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bobo_smrad's reviews
81 reviews
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
emotional
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Quite different from Arnott's first two novels - Limberlost is a moving slice of life story explored from several angles in time and space. There are no apparent instances of the fantastic as in Flames and The Rain Heron, but Arnott's prose is always infused with a sort of magic which makes even the mundane seem dream-like.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Violence
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation
Moderate: Xenophobia and Racism
Minor: Gun violence
An astounding feat by the author. A stellar read!
and...I cired at the end...quite a bit...
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Racism
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
dark
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
This is an amazing book for anyone who can stomach really graphic and horrible content in the works they read.
The following is a sort of messy review/thesis of interpretation with lots of spoilers.
<Spoilers>
The thematic core of Blood Meridian are the characters of the Judge and the Kid
Their conflict is actually the result of their opposing attitudes towards the pervasive violence in the book.
Both characters are defined by violence, but for the Kid it is a constant in life from which he cannot, or maybe does not want, to escape, while for the Judge it is a choice and the purpose of his being. The Judge thus symbolically becomes the embodiment of this constant that persues the Kid.
The trajectory of his life was determined by the violence of his youth and his flight from home, the violence of White's filibusters and the Apache, the violence of Glanton's gang, and specifically by the Judge who seeks to bind him to himself and his philosophy.
On one occasion, the Judge influences the Kid's choice in drawing arrows with his gaze, and so, as if he somehow knew what was to come, changes the sequence of events in the Kid's life. He might have otherwise died in the next confrontation with the Mexican army.
The judge may be supernatural, but it's more interesting if it's not clear. He is inspired by Satan, but he makes a much more terrible devil if he is a man.
It seems like an attempt to define Evil as a man, capable and talented, who sees war and conflict as sacred,. He sees conflict, violence and bloodshed as the purpose of man's existence - war that encompasses all and actually makes a difference in the world.
The Kid was killed in the jakes because he was unwilling or , more likely, unable to stand up for his own philosophy - he passively left Evil alive, missing every opportunity to define himself as a positive force in the world.
Even fate (at least seemingly) sided with him, saving his life on multiple occasions and leading him to a biblically charged burning tree in the desert.
In front of the tree he was the equal of scorpions and lizards of the desert, one among the small, without the will to dominate them as is the urge of the judge.
The Kid eventually becomes the Man, and continues to show compassion such as would not be found among Glanton's gang (the husk of the Abuelita in the desert).
Nevertheless, traveling towards Griffin he kills a young man who was a mirror image of his past, his innocence and potential.
He was forced to, but he killed his future anyway - you could say the point is that there is no victory over evil (war, conflict, violence) and that that's why all bears die, both those who dance and those who do not.
The judge criticized him for being a traitor, too merciful to the enemy. Perhaps that is why it is correct to interpret that the Kid was not as bloodthirsty and brutal as the others.
This is never stated in the text, neither is the death or fate of the Kid/Man. There even exists the interpretation that the the Kid was the implied serial child predator of the story, not the Judge. This reading goes well with the idea of the final merging, at least metaphorically, of the Kid and the Judge into one being. The victory of violence in the time of the coming civil war or the victory of the Judge's spirit in the heart of humanity in general.
McCarthy leaves ample room for a variety of interpretations with varying degrees of pessimism about human nature.
The book is full of examples of the appalling violence and corruption of the human race, but also moments of quiet and serenity in between the instances of violence (The Kid in the mountains, the first of the beings there touched by the light of the sun; The Kid in front of a burning tree, equal to the tiny creatures hidden in the niches of the desert; The Kid on a beach in San Diego, free from the violence of the Glanton gang and silently looking into the blood-coloured horizon).
There are also examples of the Kid's mercy to some of the Glanton gang members, the almost brotherly camaraderie shared with Toadvine and Tobin, the rescue of Tobin and the Kid by the native Dieguenos.
As for the topic of race in the work, some postcolonial readings are available.
It's hard for me to visualize the judge without thinking of the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, and the director's comment that the ogre isn't Pale for no reason.
The judge can indeed be seen as the embodiment of the colonialist spirit or some form lf white supremacy. He wants to be suzerain over all the world and is offended by the freedom of beings he cannot rule over. On one occasion, we see the Judge copying pictures off of stones in the wilderness, probably the work of some indigenous group. After recording them and thereby appropriating them for himself, he erases the originals from the stone. Thus erasing the history of an indigenous culture while retaining the one written by his own hand, thus stealing the foundations for new narratives from the original inhabitants.
But this reading seems incomplete because, although the Judge and the rest of the Glanton gang advocate hegemony over other people, their racism (certainly present) is inconsistent and their criteria change from moment to moment. They sold as many Mexican scalps as they did Indian ones, and they cooperated with whatever people they could so long as they stood to profit.
Among them rode both whites and Mexicans, as well as four Delaware natives and John Jackson (a Black man).
In the end, the supremacy of violent and ruthless people over the weak seems more thematically relevant than any race or nation's hegemony over another.
The book is not a complete negation of human goodness, but it is predominantly focused on the evil and violence the Judge advocates as the noble game for which man was created.
The point is that the text can be traversed in all directions, but it doesn't really reject more hopeful or les pessimistic interpretations.
McCarthy's work is written with deliberate gaps that give it endless potential for rereadings and new interpretations.
Which is why I recommend -even if you've already read the book - read it again!
The following is a sort of messy review/thesis of interpretation with lots of spoilers.
<Spoilers>
The thematic core of Blood Meridian are the characters of the Judge and the Kid
Their conflict is actually the result of their opposing attitudes towards the pervasive violence in the book.
Both characters are defined by violence, but for the Kid it is a constant in life from which he cannot, or maybe does not want, to escape, while for the Judge it is a choice and the purpose of his being. The Judge thus symbolically becomes the embodiment of this constant that persues the Kid.
The trajectory of his life was determined by the violence of his youth and his flight from home, the violence of White's filibusters and the Apache, the violence of Glanton's gang, and specifically by the Judge who seeks to bind him to himself and his philosophy.
On one occasion, the Judge influences the Kid's choice in drawing arrows with his gaze, and so, as if he somehow knew what was to come, changes the sequence of events in the Kid's life. He might have otherwise died in the next confrontation with the Mexican army.
The judge may be supernatural, but it's more interesting if it's not clear. He is inspired by Satan, but he makes a much more terrible devil if he is a man.
It seems like an attempt to define Evil as a man, capable and talented, who sees war and conflict as sacred,. He sees conflict, violence and bloodshed as the purpose of man's existence - war that encompasses all and actually makes a difference in the world.
The Kid was killed in the jakes because he was unwilling or , more likely, unable to stand up for his own philosophy - he passively left Evil alive, missing every opportunity to define himself as a positive force in the world.
Even fate (at least seemingly) sided with him, saving his life on multiple occasions and leading him to a biblically charged burning tree in the desert.
In front of the tree he was the equal of scorpions and lizards of the desert, one among the small, without the will to dominate them as is the urge of the judge.
The Kid eventually becomes the Man, and continues to show compassion such as would not be found among Glanton's gang (the husk of the Abuelita in the desert).
Nevertheless, traveling towards Griffin he kills a young man who was a mirror image of his past, his innocence and potential.
He was forced to, but he killed his future anyway - you could say the point is that there is no victory over evil (war, conflict, violence) and that that's why all bears die, both those who dance and those who do not.
The judge criticized him for being a traitor, too merciful to the enemy. Perhaps that is why it is correct to interpret that the Kid was not as bloodthirsty and brutal as the others.
This is never stated in the text, neither is the death or fate of the Kid/Man. There even exists the interpretation that the the Kid was the implied serial child predator of the story, not the Judge. This reading goes well with the idea of the final merging, at least metaphorically, of the Kid and the Judge into one being. The victory of violence in the time of the coming civil war or the victory of the Judge's spirit in the heart of humanity in general.
McCarthy leaves ample room for a variety of interpretations with varying degrees of pessimism about human nature.
The book is full of examples of the appalling violence and corruption of the human race, but also moments of quiet and serenity in between the instances of violence (The Kid in the mountains, the first of the beings there touched by the light of the sun; The Kid in front of a burning tree, equal to the tiny creatures hidden in the niches of the desert; The Kid on a beach in San Diego, free from the violence of the Glanton gang and silently looking into the blood-coloured horizon).
There are also examples of the Kid's mercy to some of the Glanton gang members, the almost brotherly camaraderie shared with Toadvine and Tobin, the rescue of Tobin and the Kid by the native Dieguenos.
As for the topic of race in the work, some postcolonial readings are available.
It's hard for me to visualize the judge without thinking of the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, and the director's comment that the ogre isn't Pale for no reason.
The judge can indeed be seen as the embodiment of the colonialist spirit or some form lf white supremacy. He wants to be suzerain over all the world and is offended by the freedom of beings he cannot rule over. On one occasion, we see the Judge copying pictures off of stones in the wilderness, probably the work of some indigenous group. After recording them and thereby appropriating them for himself, he erases the originals from the stone. Thus erasing the history of an indigenous culture while retaining the one written by his own hand, thus stealing the foundations for new narratives from the original inhabitants.
But this reading seems incomplete because, although the Judge and the rest of the Glanton gang advocate hegemony over other people, their racism (certainly present) is inconsistent and their criteria change from moment to moment. They sold as many Mexican scalps as they did Indian ones, and they cooperated with whatever people they could so long as they stood to profit.
Among them rode both whites and Mexicans, as well as four Delaware natives and John Jackson (a Black man).
In the end, the supremacy of violent and ruthless people over the weak seems more thematically relevant than any race or nation's hegemony over another.
The book is not a complete negation of human goodness, but it is predominantly focused on the evil and violence the Judge advocates as the noble game for which man was created.
The point is that the text can be traversed in all directions, but it doesn't really reject more hopeful or les pessimistic interpretations.
McCarthy's work is written with deliberate gaps that give it endless potential for rereadings and new interpretations.
Which is why I recommend -even if you've already read the book - read it again!
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25