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joanaprneves's reviews
47 reviews
The White Album by Joan Didion
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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
3.5
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book but I wonder if it was because it took me back to films such as Alain Renais' Hiroshima Mon amour and books such as Jorge Luis Borges' (a reference for the writer, as much as C S Lewis' Narnia books). I am not entirely convinced that it was as accomplished as 2020 told us it was, but I am also very glad to have read it, especially the first chapters.
The first 100 pages describe the central character, Piranesi, exploring halls and rooms of a seemingly endless house with monumental proportions, decorated with marble statues. The house is inhabited by fish, birds, and two men (including the narrator) and it is regularly swept by tides. Piranesi leaves a reverential, frugal and ritualistic life whereas the other person in the House (what Piranesi calls this strange environment) seems more worldly. In fact, the Other - as he is designated - is described wearing different sleak clothes and a handsome, groomed physique. Moreover, he only sees Piranesi once a week for a few hours, for mysterious, albeit unstructured meetings. This is the first clue that there is more to Piranesi's life than what appears at first.
Some readers seem to struggle with this first part of the book because it is outlandish and the House remains unexplained. However, that was my favourite part. It is beautifully written with a style that reflects Piranesi's innocent mind, but also the meanders of a world where he lives a simple life. There is a lot to say about the character, but the main trait of Piranesi is that he is a disciplined and spiritual person who keeps a record of everything he sees. Therefore we are reading his journal, and not a narrator's voice describing events, which leads to an eschewed view of the House. At about 60 pages in, the reader starts wondering about what is not said or seen and therefore does not make it into the journal, that is, the book. There is a strong possibility that PIranesi might be an unreliable narrator, but by that point the reader may be emotionally entangled with the character.
This is where the book became less fascinating to me and read a bit like Borges fan-fiction and psychological thrillers such as Shutter Island. The latter I am using as a negative reference for me, bcause I find it frustrating to explore serious metal illness as thriller plot hinges, as if schizophrenia was an exciting roller coaster between reality and a deluded mind for the viewer / reader to explore as a treat. Moreover, the strength of Borges' fiction is to provide false literary references or massive ones with an impressive shift of perspective - but it never ever takes you back to a flat reality. Borges' worlds crack your view of the world and are an ode to literary worlding.
In PIranesi, the introduction of a certain magical realism undoes the magic of the first part and turns to story into a whodunnit unnecessarily. The police, the missing person situation, the Stockholm syndrom Piranesi develops with the House, reduce the beautofil world that had been created and turn it into a setting.
However - and this is a big however - knowing that the author suffers from chronic fatigue synrome, and has herself spent many hours in the dark and is unable to communicate at times makes me think that this book describes the state of someone who is literary, or interested in fictional worlds, and uses them to retreat in her own life. Therefore, the toing and froing from the House to reality may stem or have taken root in those worls created by Borges or C S Lewis, but they make sense in a different way for the author. I would loved to have felt this particular experience - of mental health issues and illness - better adressed as a background for Piranesi. Borges used his encyclopaedic knowledge of literature and maths to build strange tales of hypothetical worlds. It seems to me that Clarke is writing from an experience of literary knowledge and a certain physical and mental condition - a bit like Virginia Woolf. I would have loved this to be more apparent.
The first 100 pages describe the central character, Piranesi, exploring halls and rooms of a seemingly endless house with monumental proportions, decorated with marble statues. The house is inhabited by fish, birds, and two men (including the narrator) and it is regularly swept by tides. Piranesi leaves a reverential, frugal and ritualistic life whereas the other person in the House (what Piranesi calls this strange environment) seems more worldly. In fact, the Other - as he is designated - is described wearing different sleak clothes and a handsome, groomed physique. Moreover, he only sees Piranesi once a week for a few hours, for mysterious, albeit unstructured meetings. This is the first clue that there is more to Piranesi's life than what appears at first.
Some readers seem to struggle with this first part of the book because it is outlandish and the House remains unexplained. However, that was my favourite part. It is beautifully written with a style that reflects Piranesi's innocent mind, but also the meanders of a world where he lives a simple life. There is a lot to say about the character, but the main trait of Piranesi is that he is a disciplined and spiritual person who keeps a record of everything he sees. Therefore we are reading his journal, and not a narrator's voice describing events, which leads to an eschewed view of the House. At about 60 pages in, the reader starts wondering about what is not said or seen and therefore does not make it into the journal, that is, the book. There is a strong possibility that PIranesi might be an unreliable narrator, but by that point the reader may be emotionally entangled with the character.
In PIranesi, the introduction of a certain magical realism undoes the magic of the first part and turns to story into a whodunnit unnecessarily. The police, the missing person situation, the Stockholm syndrom Piranesi develops with the House, reduce the beautofil world that had been created and turn it into a setting.
However - and this is a big however - knowing that the author suffers from chronic fatigue synrome, and has herself spent many hours in the dark and is unable to communicate at times makes me think that this book describes the state of someone who is literary, or interested in fictional worlds, and uses them to retreat in her own life. Therefore, the toing and froing from the House to reality may stem or have taken root in those worls created by Borges or C S Lewis, but they make sense in a different way for the author. I would loved to have felt this particular experience - of mental health issues and illness - better adressed as a background for Piranesi. Borges used his encyclopaedic knowledge of literature and maths to build strange tales of hypothetical worlds. It seems to me that Clarke is writing from an experience of literary knowledge and a certain physical and mental condition - a bit like Virginia Woolf. I would have loved this to be more apparent.
The Bell by Iris Murdoch
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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? Yes
4.75
The Bell is a lesson in plot-making and character building. The thing with plot is that 1) you have to anticipate a bit of what’s coming 2) but you also have to be surprised either by the way it’s delivered (not everything is a thriller or a murder mystery) or by one or two plot twists. Murdoch manages to do both. But what I appreciate most is that at the end of the book I am still intrigued by the characters. None of them is stereotypical. And they all maintain an inner world the other characters do not understand and that the reader also is unsure about. Exactly like life. I sometimes think about one of them and wonder how they lived a certain twist in the events within the commune. It is such a powerful modern trait of this book not to go into every single thought the characters have! Characters are never explained, they just manifest through intriguing gesture and attitudes. They are nevertheless cohesive and believable while turning the story into a sort of artifice. The reader knows this is a sort of fictional hypothesis, but full of life, wonder, doubt, introspection, experience, development.
The story builds up to be exactly that, a hypothesis. Imagine a small community gathered close to a nunnery, trying to live a simple life of devotion and as devoid of modern comfort as possible. Some of them are there for different motives (Dora and Nick), which unsettles the peaceful routine of the group. However even some characters, like Michael, who aspire to a spiritual life but are eaten away by their more pedestrian desires, also break the community from within.
There is, however, in one of the plot lines, as aspect of Nabokov’s Lolita (that is, a sexual predatory tendency seen from within) that may be treated with too much detachment for today’s mores and awareness about grooming. Having said that, the way lust and love are rendered in the book is unique as we get to follow the fleeting force of lust and the quiet explosion of love. Also, the “Bell” is a metaphor that evolves along the book, it’s never stereotypical, it’s always intriguing and would make for an interesting debate in a book club. Loved it loved it loved it. Did not give it full marks because of the way homosexuality is referred to - although with total acceptance by the writer who, I believe, was bisexual - and the relations between an adult and a minor which are not flagged as problematic.
The story builds up to be exactly that, a hypothesis. Imagine a small community gathered close to a nunnery, trying to live a simple life of devotion and as devoid of modern comfort as possible. Some of them are there for different motives (Dora and Nick), which unsettles the peaceful routine of the group. However even some characters, like Michael, who aspire to a spiritual life but are eaten away by their more pedestrian desires, also break the community from within.
There is, however, in one of the plot lines, as aspect of Nabokov’s Lolita (that is, a sexual predatory tendency seen from within) that may be treated with too much detachment for today’s mores and awareness about grooming. Having said that, the way lust and love are rendered in the book is unique as we get to follow the fleeting force of lust and the quiet explosion of love. Also, the “Bell” is a metaphor that evolves along the book, it’s never stereotypical, it’s always intriguing and would make for an interesting debate in a book club. Loved it loved it loved it. Did not give it full marks because of the way homosexuality is referred to - although with total acceptance by the writer who, I believe, was bisexual - and the relations between an adult and a minor which are not flagged as problematic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Suicide, and Outing
Luster by Raven Leilani
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a compulsive read. Which I honestly am starting to question. Is that a good thing? The book is very well written to the point where I felt it was almost too well written. I associate this book with Taddeo’s Animal where the writer’s virtuosic writing is too present and thus performative. Sometimes the descriptive somersaults are spot on, and a lot of the times they seem to be there for effect. Same with the plot and the characters. Of course the wife works at the morgue and many scenes will develop there; of course the husband is an archivist, talking on the phone about weird specimens, of course there is a pregnancy and its inevitable miscarriage.
All this while there is very little character development and no real incursion into the characters and their behaviour. The middle-aged characters have the most movie-cliche middle-age crisis, whereas the young twenty-something is critiqued for the instant-validation typical of her generation. Of course the character’s weird behaviour is explained as a journey into becoming an artist. I felt that this was an excuse that prevented a real excursion into trauma, aspirations, sexual desire and the hardships of working terrible jobs.
Just like in Animal, this seems like a very well produced hit song lacking the depth of an indie first album.
All this while there is very little character development and no real incursion into the characters and their behaviour. The middle-aged characters have the most movie-cliche middle-age crisis, whereas the young twenty-something is critiqued for the instant-validation typical of her generation. Of course
Just like in Animal, this seems like a very well produced hit song lacking the depth of an indie first album.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, and Alcohol
Moderate: Infertility, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is a compulsive read because the writing is skillfully unexpected and the story so outlandishly gruesome that you can’t stop. Also, the unhappy, derailed sex.
I presume that this is supposed to be a reverse Lolita (there is one menton to her, as well as Henry Miller). That is, the perspective of the survivor of abusive desire. The planted need of beauty and money to assuage trauma.
However, what makes the book compelling at first - the incredible writing which makes connections that I never thought of and opens emotional depths - becomes mannerist and over the top. The plot unravels rather than unfolds and the end is simply ridiculous. We stop following the character not because she is unlikeable but because the writing suddenly makes her artificial. The plot twists are just that, there is no real necessity for them. At a certain point, you feel too manipulated.
That said, I would still recommend it for the first part and for a few insights into the female psyche. It feels like a book where all the use made of women in narrative - and in life - are crammed together but written from the perspective of the used woman. It’s a pity that the writer felt compelled to overdo it and lose the reader (at least this one) midway.
I presume that this is supposed to be a reverse Lolita (there is one menton to her, as well as Henry Miller). That is, the perspective of the survivor of abusive desire. The planted need of beauty and money to assuage trauma.
However, what makes the book compelling at first - the incredible writing which makes connections that I never thought of and opens emotional depths - becomes mannerist and over the top. The plot unravels rather than unfolds and the end is simply ridiculous. We stop following the character not because she is unlikeable but because the writing suddenly makes her artificial. The plot twists are just that, there is no real necessity for them. At a certain point, you feel too manipulated.
That said, I would still recommend it for the first part and for a few insights into the female psyche. It feels like a book where all the use made of women in narrative - and in life - are crammed together but written from the perspective of the used woman. It’s a pity that the writer felt compelled to overdo it and lose the reader (at least this one) midway.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
The Undying: A Meditation on Modern Illness by Anne Boyer
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.25
I don’t know why this book wasn’t for me. It almost seems unjust to rate it as it is such a raw and beautifully delivered experience. Anne Boyer manages to share her cancer diagnosis and subsequent fall from grace (good health) in a way that doesn’t quite feel like a passage from a pathological state to a healthy one. Her kind of breast cancer is the most agressive and untreatable one, which leaves her at the mercy of a particular kind of calousness of the capitalist American system, and both to an illness and a cure that never really go away even if the cancer clears and she survives. She explores the grey area of an almost-death and a cruel cure where, almost unbelievably, there is a prescribed norm for pain, length of disease and treatment, etc.
This undiluted account is painful and gut-wrenching to read. There are many passages to love and highlight and re-read.
I guess I was perhaps expecting another form of writing. There are a lot of x is y, rather than a descriptive or immersive kind of account. It feels like a balance, delivered in aphorisms at times, rather than a book written with the reader in mind. The author says so herself: this is a book for the sick. She also implies that we have either been there or will be there but her kind of suffering is specific to a kind of cancer (and gendered cancer on top of it). So, it also means that this is a slice of reality that exposes the failings of capitalism and a society that can only understand clear-cut situations. So no, it is not only for the sick. However, this being a painful lived experience the rage is palpable but it does not always makes - for me - a great read. I do recommend it though because it is highly perceptive and an important topic. I suspect that this was not the right moment for me to read it I guess.
This undiluted account is painful and gut-wrenching to read. There are many passages to love and highlight and re-read.
I guess I was perhaps expecting another form of writing. There are a lot of x is y, rather than a descriptive or immersive kind of account. It feels like a balance, delivered in aphorisms at times, rather than a book written with the reader in mind. The author says so herself: this is a book for the sick. She also implies that we have either been there or will be there but her kind of suffering is specific to a kind of cancer (and gendered cancer on top of it). So, it also means that this is a slice of reality that exposes the failings of capitalism and a society that can only understand clear-cut situations. So no, it is not only for the sick. However, this being a painful lived experience the rage is palpable but it does not always makes - for me - a great read. I do recommend it though because it is highly perceptive and an important topic. I suspect that this was not the right moment for me to read it I guess.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The title of the book describes what it feels like reading it. It is a small pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless, especially the first part. I found that once the story was settled and the plot established, the solution of the main mystery was obvious and the passion between two of its characters predictable albeit sweet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
La Honte by Annie Ernaux
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.25
This is my first Annie Ernaux book, surprisingly. I had picked it up when I was about 18 years old and studying in Paris but thought it was too feminine (I was clearly not yet a feminist and not used to reading female voices). I regret not having tried more. Instead, I gave in to Marguerite Duras who, I find, hasn't aged as well and caters to the male gaze quite a lot (but I may have to review this opinion, based on old readings).
It seems incredible to me that this was published in 1997. Or perhaps not. Published authors were allowed to be much more playful, to break the 4th wall (if you can apply this to writing), to deconstruct memoir narratives etc. I love this book because it is an attempt to write a book, and not a kind of storytelling that flattens the thing-you-want-to-talk-about to make it palatable, which is the problem in a lot of popular fiction nowadays. Ernaux shares her hesitations, a conflicted view of writing about an abyssal experience for her when she was 12 years old, that propelled her into a fear that no one ever bothered to take away from her. But this episode is the central part of a cluster of other indignities: children live a very social life, they go to school, they are constantly judged and appraised and therefore, they unveil the inequities of a society that separates according to class and money. Shame and shaming become part of their world, a sort of abject feeling one avoids in order to keep living. This is what this book is about, and it is marvellous in its impossibility to become a Story. It is a sharp, fragmented form of writing, where the author tries her best to expose everything while still needing to parenthesise, to explain, to contextualise some feelings, impressions. She makes a big effort never to explain, never to make it a story about growth. Because, as she says very well, shame never leaves you. You can understand it, regret it in hindsight, recognise what your shame was a mechanism of, but it never really fades. I loved this book and only wish it could have gone on longer, thus the 0.75 missing marks for a full blown five star review.
It seems incredible to me that this was published in 1997. Or perhaps not. Published authors were allowed to be much more playful, to break the 4th wall (if you can apply this to writing), to deconstruct memoir narratives etc. I love this book because it is an attempt to write a book, and not a kind of storytelling that flattens the thing-you-want-to-talk-about to make it palatable, which is the problem in a lot of popular fiction nowadays. Ernaux shares her hesitations, a conflicted view of writing about an abyssal experience for her when she was 12 years old, that propelled her into a fear that no one ever bothered to take away from her. But this episode is the central part of a cluster of other indignities: children live a very social life, they go to school, they are constantly judged and appraised and therefore, they unveil the inequities of a society that separates according to class and money. Shame and shaming become part of their world, a sort of abject feeling one avoids in order to keep living. This is what this book is about, and it is marvellous in its impossibility to become a Story. It is a sharp, fragmented form of writing, where the author tries her best to expose everything while still needing to parenthesise, to explain, to contextualise some feelings, impressions. She makes a big effort never to explain, never to make it a story about growth. Because, as she says very well, shame never leaves you. You can understand it, regret it in hindsight, recognise what your shame was a mechanism of, but it never really fades. I loved this book and only wish it could have gone on longer, thus the 0.75 missing marks for a full blown five star review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This book is brutal. It dissects the mind and heart of a confident woman who broke in two when she had her two daughters, never to feel whole again, like all sensible parents. She did two questionable things in her life, one in the past and the other during this vacation at the beach where she fixated on a young mother (the character is a 48 year old woman with two young adult kids).
The title is incredibly clever as all the characters can be the « lost daughter ». Mothers, grand-daughters, daughters. It hints at the complexity of the main character whose guilt and bitterness takes over during what should be a calm and studious holiday. We find out that she is of a social background she tried to free herself from, that she grew apart from her histrionic mother who threatened to leave all the time and had no patience, that her second daughter was born when she was building a career that her husband sacrificed mindlessly while building his own, that she grew apart from him too. This is, however, never explained and only unfolds slowly, through a rawness of feeling that leaves the main character over-exposed to the harsh scrutiny she imposed on herself. I wonder if a more distracted male reader will pick up the lithany of frustrations she endured, both self-imposed and societal. A deadly combination. At the end, the game
of projections she plays with the young mother is a dangerous one that pushes her to the limit and destabilizes her. It’s such an honest book, such a vulnerable character that I can hardly believe someone had the guts to explore feminine ambition, frustration and visceral love the way Ferrante has.
The title is incredibly clever as all the characters can be the « lost daughter ». Mothers, grand-daughters, daughters. It hints at the complexity of the main character whose guilt and bitterness takes over during what should be a calm and studious holiday. We find out that
of projections she plays with the young mother is a dangerous one that pushes her to the limit and destabilizes her. It’s such an honest book, such a vulnerable character that I can hardly believe someone had the guts to explore feminine ambition, frustration and visceral love the way Ferrante has.
Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I am personally invested in any narrative about a middle-class immigrant trying to accept the constant divide between being from somewhere far and also belonging to where one lives without completely adhering to any of those versions.
This is what I expected from this novel but I had no idea that I would encounter an experimental format which made me assimilate a story, feelings, memories in a way that a linear narrative could not endeavour to. Many people say they could not put the book down, which I understand. It is mesmerizing to notice how much the narrative voice conveys through fragments, to the point where one wonders why linear narratives exist.
There is no story so to speak although one wonders if the end was what the narrator was building towards, a discovery of queerness as in-betweenness of culture but from a sexual perspective. It is also a shame that the book ends so abruptly and one only wishes that there is a sequence to the story, an exploration of a body that is starting to know itself.
The reason why this is not a 5 start review is simply that there are a few grammatical slips here and there. When one opts for an experimental format, it needs to be impeccable and even when there were no mistakes, some repetitions, hesitations, badly used words were clunky in some ways and disconnected me from the narrative.
However, as Portuguese speaker, I love how the author reinvented the English language through the prism of the Portuguese language. I picked up here and there expressions, syntax, that were derivative from another language and it sometimes took me to my home country - that no man’s land between country of birth and country of life. It made me think of Abdellah Taia’s peose, which doesn’t try to be perfect or to stick to the original rules. It is twisted by the usage of foreigners and for that reason becomes richer, more elastic, with more plasticity, reflecting the lives of others.
This is what I expected from this novel but I had no idea that I would encounter an experimental format which made me assimilate a story, feelings, memories in a way that a linear narrative could not endeavour to. Many people say they could not put the book down, which I understand. It is mesmerizing to notice how much the narrative voice conveys through fragments, to the point where one wonders why linear narratives exist.
There is no story so to speak although one wonders
The reason why this is not a 5 start review is simply that there are a few grammatical slips here and there. When one opts for an experimental format, it needs to be impeccable and even when there were no mistakes, some repetitions, hesitations, badly used words were clunky in some ways and disconnected me from the narrative.
However, as Portuguese speaker, I love how the author reinvented the English language through the prism of the Portuguese language. I picked up here and there expressions, syntax, that were derivative from another language and it sometimes took me to my home country - that no man’s land between country of birth and country of life. It made me think of Abdellah Taia’s peose, which doesn’t try to be perfect or to stick to the original rules. It is twisted by the usage of foreigners and for that reason becomes richer, more elastic, with more plasticity, reflecting the lives of others.
Content Warnings
Minor: Abortion