Jess
Contains spoilers
I think having an intersex character who is sort of saved by their intersex-ness is a really interesting premise for a story. I liked this element. I sort of understand why it was not really mentioned until close to the end/slowly alluded to and not frequently addressed head-on. That being said the book didn't feel like a horror story at all, and all of the misogyny could have been less heavy-handed. I feel like we got way too much of the patients' chatter and less plot. I also think that the use of the narrator as the spirits themselves could have been more interestingly developed...
Contains spoilers
I love Allende, but there was much in this work that missed the mark for me. There is so much potential in the premise, setting, and even the character of Emilia, but I was disappointed. Though I am glad that I kept going and finished the book, it was a sluggish journey until about halfway through part 3. There the story picks up but many of the things that I didn't like about the beginning continued. I felt as if there were many pieces to the story that were brushed over for the sake of setting the plot for the later portions of the book. Emilia's life is a series of incredibly lucky turns of events, but that luck isn't sat with in a meaningful way. Her career into dime novels and journalism both sort of just happen to her, a woman in 1890s. Though we get the first person account of Emilia through the entire story, I experienced no real character development. When I got to the point where she was to be executed I started to re-evaluate my understanding of her character (and here is where I started enjoying the book truly) because I thought we readers were being given a chance to reflect on this luck and whiteness and hubris. But no... she continues to stumble through survival (and continuing into perilous situations because she is "so brave" and everything will continue to work out for her ad infinitum).
That being said, as a work of historical fiction I did feel I learned more about this time and place and that was meaningful to me. The pieces toward the end of the book that touched on indigeneity in Chile and the supernatural beauty of un-colonized land were my favorite. I would have loved if we got a more in-depth look at those parts (especially the epilogue... really glossed over the fact that Emilia was able to form these life-sustaining relationships yet we don't really get to experience any of that as a reader).
Short story compilations are not always my bag but I truly enjoyed this. Each story had a different way at pulling emotions and reflections out of me, at times like teeth. Meditations on family, girlhood, the difficulty of relationships, the inevitability of heartaches and disappointments. The style ranges from fantasy to magical realism. I am usually more drawn to magical realism than high fantasy, but one of the most impactful stories for me was also he most high-fantasy (the fiddler). The most impactful was definitely Is This You? Which made me feel... everything.
I decided to read this after finishing the Correspondence of Walter Benjamin because I was intrigued by the little bits of references to these protocols in the letters. WB is such a delightful thinker and it is interesting to see that shine through even in states of complete intoxication. There are times when he manages to make extremely layered literary puns that are genuinely hilarious. Of most interest to me is the implications that these experiments had for his understanding of experience philosophically. (Something I will certainly keep ruminating on).
Considering I finished this book in a week, I was brought into this world fairly quickly, though disoriented. What Pynchon achieves with an artful use of language (the man can write a paragraph, for sure) he disappoints with sloppy plot. (is he postmodern/post-structuralist... or just bad at structure?). A lot of memorable character-building and funny one-liners are juxtaposed with a general creepiness and relatively anticlimactic ending.
This collection of letters took me on a journey I was not, perhaps could never be, prepared for. What a truly spectacular mind the world lost in 1940. Watching Benjamin develop as a thinker, a friend, a loved one... through his own interpersonal words felt like an intimate glimpse into this man's soul. Witty, determined, flawed. I genuinely, in this moment and for the last several hundred pages, am mourning a real loss across time and space.
Contains spoilers
Mystery is not my usual genre, but I did enjoy this. It was particularly distressing due to the core mysteries both being about children. The ending had comforting elements, but I felt it was too wrapped up— not every element of a story needs to be explained in the end (especially ghost stories children tell each other at camp).
The adventures of huckleberry fin is an interesting book because it displays a grim, dystopian society through the bubblegum-shaded glasses of boyish fun. In that way, it’s a very important insight into the collective American psyche.
This book is so much better than that. I would say that the first third or so follows the huckleberry fin plot told through Jim’s perspective, and where it branches off is much more interesting, sad, real. The story holds a mirror up to the ugliest, most vile realities of American slavery. Everett consistently created devices for reflection on the nature of identity, language, double consciousness, and many other philosophical concepts throughout the book. When he does so, it is usually through the incredibly insightful titular character’s musings as he tumbles through his odyssey. I particularly loved Jim/Jame’s (towards the end we see him lean into James more intentionally) dream conversations with different Enlightenment philosophers.
There was a lot of violence, racism, sexual violence, slurs, and terrible things said and done throughout the book, which can be really difficult to hear/read (audiobook version was still a really good way to experience this story, but it’s very visceral and a little nauseating at times for its portrayal of deeply brutal historical realities).
I thought it was really interesting! I really enjoyed the themes of nature as a living thing one can be in relationship with. I thought the ending could have been elaborated on, left some things to be desired. Plus the racial dynamics were sort of brushed over in ways that could have been more interesting if brought to the forefront. Overall I found it entertaining, surprising, and well written. Character development certainly could have gone deeper for many of the characters.
More than anything, it is a thoughtful reflection on the relationship between the senses and memory. I believe this is also where the novel is strongest; in reflection rather than plot. I received a lot of insight into the social inter-workings of the French aristocracy; their anxieties especially. I didn’t think I would find it so funny. The most interesting points to me, within this social sphere, were the two moments of discourse around lesbianism and specifically the moral panic provoked by it.
My favorite Dostoevsky. Utterly tragic and deeply hilarious. I found myself immediately pulled into this world. Each of our main characters depicts a well of hubris so real, so human, and so wholly that one cannot possibly expect a happy ending for any of them, yet cannot help but to hope for one in vain.
I really loved so many of the poems in this collection— others fell flat and I wander if it is an issue of translation or just not my taste. Cardenal is a talented and passionate poet, I look forward to reading more of his work. Some favorites: Apocalypse, Katún Ahua, Coplas on the Death of Merton, and Condensations.
Grann clearly put a lot of research and care into the telling of this story. It is thorough, it is biting, and it is real. It was extremely difficult and sad to read, but an incredibly important story to tell. I appreciated how much Grann stressed that, although it centers around a conspiracy of a few men, it was a deeply structural situation that created the Reign of Terror of the Osage.
I had high expectations for this book, based on the description, that were simply not fulfilled. I'd rate this higher if I had the ability to give it 2.5 stars. I usually round up, but I just didn't enjoy it enough to give it 3.
I would describe the protagonist as a grown woman version of The Catcher and the Rye's protagonist Holden Caulfield. She is really the only character in the book that we get an actual dimensional view of, the others' being quick and hardly developed looks from the protagonist's eyes.
The novel begins with a look into a very badly, quickly formed relationship that the plot centers around until the last few pages. What really struck my curiosity when I picked up the book were the topics of birds and eco-terrorism. The conversations around birds did not feel very organic... it made me truly wonder if any birders were involved in the making of the story at all. The beginning pieces of the plot involving the wallcreeper do not make sense, are not advisable (If you hit a bird, take it to a rehabber, not your house), and are dropped early on in the book. Eco-terrorism makes a brief, ultimately uneventful appearance that does very very little for the plot. It is treated as an aimless thing-to-do that does not come to fruition in any kind of action or change of mind. If it does anything at all, it shows the protagonist that she is utterly devoid of her own inner voice that she would follow one man from the next to any kind of enterprise. This is not even stated directly or in introspection from the character, but my (I think generous) interpretation of one paragraph where she chides herself for what occurs in order to stop that plot development in its tracks. (This odd phrasing is my attempt at avoiding spoilers?)
Other than the beginning description of bad, coercive sex (which is also dropped without further mention), is the end. It simply ends, with a rapid-fire description of personal development from the protagonist. What is told in 5 paragraphs could have been an important, introspective chapter to round out this unlikable character as she discovers the importance of her own mind, autonomy, and drive, instead leaves the reader dizzy and confused.
Calvino's prose is always a fascinating leap into another world; a world of poetry, absurdity, and bewilderment. Invisible Cities contains bite-sized probes into the worlds of impossible places that Marco Polo describes to Kublai Khan as they wander about a palace garden pontificating on the nature of life, communication, and existence. Enjoyable, delightful, sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing. A great read.
Clarice Lispector is a newly found favorite of mine. The hour of the star is a novella that plays with form, like much of Lispector's works. Her ability to stretch, poke, and prod at the fourth wall in a way that does not feel contrite is one of the most enjoyable parts of her writing.
The narrator is simultaneously divorced from the reality of the protagonist's world and intimately privy to its details. He is a character in and of himself, anxious and unsure of himself. He pities, and is often disgusted by, the pitiful protagonist Macabea. The two are foils- she has every reason to be unhappy and yet she is ultimately not. He has many reasons to be content, and yet he is deeply disturbed by life and his role in it.