they already found the cure for loneliness. it's called "Reading + An Active Imagination"
...anyway.
like many things, this had a lot of great ideas andthey already found the cure for loneliness. it's called "Reading + An Active Imagination"
...anyway.
like many things, this had a lot of great ideas and fell flat on the execution. it never really works for me when the first 200+ pages of a book are exposition and then the climax hits with 40 pages to go, and this was left feeling sloppy and rushed. this book felt like it had the concept it wanted, and the ending it knew it wanted to get to, and then it just kind of rambled in between.
reading the epilogue and finding our protagonist transformed, (view spoiler)[armed with friendships with barely mentioned characters, a terminated relationship that had showed no signs of being stopped, and a totally different career path (hide spoiler)] with none of the development it would have taken to get there, felt frustrating. also i just don't know why this book felt like it needed a love triangle, or why the roommate had to be constantly eating and made fun of for that, or (and maybe it's just me) why this had to do that sci-fi thing where you just capitalize common phrases to indicate they have taken on some sort of dystopian brand.
oh well.
bottom line: this was really promising, and i really enjoyed moments of it, but its last page and its middle pages threw me off.
this book is the most surreal and the most gory, and at the same time its dystopian world is so lifelike, so painful to read because it so coh my god.
this book is the most surreal and the most gory, and at the same time its dystopian world is so lifelike, so painful to read because it so closely mirrors the one we live in. one of injustice, one of violence. one of innocent people locked up and one of people who do bad and change. a world where punishments are not intended to reform, but to ignore.
reading about the criminal justice system in america is opening yourself to an injustice you will ever un-know.
in the acknowledgments of this book, the author says he wrote "the type of angry that still leaves room for love." this book is exquisitely, desperatein the acknowledgments of this book, the author says he wrote "the type of angry that still leaves room for love." this book is exquisitely, desperately angry, justifiably so, but we end well before it seems like we've found the love.
this is a book with a lot of great ideas and a lot of great feelings that spends its energy on the wrong ones. in its synopsis, it seems like it's the story of a girl with superpowers, who can level cities and see the future. really, it's the story of her brother, who is incarcerated — which is a better story.
in truth, the sci fi element of this book takes away from its reality, as does its playfulness with time and fantasy and perspective. in its moments of clear-eyed storytelling, it is striking and raw, but it more often is bogged down in so many literary devices and plots that distract.
i would read more from this author, and i'd hope it isn't genre fiction.
i'll never be able to see the words milk and honey without thinking of instagram poetry. thanks rupi kaur.
but i liked this about the same as i would ii'll never be able to see the words milk and honey without thinking of instagram poetry. thanks rupi kaur.
but i liked this about the same as i would if it were in that genre, so. fair enough.
this is just not my type of book (no more pandemicish dystopian, please, i'm too fragile) nor of writing style.
more frankly, this is overwritten, with words used for how they sound rather than what they mean. "hulkings," as a synonym for hills. "humping" instead of rising. "eloquent" for an image of a graffitied d*ck. i didn't like it when cormac mccarthy did it, and he did it a lot better.
beyond that, between piles of adjectives, this landed heavily on cliches: "it wasn't until i hung up that i realized he'd never asked my name." no way! really?
add to these its gimmicks: "my employer" unwieldily used as many as four times a paragraph, as what was a fun style choice in early pages loses its sheen by the halfway point. if only there were a short, one or two syllable thing that we could call a specific person in order to reference them.
there are haystacks of em dashes every time another language is used, in an italy surrounded by expats as our monolingual protagonist.
there's italicized dialogue instead of the proletariat quotation mark.
in other words...a lot of unearned style here.
and ultimately my interest in the idea of an illicit, hyper-gifted chef cooking in secret in a dystopian world without food died when met with an untalented line cook. that, and a nonsense plot hinging on the justification-less idea that she'd be portraying a woman of another nationality at least decades her senior.
not to mention that goofy ending.
anyway. this book doesn't know what it wants: for us to condemn its cast of wealthy, even as they do more than the politicians it can't bring itself to frame as the good guys; to extol the virtues of our protagonist, deliberately ignorant to the selfishness and ego and greed that rival anyone's; to approve of fine cuisine or skewer it, same with capitalism and global travel and age- and power-gap relationships and money and philanthropy and and and.
it's mealy mouthed in every way you can imagine, and it leaves a sour taste.
this is an untraditional, timeline-twisting book in which a company has accidentally invented time travel and is committing inter-time violence accordthis is an untraditional, timeline-twisting book in which a company has accidentally invented time travel and is committing inter-time violence accordingly...
and somehow the most unrealistic part was its depiction of human emotion.
the thing they never tell you about sexism is that it's boring. that's the worst part of misogyny: just the most boring female characters you've ever read.
ok, maybe not the worst part. but it's not in my personal favorites.
i am personally of the opinion that if you are going to tell me something relatively insane, such as time travel is real and being hoarded for evil by corporations (with some parts of that being less insane than others), you need to ground me in the narrative. maybe give me some lovable characters. maybe give me some real-feeling feelings. dare i say give me a dose of reality via human relationships, or human life, or human thought patterns.
this book skipped all of that, and the result was dramatic and annoying.
bottom line: logically i know i read this as a book. but in my heart, this is one of those budgetless interchangeable shows you scroll past on a lesser streaming platform and know no human has ever watched or talked about.
this is a creepy sci-fi book and also an intense allegory for emotionally abusive relationships and alsothe future is scarier than any horror movie <3
this is a creepy sci-fi book and also an intense allegory for emotionally abusive relationships and also a damning exploration of misogyny all in one.
it's a book about a dystopian future in which men see women as only good for sex, homemaking, or parenting. in other words, our present day reality. (buh dum ch.)
reading this unrelentingly icked me out and made me feel grateful for my sentience and freedom, like when you have a cold and your nose is stuffed and you're like "i'll never forget to appreciate clear nasal passageways ever again."
i enjoyed the fact that this book did not pander or condescend to its audience in its themes, and granted the reader the ability to pick up on what was going on most of the time on their own. (although i did not enjoy the moments when it had our protagonist provide a neat summary of something that had been going on for hundreds of pages. or understand why there was a moment when a random woman was outed (?) as trans.)
it pulled its punches sometimes and felt overzealous at others, but overall this book was cool and impressive and skin crawly.
i've owned this book for 7 years and it wasn't even on my to read list. which gives an indication of how excited i am to read it
update: even anthony bi've owned this book for 7 years and it wasn't even on my to read list. which gives an indication of how excited i am to read it
update: even anthony burgess doesn't get the appeal of this one.
this is one of those books that i can see why it'd be great to assign as school required reading, but...pretty meh in adult life!
bottom line: the nicest thing i can say about this is that i'm pretty sure i would have liked it more if i was discussing it at 7:45 am with 20 miserable adolescents....more
ursula doing more in 30 pages than some are doing in 336...
also has anyone noticed how many books have 336 pages? 336 and 368 appear to be where it's ursula doing more in 30 pages than some are doing in 336...
also has anyone noticed how many books have 336 pages? 336 and 368 appear to be where it's at.
anyway, this story is powerful and reference-able and one of those things that just everyone should read in their lifetimes because it's perfect to have and know about.
but this one would have been cooler if it were shorter.
the concept itself is very harsh and real, but reading it foabove all, i love a cool girl book.
but this one would have been cooler if it were shorter.
the concept itself is very harsh and real, but reading it for so long was painful (which is fine) but also somewhat redundant (less fine). it felt like it removed some of the power from it. it felt less thematically stunning for how much time we spent in this not-so-alternate world.
but maybe i'm just a short book stan.
bottom line: good! but i still love to complain. ...more
another huge win for the best subgenre there is: translated literary fiction written by women.
it's going to do it for me every. single. time.
this bookanother huge win for the best subgenre there is: translated literary fiction written by women.
it's going to do it for me every. single. time.
this book is a rare combination: riveting and thought-provoking. it's as plot-driven as it is thoughtful and significant, a win/win situation us lit fic stans almost never discover.
i do think this came with some costs — i didn't click as much with the characters, who by now (as i review this) i nearly forget except in broad strokes; the plot could feel like it dragged at points because at others it was so exciting — but overall, wow.
it's another title + month based pun, it's another classic on my currently reading list, it's another PROJECT LONG CLwelcome to...SEPTEMBERHOUSE-FIVE.
it's another title + month based pun, it's another classic on my currently reading list, it's another PROJECT LONG CLASSIC installment, a project by which i take on classics i've been procrastinating reading in itty bitty sections to make them seem manageable.
this one isn't long, but i did only add it to my want to read list because i somehow have a bookmark that says "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" and i feel like a poseur.
so similar in impact.
let's get into it.
CHAPTER 1 i think this book has like 10 chapters, so i'll just read one a day till it's done and call it the world's worst project selection in terms of accuracy.
to be honest i just want an excuse to read it immediately.
CHAPTER 2 "The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."
i mean. holy moley.
CHAPTER 3 this book has a character who briefly appears and in his short time with us says that if you're writing an anti-war book, you may as well write an anti-glacier book for how effective it will be. both war and glaciers are here intended as timeless and permanent parts of human life.
with climate change now making glaciers a much more impeachable concept, this statement acts as one of strange and ironic and twisted hope.
CHAPTER 4 "Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."
if i have to get abducted by aliens i hope they're also wise.
CHAPTER 5 it's always fun to see another book you've enjoyed or want to read mentioned in a book you're actively reading and enjoying. like a special guest star appearance.
CHAPTER 6 do you know the meme where a book / movie / tv show / romping good time / limited series / human life has to end when they say the title?
anyway. this book would've just ended.
CHAPTER 7 one of those books where you're like "i could write a whole paper about this" every other page.
CHAPTER 8 this book is somewhat unique in antiwar books for its admission that war is intended to make shells out of heroic people, and that "one of its effects" is to prevent people from being "characters."
it seems there is an impulse to think antiwar media will be more effective if this truth is ignored, but i've never found that to be the case. the most disturbing part of war, after all, is its anti-humanity.
CHAPTER 9 a while back my boyfriend was flipping through my copy of this book and laughed pretty hard, but i didn't ask why because he appeared to be fairly close to the end and i didn't want to be spoiled.
i have to say, i gave him more literary benefit of the doubt than he was entitled to for laughing at what i now realize was a drawing of boobs.
CHAPTER 10 welp.
OVERALL this book was mind melting and funny and smart and touching and painful, as was realizing that the quote i love so much that it inspired me to read this book is not meant sincerely.
not everything is beautiful. a hell of a lot hurts. we shouldn't respond to death with nonchalance—we should never accept that that's how it has to go, not all of the time, not right then. war is evil, and things mean things, and we should keep life close to us even when it's tempting to release it, to pull your hand back as if from a hot stove.
and the hurting makes the beautiful more beautiful anyway. rating: 5...more
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