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A review by ethelkleppinger
After Disasters by Viet Dinh
2.0
I read this as a Kindle First pick, and it's not my usual type of read (as a disclaimer here). Also a disclaimer: It explores male sexuality and that seemed to bother a lot of the Amazon reviewers.
I think the author bit off more than he could chew. It screamed "I am trying to be a Serious Literary Story!" but it was more meandering and confusing than anything else to me.
The book explores the lives of four men who respond to the 2001 earthquake in India. Their lives become intertwined. That said, it's more of a story about how the men feel about each other and their families; it's all character development with a little bit of plot. The story also jumps ALL over the place in terms of time. Flash back! Flash forward! Flash back! all on the same page.
I found parts of it wildly compelling, such as the descriptions of actual rescues or attempted rescues and the intricacies of politics in post-disaster areas. Other parts were boring and hard to follow (basically all of Piotr's story). One of the main characters had a much smaller part than the other three, and I didn't understand why he was in the book at all. I didn't relate to or care about the characters, either, as they were so utterly detached. It's amazing how much characterization happened and yet it was not interesting.
I wanted to like this book, but I did not.
I think the author bit off more than he could chew. It screamed "I am trying to be a Serious Literary Story!" but it was more meandering and confusing than anything else to me.
The book explores the lives of four men who respond to the 2001 earthquake in India. Their lives become intertwined. That said, it's more of a story about how the men feel about each other and their families; it's all character development with a little bit of plot. The story also jumps ALL over the place in terms of time. Flash back! Flash forward! Flash back! all on the same page.
I found parts of it wildly compelling, such as the descriptions of actual rescues or attempted rescues and the intricacies of politics in post-disaster areas. Other parts were boring and hard to follow (basically all of Piotr's story). One of the main characters had a much smaller part than the other three, and I didn't understand why he was in the book at all. I didn't relate to or care about the characters, either, as they were so utterly detached. It's amazing how much characterization happened and yet it was not interesting.
I wanted to like this book, but I did not.