oofym's reviews
114 reviews

Flush by Virginia Woolf

lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

This was surprisingly good, I'm not sure why I'm surprised that Virginia Woolf's writing is good, but nevertheless it exceeded my expectations. Flush is a sweet and reflective semi-non-fictional biography of a cocker spaniel, written as if the narrator understands Flush's thoughts and motivations. This set up leads to such a unique little book, reflective at moments, joyful in others, sad in spots and aspects of commentary on class and sex seep through in-between the gaps.

This was great, I don't have much to write about as I don't really have any complaints and it's a fairly short story. It was written perfectly and is exactly how it should be, I think Woolf placed all the right words in all the right spots.

I'd definitely recommend it, if 2024 was the year of Dostoyevsky's White Nights, then maybe 2025 should be the year of Virginia Woolf's Flush.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

 “It's true though: time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night" 

After Dark is certainly what I call a "vibe" book, yeah there's not that much plot or character development going on, but my goodness the ambiance and atmosphere in this are compelling. I think this might be Murakami's best writing in terms of pure descriptive talents, yes wind-up bird has more mystery, and Kafka has a more entertaining plot, but After Dark really sucks you into the setting of being in the dead of night of Tokyo city. The first page is genuinely one of my favourite starts to a book I've ever read, so props for that Murakami.

I think a lot of people in their reviews/criticisms are missing a crucial element of the novel; that being the theme of Dualism, almost to the point where it reminds me of Manicheism. There's frequent talk in the story of the living element the night, sleep and the dark possess. Characters discuss feeling like at any moment they might slip out of the safety of the logical daytime world and find themselves plunging into Alice's rabbit hole with no thought in the world of how they might ever return. It's trippy, I love it.

“Let me tell you something, Mari. The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you've had it: things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on, living alone down there in the darkness...”

Parallel realities exist in After Dark, not only in the separation between every sunset and sunrise, but also in mirrors, in reflections.
I love ambiguous stories, After Dark is very ambiguous. I understand other reader's frustrations, but honestly, it's a story you have to be reading for the vibes and the utter strangeness of it.

"Eyes mark the shape of the city."

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

informative inspiring reflective

I really needed to read this, I absolutely love when you find a book at the exact, perfect moment of your life; divine intervention perhaps? 

Me and Lewis seem to be on a similar wavelength when it comes to the question of Christian faith and I’m glad I got to read something by an older, wiser and more experienced man who thinks about the same sort of questions I constantly find myself pondering over. 

The way Lewis describes the train of thought in reaching God, then Christ and then all the good that follows from that is just so well put. This little book is filled with bangers to be honest. 

I especially love the chapters on… no I pretty much liked all the chapters equally. I’ll certainly give Lewis credit for making me think about pride, charity, sexual morality and life’s meaning in new ways that I was never able to quite put the words or thoughts to. 

I’m very happy stuff like this exists, I’m grateful. Although I don’t agree with everything Lewis says and his constant use of analogies was sometimes annoying, overall this was such an important work for me to read. Being able to distil Christianity and God down into simple metaphors sometimes feels a little cheap, but it’s also invaluable in terms of helping an unfamiliar person understand the concepts of belief and Christianity. 

Would read again. 

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

An Artist of the floating world was my first foray into Kazuo Ishiguro’s works and well; I liked it. I find this era of Japan very interesting to explore, in fact it’s why I liked “The Setting Sun” by Osamu Dazai so much. However Ishiguro is exploring it in a very different way in this novel, the protagonist is an elderly man called Masuji Ono that seems to be stuck in this strange middle ground between feeling regret for what he contributed to Japan’s nationalism, and also feeling a sense of pride and honour in it at the same time. This novel focuses heavily on trivialities and uncertain memories, it’s very slow paced, but that does add to the melancholic nostalgia the story emits. Like I said this is the first book I’ve read by Kazuo Ishiguro so I’m not sure if this is a trademark of his or not, nevertheless I noticed that the dialogue was very circular, characters essentially repeat their statements over and over again while slowly making ground, it’s like a chess game where the goal is to eliminate pawns rather than achieve a quick checkmate. Whether you like this style of dialogue or not is complete personal opinion and I find myself falling somewhere in the middle, I think it works sometimes, other times it feels tedious; either way it contributes further to the story’s slow pace. 

I really loved how the characters are presented, there’s something very human about the way they act and think. Despite most of the novel taking place is Ono’s head, the people who he interacts with really take on a life of their own; and to accomplish that while still keeping events rather mundane is a tricky art to pull off, so respect to Ishiguro for doing so. 

In terms of writing style, I don’t have much to criticize, although I also don’t have much to enthusiastically appraise either; descriptively it’s beautiful in moments but subdued enough to never really make you go “Wow” like other author's prose can. (Of course this is all just my opinion, as any review is.) There is something special here however, and perhaps I’m just not quite mature enough to see the restrained artistry in it, in fact I almost know I’m not, this is certainly a book I know I’d feel closer to if I read it again when I’m much older. I saw one reviewer describe the feeling of reading it as “Soft mist rising from the pages”, and I think that’s a lovingly apt analogy. 

The theme of the story and the implied meaning is a delicate one, I really love Ishiguro for not providing a solid answer on whether we should lament or appraise Ono’s actions, instead it’s a grey area. On one hand Ono quite possibly contributed to Japan’s growing zealous nationalism and he could have inspired young men to chuck away their lives in the war. On the other hand, he understands what he did in the past was probably not for the best, but he was also only doing what seemed right at the time, doing what his culture and society expected of him. As a young man he held lofty hopes for his art and his country, the last thing he wanted was to be mediocre, he needed to pursue something greater, even if there was a risk involved. As he himself puts it: “When one holds convictions deeply enough, there surely comes a point when it is despicable to prevaricate further.” Following that up with: “If one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try, there is a consolation- indeed, a deep satisfaction- to be gained from this observation when looking back over one’s life.” 

What this all gets me thinking about is something I've found on my mind on numerous occasions in the past; what is normal and accepted now that in fifty years time my children or grandchildren will disparage and tell me off for? It seems nuts to me to hold someone from a different time, society and culture to the exact social conventions of the current year, we like to laugh at our elders for things they thought were normal during their day, but there will inevitably come a day when our youth laugh and criticize us. To me, this novel perfectly exemplifies the best way to go about things as a person from a bygone time; reflect and truly engage in self-introspection. There will undoubtedly be things the youth are correct on, as Ono realises, but there will also be things that there is no need to persecute yourself over. Like hauling up a medieval peasant and telling him off for believing in king and country, it’s a pointless and far too morally righteous position to hold. 

At the end of the day, like many things, the most “correct” answer to this dilemma lies somewhere in the middle. Don’t feel self-guilt to the point where you literally take your own life as an apology to others, (As people around Ono do) but also don’t refuse to feel any regret at all. Reflect, correct and move on. 

Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard

challenging reflective

This was a tough one. Although I didn't technically finish it, I'm counting it as finished due to the fact that reading the introduction (Written by an expert on Kierkegaard), plus half of the book, was more than enough for me to get the core philosophical concept. Because of the stellar introduction; as I made my way through Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling" I felt like I was walking over already well tread ground. I'll be honest too; I understood the summary of what Kierkegaard was trying to say in this much better than what Kierkegaard actually said, his writing is convoluted and very repetitive.

With the preamble out of the way, I can say that I really did enjoy this glimpse into Kierkegaard's philosophy on faith and ethics. It helped me better understand my own views and formulate more coherent takes on certain aspects of faith. However, at the end of the day, I feel that what Kierkegaard is attempting to say is actually rather simple, he's just making it endlessly elaborate and purposely obfuscated.
At the core of Fear and Trembling is this phrase:
 “Faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off.” 

And you can pretty much leave it there in my opinion, the leap of faith is just that, it's a leap away from reason and into something higher and much trickier to understand. Kierkegaard himself says that in the end; the power, mystique and the beauty of Abraham's faith is one which he does not understand and yet aspires towards.
Take the leap of faith or don't. If you can do it, you can do it. If you can't, you can't.

The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin
Did not finish book. Stopped at 36%.

Me when there's a ridiculous, unrealistic, graphic and pointless smut scene a third of the way into my book 🤓👍

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

emotional sad tense medium-paced

This book was a finely crafted, mini masterpiece in my humble little opinion. It was tight. Wharton fills every page with exactly what needs to be on it to provide an engaging and beautiful concoction of characters, emotions and setting. Ethan Frome is bleak and borderline claustrophobic, the trapped in setting of a rural village cut off by snow, and the out of the way farmhouse inhabited by three people who certainly don't get along very well with their current arrangement. It all provides for a story that hooked me from the first page to the last.

I see people complaining about the ending, which I don't understand as a criticism, I think the ending works perfectly. Ethan and Mattie realise they can't escape their rather miserable fates in the material world, so they opt for a lover's suicide instead. But it turns into an even more depressing parallel to Romeo and Juliet, it turns into suicidal ideations biggest nightmare: What if you don't die? And instead cripple yourself for life. This is what happens to the pair, and they end up back on the farmhouse with the testy, difficult Zeena looking after them, who happens to be Ethan's wife. A crippled pair of forbidden lovers, trapped in a place they don't wish to be, taken care of by a woman they don't want to be taken care of, and unable to express their love. What a horrible fate.

The reason this ending works perfectly is because it's a terrific example of what Wharton was primarily concerned about when it came to the poor rural folk. She thought about how horribly stuck they were in life due to a lack of money; they're forced into conditions and destinies because they simply don't have the cash to up and leave. Ethan Frome's ending makes you really contemplate this unfortunate dilemma; that Mattie and Ethan's fates would have worked out a lot happier if they'd just had a bit of money.

The descriptive writing talent Wharton possesses shined throughout this entire novella, I was honestly incredibly surprised and impressed, and just for that skill alone I'll have to read more of her works in the future. There's this ethereal, almost cosmic ambience to the setting of Ethan Frome, all due to Edith's masterful word craft. 

Long story short: Read this, let yourself be fully consumed by the atmosphere, and while reading ask yourself this question the whole time: Would this story be as miserable if these characters had access to more financial means?

The Liar by Martin A. Hansen

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Liar by Martin A. Hansen was certainly one of my weirder reads this year. You’ve got yourself an unreliable narrator in Johannes Lye; a schoolteacher who’s stuck in an existential rut between nihilism and spirituality. Then there’s the writing style; no quotation marks, poems interlaced throughout the narrative, and it’s an epistolary novel set on a tiny Danish island to top it all off. 

I really enjoyed my time with this, I took it very slow, wrote A LOT of notes (4000 words), and I very much appreciate the rather innovative and subtle artistry which Hansen weaves throughout this dream-like domestic tale. 

The amount of philosophy, morality, existentialism, mystery and emotional drama included in The Liar is the absolute perfect sweet spot for me, it’s the goldilocks zone. My major takeaway after my reading is that Hansen, through Johannes Lye, is trying to show the harm of a spiritual no-man’s-land and the restlessness that this can cause particular people. 

“When you get to the very utmost point of that despair and pointlessness, you discover that life is one huge battleground in which two powers are locked in eternal combat. No-man’s-land doesn’t exist.” 

Johannes states that this in-between zone of good and evil doesn’t exist, but the story says otherwise. Johannes is the exemplification of this grey area. He deceives others, pursues passions of the flesh, is borderline possessed by some evil spirit at one point, and yet he also, out of the kindness of his heart takes an abandoned pregnant woman into his home, loves his dog, cares for the people of the village and finds great joy in his job at the school. Because of this strange contradictory personality he has, he feels as if he’s a stranger on the Island, impermanent and unimportant. 

All humans commit good and bad deeds, but when a human believes in nothing greater than themselves, they start to see the utter unreliability of their own character, they start to question the point of all their actions, and most never come to a conclusion. It feels obvious to me that throughout the story Johannes is seeking the presence and comfort of God. He directs his diary entries to a made-up character named “Nathaniel”, and Johannes explicitly mentions that he views him as the biblical disciple of Jesus who is incapable of deceit, and throughout the novel Johannes desires Nathaniel’s attention and seems to constantly beg him to listen to him. The way Johannes writes to this fictitious Nathaniel is the exact same way a person would try to speak to God or something higher than themselves. Johannes often asks Nathaniel not to judge him too harshly, he asks for Nathaniel’s opinion and he seeks his presence on all tricky matters of spirituality. You could replace the world Nathaniel with God, Jesus, Buddha or Allah and nothing about this novel would change in the slightest. 

We see throughout the story the turmoil Johannes’s existentialism and borderline nihilism cause him, the alienation he feels at having nothing to tie himself too. Without recounting the entire story, we see a change in Johannes in his last diary entry. He quite literally begins it with. 

“Pigro is dead (his dog). Now I’ve only God in whom I can place my trust.” 

Johannes now seeks something more permanent, he still sees the supposed meaningless in human behaviour and activities, but now he wishes to tie himself to the land in some way. He’s taken up a project to document the Island’s history, residents and geographical features. It’s given him a bit of purpose, and it appears that he worries a little less about the women and events that were pulling him in every which way. But still, he’s not entirely at ease, he says at one point that he often thinks about drinking himself into oblivion. Johannes, despite his attempt to create his own meaning, still isn’t content, he’s still in that spiritual no-man’s-land. 

I suppose the argument of the story, is that to stake your entire life on things that are impermanent or purely material is a foolish endeavour, one must cling to something eternal or everlasting, something with grand meaning. If we give in to fickle human emotions at every opportunity we become like Johannes was in his notebooks; deceitful, manic and “The Liar.” 

“Maybe that’s another reason why I’ve written the words “The Liar” in my other notebooks that deal with my own life. Because what I have depicted therein sails past you and me like the shifting clouds in the sky. Loose, everchanging and drifting. Never permanent.” 

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

fast-paced

2.5

This was disappointing in all honesty. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is one of those books that has an interesting premise with a lot of potential but fails to really deliver on any of it. Perhaps it's because lately I've been engaging in a lot of theology, philosophy and metaphysics; but Siddhartha just felt really simple and childish in comparison to other things out there that deal with similar spiritual topics.

I feel like this is such a popular book for a couple reasons which I'll quickly go over.
1: Easy writing style. No kidding, I was shocked going from Steppenwolf by Hesse to this, Siddhartha is very, very readable in comparison, but not in a good way, it's bland and pretty unengaging. When you're dealing with topics such as universal unity, reincarnation and the beauty of the world; you have such an opportunity to show off your writing chops, go crazy with descriptive metaphors and allegories, whip out the dictionary. But no, the most famous Buddhist-inspired fiction book requires the reading comprehension of a 5th grader.
2: It tells you everything you want to hear, especially if you're a teenager. Life sucks? Parental control got you feeling down? Just run away from it all and "Find your own way". Also, there's no bad or good in the world, everything just is. Murder and rape? Don't worry about it, it just is. Plus, Women are sexual objects that will want to immediately have sex with you if you're chill and act like you're wiser than them.
3: The spiritual guidance of Siddhartha is the most generic and repeated "White guy tells you about eastern Asian mysticism" slop you've ever heard. How do you achieve spiritual purity, everlasting calm? Stare into a river and say "Om". Not kidding. Also, what does the world need? More love. Yeah, we get it Siddhartha, Peace and love, like we don't all know that already.

This book reminded me of The Alchemist a lot. It's fictional self-help for teenagers and adults who've barely read anything before. But, let me go over the main themes of the book for fairness' sake.

Self-discovery/Wisdom through experience, not knowledge.
A major theme of the novel is this belief Siddhartha has that knowledge and teachers are essentially useless, and to really know the world and how everything works, we must instead seek it through experience. This is fine, I somewhat agree to an extent, But the novel has a sort of self-defeating prophecy as the last thing Siddhartha does is attempt to preach and teach a fellow spiritual person. Also, Siddhartha's experience with the world is very, VERY unrealistic. We just know that as a kid he's smart, and then he becomes an ascetic monk, which we hear pretty much nothing about apart from the fact he doesn't really eat. Then he meets the Buddha and is like "Hm cool". Then he has sex with a lady and wears nice clothes for a decade. Then he's like "I've had enough of this" and goes and lives next to a river for the rest of his life.
If my description sounds weird and simple, that's because it's reflecting the tone and pacing of the actual novel. Everything in this book so obviously occurs for the sake of the plot, people randomly rock up, die, have sex, and all these other events occur with no logic or depth behind them, they simply happen to progress Siddhartha's sloppy discovery story.

The interconnectedness/unity of everything.
See, this was the part that could have been very interesting. Judging by other reviews some people did find this part of the story groundbreaking for their personal worldviews, but again, I feel like that would only be the case if you've never been exposed to this concept before.
Siddhartha has this revelation towards the end of the book, and although we do get one decent metaphor about a rock and the river, that's it. When you're trying to convince or show a reader a concept like the infinite chain of cause and effect, or about how everything blends into everything else; it's ok to spend more than a few pages on the topic. Instead, we get: "Rock is rock, but rock become soil, soil become plant, plant feed cow, cow feed human, human die, human become soil."
Great, cool idea, write about it with more depth next time.

In conclusion.
Siddhartha isn't egregiously bad or anything, it's only egregiously surface level. Baby's first spirituality. I'm honestly really glad this book has helped other people, that's great, if a book like this can grant you a profound understanding of the world and inner peace then all the power to you. I just didn't see any ideas or concepts that ancient humans two-thousand years before Herman Hesse hadn't already discussed. Plus, the pacing is really bad and the characters are bland. Ka-Chow.

The Black Monk by Anton Chekhov

challenging mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 

The Black Monk 

Genuinely the best short story I’ve ever read, the only story I’ve read four times in one year, and I doubt anything will ever top it. Every time I read this it cements its meaning deeper and deeper in my psyche and I’m always the better for it, I really should keep it on me at all times in case I’m having a crisis. As someone who’s been afflicted with “Mental illness” and dealt with many things I struggle to understand; the story of the black monk always makes me realise how a person like myself should go through life, how they should perceive it, and what they should prioritise. 

It's a question of faith and perception. 

What is real? How can we truly quantify what exists and what doesn’t? As René Descartes's once said “Cogito, ergo sum.” = “I think, therefore I am.” This is his basis for his philosophy and it’s the closest anyone has ever gotten to establishing a foundation for the evidence of “the self”. Our lives are entirely lived through our senses and perceptions, we cannot import ourselves into the brain of a bird, nor another person, and we certainly aren’t omnipotent; therefore our understanding of life can only be our opinion, but as our opinion, the self, is the only thing we can truly understand as being “real”, anything we believe in, anything we choose to perceive, is as real as anything else. True proof of anything apart from “I am, I think, I exist”, is a fallacy. Language is limiting, we all understand that, but we often don’t stop to realise that our senses are also limited, our brains are also limited. Science is the field of attempting to understand every aspect of the universe through the lens of the human brain, as the human brain does not possess the ability of omniscience, we will never understand the universe. So, how do you process all of this without having a complete existential crisis? Well, you go back to Descartes’s axiom, you build a foundation upon that. 

It’s a philosophy of: The only thing I know to be real is my own opinion, and my opinion is entirely up to me, therefore reality is whatever I want it to be. 

The story of the black monk is incredible in of itself. It tells the tale of an overly conscious and nervous man called Kovrin trying to find his way through life, he visits friends in a rural estate to recover his mental stability but in the process begins to see the figure of a monk dressed in black who offers him guidance. The man knows the monk is a hallucination, and the monk himself admits he is purely a figment of the imagination, but he also offers this little nugget of metaphysical philosophy. “I exist in your imagination, and your imagination is part of nature, which means that I too, exist in nature.” 

The protagonist is filled with happiness and hope by his encounters with the monk, but he also understands that other people would think him crazy for his beliefs and experiences, so hekeeps it hidden from them all. Everyone else does notice an incredible change in Kovrin however, he’s happier, has more purpose and seems entirely content with life. This continues on for a long time, He sees the monk regularly, has an incredibly happy relationship, his friends like him, he sees purpose in his work and imagines greater things for himself and the world, but unfortunately his wife wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Kovrin talking to nothing. She immediately panics, calls him insane, convinces him he’s insane and then takes him to a doctor. From this point in the story we see a sharp decline in Kovrin’s happiness, technically in psychological and scientific terms he’s more mentally sane, but he also despises life now. When Kovrin loses his faith, his spiritual companion and his purpose in life, he becomes a very angry and irritable person, unfortunately his friends and family blame him for this negative change. 

There’s a quote I love around here. “How lucky Buddha and Muhammed and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not treat them for ecstasy and inspiration!” 

In the modern day, so called “genius” is often associated closely with madness, and the story asks… what of it? If that person is happy, has purpose, has a goal, their family and friends love them…then why try to change that? Why call them mad? 

An interesting observation brought up in the story is also this; We all strive for consistent happiness, and yet if we ever run into someone who is consistently happy, we view them as being unnatural in some way. Why do we assume someone’s smile is fake? Or that their ecstasy is forced, their inspiration hollow. A state of perpetual wholeness is the key to a perfect life, and yet we call those who achieve that state as weird and insane. 

“Is joy a supernatural feeling?  Should it not be the normal state of man? The higher man is in his mental and moral development, the freer he is, the greater the pleasure that life affords him. 

The apostles say: ‘Rejoice evermore.’” 

 

Moral of the story; Believe whatever you want so long as it makes you happy and benefits those around you, sanity is an absurd scientific theory anyway, our perceptions are all we can truly base anything off, and in the end if you find true wholeness in your soul; don’t let others' opinions dissuade you from your inner ecstasy.