Faces in the crowd
Ratings4
Average rating3.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.3
A multi-layered story told by two narrators: a 21st-century Emily Dickinson living in Mexico City who relates to the world vicariously through her children and a past that both overwhelms and liberates her, and a dying poet living in a run-down apartment in Philadelphia in the 1950s. While she tells the story of her past as a young editor in New York City desperately trying to convince a publisher to translate and publish the works of Gilberto Owen-an obscure Mexican poet who lived in Harlem during the 1920s and whose ghostly presence constantly haunts her in the subway-she also relates the slow but inevitable disintegration of her present family life.
Reviews with the most likes.
I feel like I definitely would have liked this one better if I had read the physical book rather than listening to it on audio. It's a book that you're meant to immerse yourself in; I don't recommend trying to listen while multitasking.
It is definitely unique, and I enjoyed Luiselli's writing style.
2.5 rounded down, to take with a grain of salt as I'm not keen on very framented stories with multiple narrators.
Fragmented and dreamlike. At times the writing was truly beautiful but mostly I felt it was trying to make me feel not smart enough to get it, maybe it's right, maybe I'm not smart enough to get it but with the causal fatphobia at the beginning I'm not so sure. Honestly considering how strong this book started I feel it's more likely that it ran out of steam early.
