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A review by veronicafrance
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
5.0
This book is a punch to the heart. Amazing for a debut novel. Sara Baume confidently narrates in the second person -- lonely misfit Ray talking to his equally maladjusted and occasionally vicious dog One Eye. This should be gimmicky and annoying, but it isn't, because you know that the dog is the first "person" Ray has ever confided in.
Ray's life has been truly awful -- brought up alone by a father who never wanted him, not allowed to go to school, and soon frightened of interaction with anyone, he grows up isolated and unable to communicate. His father is now dead and his only company books, until he acquires One Eye.
The dog is the only living being he has ever had a genuine relationship with. Gradually he tells the dog the story of his life; a traumatic event midway through the book forces him to leave the house he's lived in all his life to go on the road with One Eye. From then on it's clear (if it wasn't already) that there's not going to be a happy ending, and in the devastating last section dark secrets come out, with Ray literally carrying the baggage of his past actions with him. So good.
Ray's life has been truly awful -- brought up alone by a father who never wanted him, not allowed to go to school, and soon frightened of interaction with anyone, he grows up isolated and unable to communicate. His father is now dead and his only company books, until he acquires One Eye.
The dog is the only living being he has ever had a genuine relationship with. Gradually he tells the dog the story of his life; a traumatic event midway through the book forces him to leave the house he's lived in all his life to go on the road with One Eye. From then on it's clear (if it wasn't already) that there's not going to be a happy ending, and in the devastating last section dark secrets come out, with Ray literally carrying the baggage of his past actions with him. So good.