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versmonesprit's reviews
217 reviews
Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
This was my first McDowell, and it certainly won’t be the last — even though Cold Moon Over Babylon did not reach the heights I so needed it to, because McDowell writes in a way that can best be described as “addictive,” it compels you to read and read and read it and do nothing else.
Part of that, I wager, is due to the compassion with which McDowell writes about the Larkin family. He cares, and that translates as an affection within the reader too.
It is this very compassion and deeply felt care that makes Cold Moon Over Babylon very difficult to get through without that nauseating knot settling in your stomach, the one that lodges itself also in the throat and somehow summons sobs. McDowell creates these heartbreaking scenes with utmost attention to the most horrifying details, and they’re just so completely sad, you feel it on a personal level.
This, of course, renders the reader incredibly invested in the characters and the promised revenge. But it is exactly because the book’s presentation insists on the revenge that I found myself as disappointed by the resolution.
It is more a murder mystery on the banality of evil than anything to do with supernatural forces and revenge. Don’t get me wrong, it works very well as this former genre, but even as someone who’s scared senseless of paranormal accounts, I needed there to be far, far more supernatural occurrences and intervention. And again, don’t get me wrong, everything that happens (that is, until the full moon) so well written that you feel there, and some are even so utterly cinematic, so amazingly beautiful, that you can’t help but crave more, more, more. But things don’t escalate, not really, they don’t culminate either. By all means, the ending is very anticlimactic when viewed in the light of the depravity that merited so, so much worse.
Part of that, I wager, is due to the compassion with which McDowell writes about the Larkin family. He cares, and that translates as an affection within the reader too.
It is this very compassion and deeply felt care that makes Cold Moon Over Babylon very difficult to get through without that nauseating knot settling in your stomach, the one that lodges itself also in the throat and somehow summons sobs. McDowell creates these heartbreaking scenes with utmost attention to the most horrifying details, and they’re just so completely sad, you feel it on a personal level.
This, of course, renders the reader incredibly invested in the characters and the promised revenge. But it is exactly because the book’s presentation insists on the revenge that I found myself as disappointed by the resolution.
It is more a murder mystery on the banality of evil than anything to do with supernatural forces and revenge. Don’t get me wrong, it works very well as this former genre, but even as someone who’s scared senseless of paranormal accounts, I needed there to be far, far more supernatural occurrences and intervention. And again, don’t get me wrong, everything that happens (that is, until the full moon) so well written that you feel there, and some are even so utterly cinematic, so amazingly beautiful, that you can’t help but crave more, more, more. But things don’t escalate, not really, they don’t culminate either. By all means, the ending is very anticlimactic when viewed in the light of the depravity that merited so, so much worse.
Petits poèmes en prose (le spleen de Paris) by Charles Baudelaire
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
Absolument pas, non ! Aucune trace de lyrisme ni d’imagerie nécessaire pour la poésie ; le style presque bureautique ; des histoires pas assez spéciales en eux-mêmes non plus. Grosse déception.
Zamanın En Kısa Hali by Cem Akaş
emotional
funny
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Yine Cem Akaş, yine eşsiz benzersiz bir kitap. Meselesi aslında en sonda ifşa olan, bir anda hiç beklenmedik bir şeye dönüşen fevkalade bir eser Zamanın En Kısa Hali.
Kitabın adından kastı, 116. sayfada geçen bir cümleden anlaşılıyor: ömür. Akaş da bir ömrün portresini çiziyor lineer ilerlemeyen, bazen çelişen fragmanlarla. Aslında Can zaten olabilecek en mükemmel şekilde tarif etmiş kitabı: bir mozaik. Kimi zaman eleştirel, kimi zaman tamamen eğlenceli, kimi zaman melankolik, kimi zaman iğneleyici olan tüm bu fragmanlar bir araya gelince ortaya çok boyutlu bir karakter, fragmenter ama aslında bütünüyle tasvir edilmiş bir hayat çıkıyor. Okuması çok keyifli bir kalemi var Akaş’ın: sanat piyasası, kültürel çevreler, otorite figürleri, insan ilişkileri, ikiyüzlülük gibi konularda öyle bir yazıyor ki insan kendini zor durduruyor, tek oturuşta yalayıp yutmak istiyor kitabı.
Gitmeyecekler için Urbino’daki gibi, sondaki kurmaca bir belgenin kitabı açıklığa kavuşturması, retroaktif olarak kitaba yeni bir ton katması… apayrı bir lezzet veriyor. Postmodern edebiyatı böyle sevilesi, böyle akıllıca kullanan çok az yazar var. Hiçbir eserinin İngilizceye çevrilmemiş olması çok şaşırtıyor beni, böylesi bir edebiyat hazinesi bir tek bizde saklıyken hele hiç ihmal etmeyin, kıymeti bilinmesi elzem bir yazar Akaş.
Kitabın adından kastı, 116. sayfada geçen bir cümleden anlaşılıyor: ömür. Akaş da bir ömrün portresini çiziyor lineer ilerlemeyen, bazen çelişen fragmanlarla. Aslında Can zaten olabilecek en mükemmel şekilde tarif etmiş kitabı: bir mozaik. Kimi zaman eleştirel, kimi zaman tamamen eğlenceli, kimi zaman melankolik, kimi zaman iğneleyici olan tüm bu fragmanlar bir araya gelince ortaya çok boyutlu bir karakter, fragmenter ama aslında bütünüyle tasvir edilmiş bir hayat çıkıyor. Okuması çok keyifli bir kalemi var Akaş’ın: sanat piyasası, kültürel çevreler, otorite figürleri, insan ilişkileri, ikiyüzlülük gibi konularda öyle bir yazıyor ki insan kendini zor durduruyor, tek oturuşta yalayıp yutmak istiyor kitabı.
Gitmeyecekler için Urbino’daki gibi, sondaki kurmaca bir belgenin kitabı açıklığa kavuşturması, retroaktif olarak kitaba yeni bir ton katması… apayrı bir lezzet veriyor. Postmodern edebiyatı böyle sevilesi, böyle akıllıca kullanan çok az yazar var. Hiçbir eserinin İngilizceye çevrilmemiş olması çok şaşırtıyor beni, böylesi bir edebiyat hazinesi bir tek bizde saklıyken hele hiç ihmal etmeyin, kıymeti bilinmesi elzem bir yazar Akaş.
Gözlerim Sığmıyor Yüzüme by Küçük İskender
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Mükemmel bir şiir kitabı hakkında bir şeyler söylemek o kadar zor ki! Yer yer epik, yer yer lirik, yer yer politik, yer yer soyut… hep harikulade, hep başkaldırıcı ve baş döndürücü, inanılmaz bir tempo, inanılmaz bir ritm tarafından harekete geçiriliyor. Dokunaklı, çarpıcı, nefes kesici nefis şiirler bunlar, ve ben haklarında yeterince iyi bir yorumda bulunamayacak kadar büyülenmiş durumdayım: kesinlikle okumanız gereken, okumazsanız eksik kalacağınız o nadide kitaplardan biri.
Kasirganin Gözü by Necati Tosuner
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
“Kış kış diye kışı kovalayan Türkçe,” cümlesiyle yıllardır aklıma kazınmış, adı hatırımdan akıp gittikten sonra bile bu alıntısıyla onu bulma sevdasıyla beni dürten bir kitaptı Kasırganın Gözü. Ortaokulda, kütüphanede okudum, ve sahiden de bir cümle dışında hiçbir şeyini ne kadar uğraşsam da hatırlayamadım o zamandan beri.
Derken birkaç ay önce, nasıl oldu bilmiyorum, yazarın adı mı kitabın adı mı onu da anımsamıyorum, hatalı da olsa bir anda aklıma geldi. Biraz uğraştan sonra kitabı esas kapağından tanıdım.
Hakkında tek bir cümle dışında hiçbir şey hatırlamadığım için içerik beklentim biraz havadaydı, ancak anlatı beklentim karşılaştığımdakinden daha yüksekti.
Kasırganın Gözü, kategorizasyonu pek mümkün olmayan kitaplardan biri, zira ne olduğunu dahi anlamak da anlatmak da zor. Ne kadarı gerçek, ne kadarı kurgu bilinmeyen bir anlatı aslında. Akıp gidiyor. Ne olduğunu, nereye vardığınızı, nerelerden geçtiğinizi anlayamadan akıp gidiyor. Esasında bu yönüyle tam da benim sevdiğim kitaplardan: neredeyse tamamen dil üzerine kurulu.
Bununla birlikte içeriği de kısıtlı bir kitap değil, ve maalesef içeriğini çoğunlukla sıkıcı bulduğum için okuma deneyimimi biraz zedeledi bu durum. Bir de belirttiğim gibi, beklentilerimi belirleyen şey, aklımda kalan tek bir cümleydi; dili kullanışı, belli yerlerde böyle büyülü olsa da çoğunlukla yeterince inovatif veya dokunaklı gelmedi bana.
Kasvetli bir akşamüstüne uyacağını düşündüğüm bir kitap. Ben güneşli bir günde okudum, hatam buydu belki de.
Derken birkaç ay önce, nasıl oldu bilmiyorum, yazarın adı mı kitabın adı mı onu da anımsamıyorum, hatalı da olsa bir anda aklıma geldi. Biraz uğraştan sonra kitabı esas kapağından tanıdım.
Hakkında tek bir cümle dışında hiçbir şey hatırlamadığım için içerik beklentim biraz havadaydı, ancak anlatı beklentim karşılaştığımdakinden daha yüksekti.
Kasırganın Gözü, kategorizasyonu pek mümkün olmayan kitaplardan biri, zira ne olduğunu dahi anlamak da anlatmak da zor. Ne kadarı gerçek, ne kadarı kurgu bilinmeyen bir anlatı aslında. Akıp gidiyor. Ne olduğunu, nereye vardığınızı, nerelerden geçtiğinizi anlayamadan akıp gidiyor. Esasında bu yönüyle tam da benim sevdiğim kitaplardan: neredeyse tamamen dil üzerine kurulu.
Bununla birlikte içeriği de kısıtlı bir kitap değil, ve maalesef içeriğini çoğunlukla sıkıcı bulduğum için okuma deneyimimi biraz zedeledi bu durum. Bir de belirttiğim gibi, beklentilerimi belirleyen şey, aklımda kalan tek bir cümleydi; dili kullanışı, belli yerlerde böyle büyülü olsa da çoğunlukla yeterince inovatif veya dokunaklı gelmedi bana.
Kasvetli bir akşamüstüne uyacağını düşündüğüm bir kitap. Ben güneşli bir günde okudum, hatam buydu belki de.
Songs of Innocence ; And, Songs of Experience by William Blake
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
2.0
It pains me to come here and say I did not enjoy Blake, because I previously, really had. See, I read a little selection of Blake’s poetry back in elementary school, and fell head over heel in love with it. It was dark and mystical, epic and lyrical.
So when I found a full edition of Songs, I thought I’d read Blake again. Oh well. Not anything special in all of the 40-something pages I’m afraid. No trace of the mysticism and passion that I recall lovingly. Felt very much like poetry for very little children.
I hope from here on out, I can find the ones I enjoyed.
So when I found a full edition of Songs, I thought I’d read Blake again. Oh well. Not anything special in all of the 40-something pages I’m afraid. No trace of the mysticism and passion that I recall lovingly. Felt very much like poetry for very little children.
I hope from here on out, I can find the ones I enjoyed.
Briar Rose by Robert Coover
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
This was going to be my first Coover, but then I began with Spanking the Maid because I thought it would pale in comparison to Briar Rose. What a misjudgement!
Don’t get me wrong, Briar Rose has phenomenal writing at times. And maybe had I read it first, I would have loved it too, but after such a profound and allegorical book like Spanking the Maid, Briar Rose was too obvious, too shallow.
It did begin with immense promise, with emotional and tender characterisation, with the symbolism of the slumber and the dream; but then became too obvious, too repetitive in a way that unfortunately did not offer any depth. Perhaps there’s something to be lauded in the way the characterisation of the princess goes from tender to almost hateful, since the book deals primarily with the generation of violence, the compulsive desire to destroy beauty.
Though I feel like everything from this to the possibilities offered by The Woman Longing (a “trope” I love beyond measure) was a missed opportunity. There was so much more length to go for Coover, but he didn’t. Depth of meaning was sacrificed in favour of beauty of writing, which itself was not fully attained (at least for me) because the myriad reimaginings of the fairytale offered very little language (or meaning, for that matter).
If you remove the middle, I think you have the perfect, emotional, melancholic story. Briar Rose could be that AND profound, and I wish it were.
Don’t get me wrong, Briar Rose has phenomenal writing at times. And maybe had I read it first, I would have loved it too, but after such a profound and allegorical book like Spanking the Maid, Briar Rose was too obvious, too shallow.
It did begin with immense promise, with emotional and tender characterisation, with the symbolism of the slumber and the dream; but then became too obvious, too repetitive in a way that unfortunately did not offer any depth. Perhaps there’s something to be lauded in the way the characterisation of the princess goes from tender to almost hateful, since the book deals primarily with the generation of violence, the compulsive desire to destroy beauty.
Though I feel like everything from this to the possibilities offered by The Woman Longing (a “trope” I love beyond measure) was a missed opportunity. There was so much more length to go for Coover, but he didn’t. Depth of meaning was sacrificed in favour of beauty of writing, which itself was not fully attained (at least for me) because the myriad reimaginings of the fairytale offered very little language (or meaning, for that matter).
If you remove the middle, I think you have the perfect, emotional, melancholic story. Briar Rose could be that AND profound, and I wish it were.
Spanking the Maid by Robert Coover
challenging
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
5.0
If ever Sade were to have a literary heir — not a descendant; a true heir — it would undoubtedly be this masterpiece. Such a disservice to label either as erotica when they’re in fact provocative sociopolitical commentaries, revolutionary in the way they aim for an almost salacious façade to uproot the assumed uppity readers.
Days play out in sections parallel to each other, the repetitive nature of an almost limbo-like condition thus emphasised, blurring the lines of time and narration alike. There is a quality of Calvino too in not just these reoccurrences, but also in the wordplays that plague and confuse and elude the character of the master, as well as in the oddity and absurdity in the objects that appear mysteriously inside the bedcovers.
The book gives you enough crumbs about the characters’ motivations, but never explains or answers the fundamental why, instead prompting the reader to excavate the mindsets, the psychologies, the allegories hidden behind the characters: the innate desire to govern, but also to be governed; the eventually self-destructive crusade not for corrigibility which is the instruction itself, but for the ultimate perfection, for God, for a sort of martyrdom at heart, for salvation through suffering; the eventual consumption by the things that are made into life missions, purposes — the destructive nature of self-enforced duty and arbitrary principles of order; the mutually compulsive but monotonous nature of violence and perhaps of transcendence; the dissolution of limits, as a result of which the ending of the past and the beginning of the present become indistinguishable; the role reversal of the instructor and the instructed, but also its simultaneous reality…
Coover is purposeful in details and delightful in profundity. If you love books that make you think, truly dig and think and ponder, Spanking the Maid will make your day.
Days play out in sections parallel to each other, the repetitive nature of an almost limbo-like condition thus emphasised, blurring the lines of time and narration alike. There is a quality of Calvino too in not just these reoccurrences, but also in the wordplays that plague and confuse and elude the character of the master, as well as in the oddity and absurdity in the objects that appear mysteriously inside the bedcovers.
The book gives you enough crumbs about the characters’ motivations, but never explains or answers the fundamental why, instead prompting the reader to excavate the mindsets, the psychologies, the allegories hidden behind the characters: the innate desire to govern, but also to be governed; the eventually self-destructive crusade not for corrigibility which is the instruction itself, but for the ultimate perfection, for God, for a sort of martyrdom at heart, for salvation through suffering; the eventual consumption by the things that are made into life missions, purposes — the destructive nature of self-enforced duty and arbitrary principles of order; the mutually compulsive but monotonous nature of violence and perhaps of transcendence; the dissolution of limits, as a result of which the ending of the past and the beginning of the present become indistinguishable; the role reversal of the instructor and the instructed, but also its simultaneous reality…
Coover is purposeful in details and delightful in profundity. If you love books that make you think, truly dig and think and ponder, Spanking the Maid will make your day.
Fresh Dirt From the Grave by Giovanna Rivero
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
I’m going to keep this short. Read the first two stories, Blessed are the Meek and Fish, Turtle, Vulture, which only get better. And from then on is a sharp cliff tumbling all the way down to utter shite. The rest becomes too try-hard and really, incredibly boring. You’ll find the stories well within the horror genre if you’re the sort of person who enjoys American Horror Story and likewise, Mariana Enriquez’s stories, as nothing really happens in any of these three, the tension is non-existent, and the endings are so anticlimactic that they have nothing to do with horror . . . even though horror is the broadest genre by far: so imagine how much of a failure something needs to be to miss that big a target — yikes!
Periler Ölürken Özür Diler by Küçük İskender
inspiring
medium-paced
2.0
Öyle isterdim ki buraya gelip harikulade bir İskender kitabı daha okuduğumu söyleyebilmeyi! Ne yazık ki benim için biraz fazla dizelerin bölümlenmesinin sekteye uğratmasından kaynaklı aksak, biraz fazla lirisizm ve anlamdan uzak geldi. Birkaç dize dışında iyi olduğunu söyleyebileceğim pek bir şey bulamadım; Ginsberg’ün America şiiri üzerine uyarladığı sonuncusu hariç demeliyim. Ginsberg’ün orijinalinden çok daha başarılı bile buldum.