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A review by bethreadsandnaps
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
3.0
PROs:
* This is very lyrical, if you like lyrical novels. It almost has a rhythm to it.
* Interesting themes are brought up within the book (complicity, animal representation).
* I did like the literal parts of this novel (as opposed to when the narrator is in her own head).
CONs:
* This novel isn't for me. I didn't like the voice. The narrator comes across so holier than thou in parts. I like it if a narrator is deliciously evil and sounds holier than thou (the You series by Caroline Kepnes). In this novel, though, the narrator isn't deliciously evil. Just stuck in her head and impressed with her own linguistic gymnastics.
* The writing was very distracting to me. Sentences were very long (often 10+ lines) and riddled with commas. I'd say the average sentence had 5 commas. If a sentence were particularly long, I'd count commas. I found two sentences that had 14 (!!!!) commas each. These weren't long lists separated by commas. These were clauses separated by commas.
* Ultimately, I didn't "get" this book. That might be because I was distracted by counting commas or frustrated by the narrator being in her own head. Or I just might not be smart enough.
And, finally, the blurb says this is similar to Shirley Jackson's writing. It is NOT. I'd say it's far closer to Mary Oliver.
* This is very lyrical, if you like lyrical novels. It almost has a rhythm to it.
* Interesting themes are brought up within the book (complicity, animal representation).
* I did like the literal parts of this novel (as opposed to when the narrator is in her own head).
CONs:
* This novel isn't for me. I didn't like the voice. The narrator comes across so holier than thou in parts. I like it if a narrator is deliciously evil and sounds holier than thou (the You series by Caroline Kepnes). In this novel, though, the narrator isn't deliciously evil. Just stuck in her head and impressed with her own linguistic gymnastics.
* The writing was very distracting to me. Sentences were very long (often 10+ lines) and riddled with commas. I'd say the average sentence had 5 commas. If a sentence were particularly long, I'd count commas. I found two sentences that had 14 (!!!!) commas each. These weren't long lists separated by commas. These were clauses separated by commas.
* Ultimately, I didn't "get" this book. That might be because I was distracted by counting commas or frustrated by the narrator being in her own head. Or I just might not be smart enough.
And, finally, the blurb says this is similar to Shirley Jackson's writing. It is NOT. I'd say it's far closer to Mary Oliver.