Adeline
4 stars
*spoilers
Literary fiction following Edie, a young black woman who starts an affair with Eric, a middle aged white man, and her subsequent meetings with Eric’s wife Rebecca and their adopted black daughter Akila.
This was truly a character driven novel that explored the life of a black woman in the US.
I really liked the writing which was lush and evocative. There was a frantic pace in the writing, a stream of consciousness that parallels the main character’s personal and professional situations.
Other reviewers described the tone as cold and detached but personally I’ve found it more like burning hot, as you feel the desperation of Edie to exist, to feel, to be seen, to be remembered, the overwhelming sense of her desires and fears, her sadistic/masochist tendencies all exacerbated with the particular writing style full of the long sentences, lack of punctuation, particular vocabulary.
I really loved the New York setting and it made me want to go back there one day.
Unfortunately the pacing felt off, especially the ending part taking place at Comic Con and it’s aftermath, like the ending of her relationship with Eric felt too rushed. Also those scenes with Eric were less interesting too me as I actually preferred her scenes with Rebecca and Akila and I wished we had seen more of them, especially Akila. I also really liked the scenes about Edie’s artistic endeavours and her love for painting.
I absolutely loved the ending that really brought into a sharp, final focus what the whole story was about.
4 stars
*spoilers
Literary fiction following Edie, a young black woman who starts an affair with Eric, a middle aged white man, and her subsequent meetings with Eric’s wife Rebecca and their adopted black daughter Akila.
This was truly a character driven novel that explored the life of a black woman in the US.
I really liked the writing which was lush and evocative. There was a frantic pace in the writing, a stream of consciousness that parallels the main character’s personal and professional situations.
Other reviewers described the tone as cold and detached but personally I’ve found it more like burning hot, as you feel the desperation of Edie to exist, to feel, to be seen, to be remembered, the overwhelming sense of her desires and fears, her sadistic/masochist tendencies all exacerbated with the particular writing style full of the long sentences, lack of punctuation, particular vocabulary.
I really loved the New York setting and it made me want to go back there one day.
Unfortunately the pacing felt off, especially the ending part taking place at Comic Con and it’s aftermath, like the ending of her relationship with Eric felt too rushed. Also those scenes with Eric were less interesting too me as I actually preferred her scenes with Rebecca and Akila and I wished we had seen more of them, especially Akila. I also really liked the scenes about Edie’s artistic endeavours and her love for painting.
I absolutely loved the ending that really brought into a sharp, final focus what the whole story was about.