peeled_grape's reviews
143 reviews

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

4.0

This one surprised me. I've probably said this before, but: My favorite thing ever in books is when the form of it matches its content. This does that for sure -- the living and the dead are in conversation with one another, the past and the present are implicit and sometimes indistinguishable. I read this for one of my classes, and I'm glad I did -- I got way more out of it, especially considering the historical context of the book. (The historical grounding of this novel is purposely a background issue; it reminds me a lot of how "The Kingdom of This World" is centered around the Haitian Revolution without including the actual Haitian Revolution.) Even if you just read it without the context, it's great. If you haven't read it yet, maybe go into it with the idea that it is written in a confusing manner, and that's on purpose. Be patient with it. It's worth it.

Sweat by Lynn Nottage

3.0

I was a little bored by this. It's not bad, it just wasn't super interesting to me. Some of the characters are just outright stupid, in my opinion. And no one is happy, ever. It's just straight-up depression the whole time. I liked that Jason's white supremacy arc is never explained (it doesn't need an explanation). I disliked the fact that forgiveness is emphasized. I hate when people think that forgiveness is the answer -- in a lot of cases, it's not, and this is a hill I will die on. Nothing really caught my attention, and nothing really impressed me, but I also really didn't see anything in this I disliked. It was perfectly "meh."

Barren Lives by Graciliano Ramos

3.0

I liked this, but it felt simple. The narrative is very clear, despite moving through people and time. This book is most interesting when you think about its symbolism -- the parrot, the dog, etc. That's a whole essay topic for someone, I think, so I'm not going into depth on that, but the liaisons (bull imagery, for example) and the symbolism was definitely what caught my attention. The only reason it gets three stars is that it wasn't emotionally moving, to me, and wasn't striking in a way that interested me.

Water by the Spoonful (Revised Tcg Edition) by Quiara Alegría Hudes

3.0

REREAD: I am so sick of the "Americans go invade other countries, kill them, and then come home to write about how sad they were doing it" form of literature. Liberal ass play. 

Okay, first of all, ouch. Second of all,  wow. There's a lot going on in this play, and all of it is very good. These characters are all so round. Everyone is so complex and they all get their own problems and dreams -- it's incredible. I really like the concept of people connecting over the internet and what it means. The humor landed for me. Yeah, just wow. It's heartbreaking. And the scene where the title comes from is haunting. This is sticking with me for awhile.

The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes

2.0

There are a lot of compelling things about this novel and then there are a lot of things that are extremely detrimental to the text. The blatant sexism is one of those detrimental things. And I don't even mean the "you belong in the kitchen" kind of sexism, I mean the "women can enjoy being raped and come to love their rapist if they're honorable enough" kind of sexism. The form of this novel is great, and I found myself really taken by the doubles/pairs/repetition that occurs here as well as the play with time. It's intentionally foggy, which is frustrating at first, but you get used to it. There are really well-written scenes, and it's very complex. BUT it felt too over-the-top with the toxic masculinity, and I could not get into it too much because of that.

Body Awareness by Annie Baker

3.0

Not bad -- I just didn't love it. It reminds me of Stephen Florida in all its awkward shamelessness. There's some things that don't go explored that I think should have been, like Joyce's experiences with her dad. We don't get too deep into any particular character's experience. I think there was too much time spent stagnant and it didn't really go anywhere. Again, not bad, but it wasn't really moving.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

4.0

I read "Mouthful of Birds" first, and was told that "Fever Dream" wasn't as good, but wow. The horror work that Schweblin does here is incredible. It's not overwhelming, but there is something dark always there, so I can't quite describe it as subtle, though it does feel like it's not the focus. It's these individual details that are juuust dark enough to be creepy: not being able to fall asleep because the room is too big, the echo of a child's voice being deeper than the original, talking in the plural as a joke which is then repeated to the point of eeriness. I am still not entirely sure what happened, especially with the ending. I feel like I need to read it again for that. The urgency in this is amazing, and part of why I liked this so much. I'm still not sure the purpose of David's voice, not entirely, but it was his presence that was part of that rushed feeling. I got 40 pages in, and after that, could not put it down. I will note that part of the weakness of the story was that it was in dialogue form. It's not that it was a bad idea, but it was lazy in parts. Overall, it was a super fast, super compelling read.

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

4.0

I loved how meta this was. There are moments, especially in the beginning, that feel like a wink to us, and I got the feeling Lispector was having fun with this. There are parts where Lispector also seems to be talking to us directly, especially when she's talking about writing. (Which, if you are a writer, this is especially funny, mostly because Rodrigo, the narrator, is terrified of writing, and at one point takes a nap in the middle of the novel because he doesn't want to write.) This is extremely quotable, too: "Am I a monster or is this what it means to be a person?" is one of my favorites. I was reminded so much of Lydia Davis' "My Happy Life." There's a lot here, and a lot I have to think about.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

5.0

This was lovely. Plot-wise, so much happened in this book that by the time I finished it, and reconsidered the beginning, it felt like (a significant amount of) time had passed. It's a book with weight. I know Carpentier was the one to come up with the term "magical/marvelous real," but what Marquez is doing here is what I think of when I think of magical realism. This was easy to read, but also feels super thick in places. Find someone to talk about this with. It gets richer the more you dig into it.

El Cuarto Mundo by Diamela Eltit

3.0

Very smart writing, but not particularly compelling.

I started to tune out when it got to the incest parts. Incest is boring.

It's hard to come up with any thoughts on this at all because of how indifferent I am to it. There was some great individual paragraphs, but overall, it didn't really capture my attention.