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A review by savage_book_review
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The latest book for my office book club, and I suspect I'm going to be the outlier on this. The people I've spoken too at work all love this book. I... don't. It's not bad by any stretch, it's just not me.
I found the premise an interesting one, following the stories of a man, Ansel, on death row trying to come to terms with his imminent demise, alongside the story of his crimes told from the point of view of his mother, his sister-in-law and a childhood companion. The consideration of Ansel's character is such that you are constantly questioning whether you sympathise with him, or are appalled by his unfeeling and seemingly sociopathic tendencies, which makes for uncomfortable and yet surprisingly enthralling reading. Each woman is also flawed in her own way which adds a nice balance to things - overall it does a really good job at subverting the traditional 'good vs evil' subtext of a story like this.
However, I found the multi-POV narrative, that also jumps back and forwards in time, quite difficult to keep my bearings with. Generally, while I'd say the substance of the writing is beautifully done - the prose is almost poetic in places - I really struggled with some of the stylistic choices. We have changes in tenses, changes in perspective (third person vs second person), and grammatical shifts in things like using speech marks - the women's chapters do, Ansel's chapters don't. While I am sure the author could explain the reasons for this choice and an English teacher would salivate at the opportunity to break every element down for critical analysis, my 'passenger princess' reading style just found it all a bit too much.
Similarly, there are big chunks of the text that feel like they went over my head, or I found difficult to grasp within the context of the chapter. There are some philosophical ideas thrown around in here too (indeed, Ansel's Theory is a running theme throughout the book) and I can sort of tie bits and pieces together, but mostly I just think my reading and the author's writing were never really going to work well together.
I found the premise an interesting one, following the stories of a man, Ansel, on death row trying to come to terms with his imminent demise, alongside the story of his crimes told from the point of view of his mother, his sister-in-law and a childhood companion. The consideration of Ansel's character is such that you are constantly questioning whether you sympathise with him, or are appalled by his unfeeling and seemingly sociopathic tendencies, which makes for uncomfortable and yet surprisingly enthralling reading. Each woman is also flawed in her own way which adds a nice balance to things - overall it does a really good job at subverting the traditional 'good vs evil' subtext of a story like this.
However, I found the multi-POV narrative, that also jumps back and forwards in time, quite difficult to keep my bearings with. Generally, while I'd say the substance of the writing is beautifully done - the prose is almost poetic in places - I really struggled with some of the stylistic choices. We have changes in tenses, changes in perspective (third person vs second person), and grammatical shifts in things like using speech marks - the women's chapters do, Ansel's chapters don't. While I am sure the author could explain the reasons for this choice and an English teacher would salivate at the opportunity to break every element down for critical analysis, my 'passenger princess' reading style just found it all a bit too much.
Similarly, there are big chunks of the text that feel like they went over my head, or I found difficult to grasp within the context of the chapter. There are some philosophical ideas thrown around in here too (indeed, Ansel's Theory is a running theme throughout the book) and I can sort of tie bits and pieces together, but mostly I just think my reading and the author's writing were never really going to work well together.