Ricky
Is it a novel? Is it short stories? Is it autofiction? Idk. I like the writing though. He has a really engaging voice and I found myself really engaging with some of the themes here, particularly the queer search for home and the desperation to resolve that feeling the world infects us with that we are unclean and in need of redemption. Also I guess that feeling of being young and trying to make a life for yourself when there's no clear track laid for you. A young American is living in Bulgaria and working as an English teacher. At the center of the book is a loving relationship with a Portuguese Erasmus student. Before and after that we see a young man experiencing his queer identity and a particularly homophobic society. I had a lot of thoughts while reading this book and felt a strong desire to already start writing some notes about it, but now that I've finished this book I'm just sitting here with sense of vulnerability that I'm having trouble fully understanding. It must be something about finding something reflected here about my experience which I either hadn't previously seen or personally unpacked. Maybe a sense of relief mixed with sadness. Anyway, I would certainly read his other books. I get the sense from a review that I just read that maybe I should have read What Belongs to You first, but I never would have guessed from reading it that it was a follow-up to another book with some of the same characters.
Is it a novel? Is it short stories? Is it autofiction? Idk. I like the writing though. He has a really engaging voice and I found myself really engaging with some of the themes here, particularly the queer search for home and the desperation to resolve that feeling the world infects us with that we are unclean and in need of redemption. Also I guess that feeling of being young and trying to make a life for yourself when there's no clear track laid for you. A young American is living in Bulgaria and working as an English teacher. At the center of the book is a loving relationship with a Portuguese Erasmus student. Before and after that we see a young man experiencing his queer identity and a particularly homophobic society. I had a lot of thoughts while reading this book and felt a strong desire to already start writing some notes about it, but now that I've finished this book I'm just sitting here with sense of vulnerability that I'm having trouble fully understanding. It must be something about finding something reflected here about my experience which I either hadn't previously seen or personally unpacked. Maybe a sense of relief mixed with sadness. Anyway, I would certainly read his other books. I get the sense from a review that I just read that maybe I should have read What Belongs to You first, but I never would have guessed from reading it that it was a follow-up to another book with some of the same characters.