vacanthungarian's reviews
40 reviews

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.0

A very profound story of a section of American society that not many people know anything about. Vance's own personal story does inspire in the same way that Cupcake Brown's memoir did, urging the reader to really consider whether their adversity is really as crippling as they think it is and how much more they can become.
 I think a lot of empathy can be drawn as well from this story for those who are from such backgrounds. Often we judge people from unstable homes, especially those with addictions. We find it hard to understand why the children from these backgrounds react a certain way without ever taking a step back and wondering how we can help.
Equally, there are a lot of things that resonated with me in the UK and a deeper understanding of the mindset of the lowest tiers of working class, why they make the decisions they make and why they continue in an endless cycle of repeating the same lifestyle of their predecessors (with few exceptions like myself).
I hope it inspires others to break the cycle or to show more kindness

The Long Walk by Stephen King, Richard Bachman

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

One of Stephen king's early writings, this is a relatively short story of a group of young guys entering in some sort of a national event that is basically just a ceaseless walk across.... You guessed it! Maine!
So it isn't immediately apparent what exactly happens when one isn't able to walk any longer, but it soon becomes pretty clear what the stakes are. It has a bit of a "Hunger games" vibe to it, but a lot less hopeful and a lot more dark. 
Incredible writing (in my opinion) and very engaging in painting a very clear picture of the emotional struggles and how the general public celebrate this event despite the price paid by those who don't make it. It does however drag on a bit. I think it could have been a lot more concise and I really wish it hadn't been obvious who was going to win in the end. Still, it was a good read.

Rage by Richard Bachman

adventurous dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This short story, banned from print due to American sensibilities is a nice little read. Ok, so the subject matter is probably going to touch a nerve for many people in the US, but personally I just took it at face value. It surprisingly detailed for a story of less a couple of hundred pages. The protagonist, like many others in similar stories, just oozes charisma. He has an almost admirable level of confidence and even temperament that makes him likable. Equally, his class mates' reaction to the situation seems to tell a story of its own, suggesting that the situation itself is less important than the few hours of earnest connection they all shared and how dissatisfied they all are with the mundane reality of their lives. Realism is not the aim here, of course. Like many times before, King/Bachman paints a vivid picture of a variety of characters that feel very real and familiar. I liked it.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

adventurous informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

Being one of the most instantly recognised classics, Siddhartha was my choice of short read to get those pesky numbers up. 
The story is more or less exclusively about a young man called Siddhartha, son of a Brahmin. Like his father, Siddhartha seeks wisdom and spiritual fulfilment. But he has outgrown what the brahmins could teach him and decides to embark on a long journey to find what he was looking for. Eventually he learns that spiritual fulfilment can't be obtained from others. He becomes the enlightened one.
I can't say I woke up from a spiritual coma after reading this book. But it was a nice story. Worth the read.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

This was my first of Lahiri's books. The story was quite informative, but also a little long winded. But I have nothing if not patience and something does suck you in enough to keep reading. It flo s really nicely and you never get that black hole where you're so disconnected from the story that you have no idea what you read over the last 10 pages. 
The story is predominantly about Subhash, Gauri and Bela and not really about Udayan. Except everything is to do with Udayan. It's three perspectives of the same events and three people's emotions. None come out well. I think there's been entirely too much focus on whether these people are supposed to be liked or not, but I think this is entirely irrelevant. The point here is that this is a very realistic story with very realistic reactions from the three main characters. It's supposed to show how one person's choices, regardless of how well intended, can inadvertently damage the lives of those who love him. 
The author writes eloquently and with a great deal of emotion. Some great bits of history thrown in, but not enough to feel like a high school text book or Jack London's Iron Heel. Overall, it's a nice book.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

When I started reading this book, I was really struck by the similarity between this and Fairytale. Old man, about to die gives young guy the key to another world where he is now forced to become a hero and the responsibility of everything lies squarely on his shoulders... Yada yada blah. I thought it was lazy of King and it bothered me because I really didn't like fairytale at all. But the story developed nicely and it went on without that black hole you often find in books. You know, the one where it gets tedious and boring and you're just plowing through the pages until it catches your attention again. I really liked it. Not being American, I guess I didn't know a great deal about what the Kennedy assassination meant to them or how many theories there really were, so I was able to take the story at face value. And I app eciate the factual information that was injected into the book. So for me this was an enjoyable read and overall, a great story told.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark funny informative tense medium-paced

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

4.75

What a story! I am generally in the habit of avoiding books that gain a great deal of sudden popularity as they often turn out to be a disappointment. This one however was really good! 
From start to finish, our protagonist and all other main characters were awful people, but this seems to be a depiction of the culture in publishing/literature. At first I really thought it was a first class chunk of reverse racism where the perfect, overachieving Chinese girl is wronged by the terrible, boring white girl who is now going to be in big trouble for the next 200 pages until the author is satisfied that she is in her place. But it seems that despite there being a main theme of race, the author chose to take an impartial route, choosing to not stoop. It also seems that one of the important points it makes is that there is entirely too much emphasis on race and marginalised people. The storyline moves at a good place and the author remains focused and centred throughout, seemingly never sidetracked by small details. I think I died several times at the horror of the events that unfold around the protagonist. Took a fraction of a mark off for the ending as it felt like the author just kind of stuck it down with a bit of tape, rather than tying it up into a neat little bow.
It was very informative of the struggles of publishing for many authors. It made me a little sad actually as it reflects society in general now.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

This isn't really a traditional book per se, but it's worth a read nonetheless. I decided to go for a section each day and digest what I read. But it wasn't really for me. But then again, I wasn't looking for any enlightenment, do there's not much for me to take from it.

Tommy's Tale by Alan Cumming

adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

Tommy, our protagonist is a promiscuous, fun loving individual who is terribly afraid of becoming a responsible adult.
Then all of a sudden, Tommy at almost 30, realised that his life is missing the fulfilment of a stable relationship, a child of his own and other mundane things like that. So Tommy decides to completely self destruct and cry a lot. Then Tommy stops being the "permanently high, sleeping with every guy he can and dancing at every opportunity" kind of gay stereotype to "home maker, farmer's market, knows how to use a power drill" kind of gay stereotype with a little help from his flat mates.
So whilst I really did enjoy the story itself, feeling a little jealous of Tommy's life, I found it just a little bit too "Hallmark" at the end. 

J by Howard Jacobson

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Sort of post dystopian and apocalyptic, but not so thriller. The story revolves around two people who come from parents who are not from the village. They are vastly mistrusted by the locals and generally disliked, but very much encouraged to pair up because somehow this will restore an equilibrium across the nation... Or at least that's what I think was happening. The protagonist and his counterpart are both quite deep, reserved and painfully unhappy every step of the way.
This book is a major slow burner. It does drag on with the author almost going off on an over articulated tangent every few pages. Yet despite all this additional brooding material, it is actually quite hard to decipher what's actually going on. Or maybe I just switched off... but it is needlessly cry tic for such a long story. It is also very dep essing throughout as the pair never seem to be happy in any scenario. There were some parts when the story becomes interesting and starts to flow, only to return to being a literary equivalent of an NFL game with endless interruptions.
I did find it a little irritating that the protagonist with the English name is basically being ostracized by the people with the Jewish names and occasionally you catch a little animosity towards that culture. 
Overall, I didn't take much from this book and found it to be quite forgettable. Not terrible, but probably not worth the bother.