interesting topics here and there, or else this topic is too heavy
A story involves a couple who fall in love and the years of married life, parenthood, and life, in general, make them fall out of love. The lady narrates that her husband had a smile on his face when she got cancer. I found this husband very intriguing. I liked the fact that she acknowledged him, and she knew that he loves her and did things to help her through her illness. I think he was smiling because finally, he got something to help her out with?!
They say women are very difficult to understand. I feel one can't be so hypocritical about it. It differs from person to person. Sometimes it's difficult to understand men too!
One story is about a guy who marries a lady just purely for her beauty. As she grows old, she accepts it, and she refuses to dye her hair black nor does she like putting on make-up. She says that she knows her husband doesn’t like it and that she knows that he is having an affair. I have heard this story from many women. They feel so threatened once they have had babies or they put on even a little bit of weight. What makes them feel so insecure and why don’t men feel insecure with respect to marriage? I know many women from many societies do not easily break up their relationships once they have children whereas the majority of men do not bother.
The cruelty of death, suffering, and illness is the crux of the discussion though. What do you think about euthanasia? Can we eradicate existential suffering due to debilitating illness by Euthanasia? Is it ethical?
A quote from the book “They are young, and they are beautiful—even in anger, they are beautiful, the way young people are” made me wonder. Don’t we all always idealise our childhood? There are teenagers out there who are yearning to become adults and do whatever the adults do! The old people want to be young because of their inability to do things that they used to as youngsters.
It's not an easy book, though the language is simple. The topics that it deals with are so intense, that one feels inundated. It deals with many issues that confront humans with specific existential issues.
I did not read the blurb because it was a book chosen by a wonderful reader of our book club and she always chooses amazing books and it turned out to be one too!
I closed the book and looked out of the window, and I contemplated: What did I read exactly? It's profound. It just makes you think and look at life and death from a different perspective.
The book is neither plot-driven nor character-driven. The narrator digresses into various topics like feminism, climate change, loneliness aging, etc. through various anecdotes. For example, there is one in which a cat narrates its story. The cat talks about people who are not kind to it and finally finds people who are nice and caring. I found the cat narration Murakamiesque!
The book has quaint humour and genuine pathos that’s indescribable! I think she has tried to present the serene topic of death with a mild undertone by sprinkling unrelated yet interesting topics here and there, or else this topic is too heavy
A story involves a couple who fall in love and the years of married life, parenthood, and life, in general, make them fall out of love. The lady narrates that her husband had a smile on his face when she got cancer. I found this husband very intriguing. I liked the fact that she acknowledged him, and she knew that he loves her and did things to help her through her illness. I think he was smiling because finally, he got something to help her out with?!
They say women are very difficult to understand. I feel one can't be so hypocritical about it. It differs from person to person. Sometimes it's difficult to understand men too!
One story is about a guy who marries a lady just purely for her beauty. As she grows old, she accepts it, and she refuses to dye her hair black nor does she like putting on make-up. She says that she knows her husband doesn’t like it and that she knows that he is having an affair. I have heard this story from many women. They feel so threatened once they have had babies or they put on even a little bit of weight. What makes them feel so insecure and why don’t men feel insecure with respect to marriage? I know many women from many societies do not easily break up their relationships once they have children whereas the majority of men do not bother.
The cruelty of death, suffering, and illness is the crux of the discussion though. What do you think about euthanasia? Can we eradicate existential suffering due to debilitating illness by Euthanasia? Is it ethical?
A quote from the book “They are young, and they are beautiful—even in anger, they are beautiful, the way young people are” made me wonder. Don’t we all always idealise our childhood? There are teenagers out there who are yearning to become adults and do whatever the adults do! The old people want to be young because of their inability to do things that they used to as youngsters.
It's not an easy book, though the language is simple. The topics that it deals with are so intense, that one feels inundated. It deals with many issues that confront humans with specific existential issues.
I did not read the blurb because it was a book chosen by a wonderful reader of our book club and she always chooses amazing books and it turned out to be one too!