koolkas
It's an alright adventure novel though I wasn't sure about the characterisation of Odysseus. He seemed to embody the ancient ideal of sagacity, to characterise him realistically feels out of place. Of course he was ruthless, but ruthlessness was commonly accepted then, and pacifism wasn't what won wars. The Iliad was written for young men to have courage to take up arms in times of war. To reduce him to a man made of violence was strange to me, because it imposes the modern idea of pacificism, that was only possible after WWII, to a war general and a king. It would have been a more interesting narrative if there was a clearer ideological clash between Telemachus and his father that opposes the ideals of modernity over antiquity, rather than violence against peace, because it belittles the context in which violence was prevalent during the pre-modern era. I just think I had too high of an expectation. The book was fun, but I really wished it tackled stronger themes. I liked the message about mortality, but this theme was vaguely present and only became Circe's concern at the last arc, would have preferred a stronger foreshadowing for Circe's mortal ending through thematic and plotline arcs.
This book is at its core a domestic drama about a fracturing marriage, the wolves are a subplot. Yes, it's true the Sean develops a parasocial relationship with a wolf, but the main conflict lies on how her obsession ruins her marriage. That's it. The book markets it as some sci-fi work but the “science” probably comes from the fact the Sean works in academia. The climax was underwhelming - rather than some internal work dismantling her own parasocialism, there was just this big reveal about how the brain was altered, basically going “it wasn't her fault after all for going batshit!” as if she wasn't ruining her marriage before the implant and the interfacing.
As a horror book, it's not that good. But as a coming-of-age novel, it's great. It does feel a little YA at times, and the entire segment in M's point of view has such disjointed prose it was a little uncomfortable to read, but it was a quick read nonetheless so it wasn't a big problem. Also, I didn't expect everyone to be queer in this book (haha).
I really respect the book. I think it has parts of it done really well, and it has really good ideas for the plot, hence I'd say 4.5 stars, but there are some parts I really must criticise.
Regarding the prose: since it's written in omniescent third person POV, the characters thoughts are interspersed in the narrative with single quotes to distinguish from dialogue in double quotes, and it confused me at first. There isn't a lot of this in the first section, but in the second section Lucifer is so full of thoughts while talking that mid-dialogue would be interrupted by random segments of single quotes. It's fine, it's stylistic, until the book introduces long lowercase-only paragraphs to represent this sort of prosaic interjection, which just muddles the writing in my opinion. It's fine for stylistic impact but it just fails to move me emotionally because of how heavy handed it is. The book is skillfully written but it's also written like someone put a big dollop of cream on a piece of cake that is so sweet it's sickening. It does feel a little too much, but I think it's refreshing to read a distinctive writing style so it's tolerably interesting for me.
A lot of people say the first section is too slow, but I'd say that's only because the second section is fast. After languidly eating fruits in the first section, the second section just speeds through major developments like its nothing. The actual war took up, at maximum, four chapters out of the 40 chapters of the book, and here I expected more since its supposed to be the climax of the book. First half is spent just enjoying heaven and building a relationship between Lucifer and Michael that if you didn't know Bible canon, Lucifer's corruption would seem so out of place since it wouldn't even start until halfway through the book and was barely foreshadowed.
Overall, it's a 4.5 read. I like the uniqueness and the novelty, but plotwise it does have a ridiculous pace. It tries to be moving through quotable prose but plot-wise it isn't that emotionally moving.
This book really speaks to me. Cyrus is a fragmented fellow, but a compelling one. I find myself in him... How he struggles in finding meaning in his life, and wants to find meaning in death instead. It doesn't appear to be one at first, but it really is a feel-good book. A lot of modern anxieties are echoed in Cyrus, I think. In a post-capitalist society where purpose is found in the capital you produce, the meaning of life is diluted by the rote of daily life. Cyrus works a strange job, and yearns to become a poet, as opposed as simply becoming a poet. He gets caught up in himself, he failed to see what is in front of him. It's a good wake-up call, I think. There's a story in the book where they mentioned Satan going inside somebody's mouth and coming out of the anus, and Satan says humans are hollow all over, and the moral of the story was that you should fill it with God. But it doesn't work that way for everyone, especially for people like Cyrus, who feels suspended between identities, as an Iranian, as a queer man, as a poet. The book really articulates the difficult feelings of being in your mid-to-late twenties.
I find some of the dialogue to be too witty to be realistic at times, but you can handwave it to Cyrus surrounding himself with people like him, who spoke like him and read like him. It didn't bother me as much, when the characters act as vehicles to the message the author wanted to say, and I like the message so it's alright to me.
It is one year after the nuclear war, and Melbourne only has months left to live. The book focuses on four characters and their method of coping: Moira, who is an alcoholic; Towers, who thinks his family is still alive and follows Navy protocol; Peter, who comforts his wife and continues working; and Osborne, who buys a Ferrari and becomes engrossed in racing.
It's a quiet novel. I read this on the train, and I think I wouldn't be sufficiently entertained if I wasn't on the train, because the novel's pace is quite slow. If you are expecting an action packed sci-fi, this isn't it. I would say this isn't even a sci-fi book; the scientific aspects is inaccurate but could be attributed to how the book was written when the effects of nuclear war weren't understood well. It would have been more accurate if it were a pandemic book rather than a nuclear war book. It was at most a slice of life drama.
None of the characters are the type to panic outright, although it was hinted it there are background characters who did (Chapter 9: Holmes walked into a partially looted store). To be fair, it's set a year after a nuclear war, plenty of time for them to adjust to their new life. The reason they don't excessively panic is because the main characters did not succumb to their fear of death. Towers thinks of it as “going home”, Moira prefers to ignore it, Holmes accepts it and even prepares for it, and Osborne fears ruining his Ferarri more than death. The book is slow because the characters have this specific emotional constitution that makes it a slow novel. Their motivations evolve to finding meaning in their last few moments in life; it's like reading the actions of people in a retirement home. Apparently this is typical of a Shute novel - calm characters who don't express their emotions strongly.
I think the time the book was written also affects the reaction of the characters - as much as it is an extenuating circumstance, they tried to retain civility and society - it probably echoed some wartime sentiments and a 1957 way of thinking. This book truly is a hit or miss. Some people will think it's amazing some people will say it sucks. But if you consider the background in which this book is written, it is an alright novel.
I thought the musings were interesting critiques of gender but I didn't think it was all that remarkable until I found out this book satirizes the life of Vita Sackville-West, and Orlando was meant to be an idealized version of her. That knowledge gave me newfound respect but on its own it is not a particularly evocative novel especially if you've been exposed to more introspective literature. It is a product of its time, and unfortunately I am not a reader of that time.
This book really didn't resonate with me. Clearly this book was beyond its time - one could argue if American Psycho could exist without Sylvia Plath being a proponent of this theme. However, if we put aside the sensibilities of the time (yes, it's racist) the plotline about the MC slowly becoming mentally ill was too vanilla for the lack of the right descriptor. I find the depiction of depression in this book very “adapted for TV audiences”. It removes most of the worst parts of depression and presents a sanitised view with the perfect victim - a young white girl with a bright academic background who recovers at the end of the novel. While several scenes in the novel like the mass poisoning and the attempted rape explained her eventual breakdown, the novel's depiction of mental illness was written to skirt the sensibilities of a middle class white American audience - scandalous enough but not too controversial. It's a very... white novel and that is ignoring the very blatant racism like putting the one Peruvian man in the novel as a rapist and the MC assaulting a Black man for giving the wrong beans.
The book is divided into two sections - the first section describes a nature-filled life in an occupied village by the forest when the protagonist's mother has an affair with a soldier, despite the cultural erasure of his mother's language by the occupying force. The protagonist writes letters to his lover Boris, and seeks advice from an older woman named Vita who lives with her sister (the sister is implied to have Down Syndrome). The occupation by the “men with shaved heads” is marked by constant drinking and the village's history is shadowed by a certain incident at a factory in which the protagonist describes power surges occuring which caused the Factory's eventual closure. This segment is full of yearning and contemplation - the protagonist described his relationship with his father, his mother, and his grandfather, and contrasts it with the changing nature - the writing is beautiful here, and Boris' manipulation is hinted here.
In the second segment, the protagonist leaves the village with Boris and a corpse on the back seat of the car, and the tone shifts to that of a journey with grief. While the previous segment describes a life of hiding, this one talks about a life of escaping, with letters to Boris in the previous section replaced with a long letter from his mother, chopped into segments, and photographs from Boris. The second segment felt like a completely different book; it was more linear.
I like this book. There's this cyclical theme in which the protagonist mirrors his mother with how he loves Boris and how his mother loved his father. If I could describe this book in one sentence, I'd say it's Ocean Vuong's queer yearning meets the introspective apocalypse of It Lasts Forever then It's Over, except with a more grounded approach compared to Anne de Marcken's work. There's issues of cultural erasure being raised in the book - how his mother felt disconnected and disembodied when her roots were erased, and how that affected her view on her husband and child. The letters from the mother mentioned how she “lost” herself as she loved and lost the protagonist's father, and as the protagonist reconciles the strained relationship with his mother, he “resolves” the strains in his relationship with Boris in a dark turn.
I also find it interesting how in his relationship with Boris, the protagonist plays a “feminine” role - he lets Boris determine the route of their travels, Boris is the one driving in most scenes, and explicit scenes where Boris is always taking the lead - which basically solidifies how he is growing into his mother as time goes.
As someone who struggles with depression, this book is the most accurate and articulate depiction of the disease I've ever read. I really liked some of the descriptions in the book - that depression is a persistent thing that keeps knocking on the door, and despite everything, is still conquerable. I find the prose very clinical and cold, but the stories written struck me because of how relatable it was. I think, if you've been through something like this, it's very much a great read - but to a reader who doesn't understand it, it's more educational than empathetic.
More or less an introspection into the female gender role and the cycle of abuse. Irina Sturges, an ephebophilic abusive killer, manipulates her friends and kills her men while taking perverted photos that give her a sense of power. The book explained her past that led to her twisted view towards men, and because she's beautiful and sexy, her crimes are quite literally dismissed on-page by the men around her. She has so much sexual power but covets even more by dominating the men around her, due to the grooming and abuse of power she went through at an early age and received little support for due to her narcissistic mother. Not going to lie, she's awful and that made reading this book a slog sometimes, but the prose was snappy and quick which allowed me to actually finish the book. It's alright, just unpleasant to read, but I think that's kind of the point
Longing and grief illustrated in abstraction and through the thoughts of a gradually disembodied zombie. I loved the language, it's so lyrical and atmospheric. I think this book would be so profound to those who have experienced grief. I'm lucky enough that I never experienced proximity to that emotion, but I'll come back to this book when I've acquainted myself to how it feels.
I say this as a romantic - this book is depressing. The man never ends up with his one true love and is hung up on her for the next ten years, to the detriment of his wife and daughter? And his Maria never loved him back despite spending a night with him, having his daughter and mentioning him consistently after they separated? Apparently situationships aren't always a modern thing...
