ihavequalities's reviews
478 reviews

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

mysterious fast-paced

4.5

I do not remember where or why I picked this up but it made for a quick compelling read between. Oyamada’s characters all work at a factory that has no name, but consumes the economic life of the city it sits within. A city in itself. They drift through their work days of meaningless tasks and feelings of frustrations at their situations. Despite having what's expected of them they feel adrift. There’s an eerie quality to the writing, a feeling that something is not quite right in this factory and those who work within it's unfathomable hierarchy. The wildlife has adapted to the factory in unusual ways. The prose is loose, the distinction between interior and exterior blurs, not dreamlike, but rather like the characters are slowly slipping away.

Class Struggle Unionism by Joe Burns

challenging hopeful medium-paced

4.5

The Fisherman by John Langan

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Langan’s narrator Abe spins a yarn about a fishing trip gone wrong with a friend that drew me in completely. It’s a story that constantly twists as he struggles to describe both the immense terror he experienced that day but also the grief that consumed him and his friend after the deaths of the wives years before. As the terror and grief become larger and larger they threaten to consume the men mentally and also physically.

To the Wedding by John Berger

4.0

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

5.0

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

4.0

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

3.0

Dry by Augusten Burroughs

4.0

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

4.0

M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

4.0