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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0593535227
| 9780593535226
| B09T9D8QY7
| 3.58
| 32,658
| Oct 25, 2022
| Oct 25, 2022
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really liked it
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❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” By turns, ❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” By turns, blunt and meandering The Passenger presents its readers with an unsparing tale permeated by existential angst. Cormac McCarthy’s prose is uncompromising: much of the narrative consists of dialogues: rambling conversations, mystifying backwards and forwards, sharp repartees, and unremitting monologues that could easily rival Dostoyevsky’s ones. The characters are preoccupied with their past, the meaning of life, human nature, war, history, particularly America’s, morality, death, with madness. Many of them are pessimistic and bitter, jaded by age and/or experience, weighted by guilt, and haunted by past choices and loves. They recount anecdotes, confess their fears and desires, and lose themselves in speculations and diatribes of a philosophical nature. Much of the book focuses on the encounters and conversations that our aptly named protagonist, Western, a shadow of a man working as a salvage diver, makes as he traverses the Southern States and later on as he drives toward the Northwest. These talks he has, be it with strangers or old friends, are presented as if from a transcript. We are made to feel as if we were actually there, witnessing these people talk. McCarthy certainly succeeds in conveying the cadences of their speech and the kind of vocabulary they would use. Western, a good listener, often lets the other person initiate and dictate the direction of their conversation. His motives and thoughts remain somewhat of a mystery, but we can often tell what is important to him or what he feels about something by the questions or statements he chooses to dodge or elide. During his various exchanges with people he meets in bars and restaurants in New Orleans and later when he has hit the road, we learn that he was in love with his sister and that his father collaborated with Oppenheimer and contributed to the atomic bomb. Haunted by his guilt, his sister’s death, and his father’s legacy, Western exists dimly. Interested with Western’s story, are short italicized chapters in which his sister, a promising mathematician, is being belittled by her hallucinations, in particular by the one referred to as ‘the Kid’. His rambling yet frenzied voice dominates these sections, and much of what he says and does is of an absurd, nonsensical nature, on the lines of Alice in Wonderland. The sister’s voice remains absent, but whereas we ultimately come to know Western, as someone who is lonely and bereft, yet willing to let people open up about their thoughts & feelings, the sister remains an impression of a beautiful yet ‘broken’ young woman. We know she wants to die, that she is tired, that her hallucinations are a source of torment and exhaustion…but I couldn’t get a grasp on her the way I did Western. Had her chapters allowed us to hear more of her, for instance, in regards to her feelings towards her self, her family and Western, maybe then she would have come across as a more believable character. Although there are women here and there, the novel mostly consists of the voices of men: men who feel forgotten, who are spiralling into addiction, and who view the world through grimey lenses. They share a preoccupation with questions of a philosophical nature, history, and science. They speak of war, of death, of politics. Yet, despite the depressing and often dismal mood permeating Western’s physical and metaphysical meanderings, there were many moments of wit, some really good banter, and a lot of cleverly delivered lines. There are only echoes of Western and his sister’s relationship, as we are given brief glimpses and fragments into the forbidden feelings they felt for one another. Because of Western’s avoidance of his past, his sister is more of a quietly haunting presence. I would be lying if I said that I understood the novel, as many passages and exchanges flew over my head. Yet, I found the writing compelling, especially McCarthy’s ear for language. The novel is certainly very atmospheric, even if the landscape we are being presented with feels desolate, an America from a bygone era. This is very much of a slow-burn of a novel, with subtle moments of introspection. Despite Western being followed by these men for unclear reasons, The Passengeris not a thriller, but rather an analytical psychodrama, where characters dispense historical, mathematical, and scientific facts left and right, all the while our central character is struck in a limbo of sorts. However, there is an obliqueness, an ambivalence, to the events that have and are transpiring that does add tension to Western's story and his past. The narrative is quite self-aware: from a reference to Joyce, to Western's nicknames, to the idea of playing the role of the tragic hero in the story of your life. Despite the story's gritty ambience there were many moments that I found moving, endearing even. The story's exploration of grief and alienation were certainly thought-provoking and evocative. This was my first foray into McCarthy's ouevre and I am definitely planning on making my way through his backlist. some quotes: “You believe that the loss of those you loved has absolved you of all else.” “Grief is the stuff of life. A life without grief is no life at all. But regret is a prison. Some part of you which you deeply value lies forever impaled at a crossroads you can no longer find and never forget.” “They’re sad. The dead are not loved long, you said. You may have noticed it in your travels, you said.” “Good guys, bad guys. You’re all the same guys.” “How come you never got another cat? I just didnt want to lose anything else. I’m all lost out.” “He was wet and chilled. Finally he stopped. What do you know of grief? he called. You know nothing. There is no other loss. Do you understand? The world is ashes. Ashes. For her to be in pain? The least insult? The least humiliation? Do you understand? For her to die alone? Her? There is no other loss. Do you understand? No other loss. None” “In the spring of the year birds began to arrive on the beach from across the gulf. Weary passerines. Vireos. Kingbirds and grosbeaks. Too exhausted to move. You could pick them up out of the sand and hold them trembling in your palm. Their small hearts beating and their eyes shuttering. He walked the beach with his flashlight the whole of the night to fend away predators and toward the dawn he slept with them in the sand. That none disturb these passengers.” “People want to be reimbursed for their pain. They seldom are.” “You see yourself as a tragic figure. No I dont. Not even close. A tragic figure is a person of consequence. Which you are not. A person of ill consequence.” “she was right. People will go to strange lengths to avoid the suffering they have coming. The world is full of people who should have been more willing to weep.” “A recluse in an old house. Growing stranger by the day.” “Much has changed and yet everything is the same. I am the same. I always will be. I’m writing because there are things that I think you would like to know. I am writing because there are things I dont want to forget. Everything is gone from my life except you. I dont even know what that means. There are times when I cant stop crying. I’m sorry. I’ll try again tomorrow. All my love.” “What was it she wanted? Come on. No. I dont know. She wanted to disappear. Well, that’s not quite right. She wanted not to have ever been here in the first place. She wanted to not have been. Period.” “I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” “History is a collection of paper. A few fading recollections. After a while what is not written never happened.” “Okay. Are you all right? No. Are you? No. But we’re on reduced expectations. That helps.” “I have a feeling that the shape of your interior life is something you believe somehow exempts you from other considerations. ” “evil has no alternate plan. It is simply incapable of assuming failure.” “A frail candle tottering in the darkness. All of history a rehearsal for its own extinction.” “ Fathers are always forgiven. In the end they are forgiven. Had it been women who dragged the world through these horrors there would be a bounty on them.” Merged review: ❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” By turns, blunt and meandering The Passenger presents its readers with an unsparing tale permeated by existential angst. Cormac McCarthy’s prose is uncompromising: much of the narrative consists of dialogues: rambling conversations, mystifying backwards and forwards, sharp repartees, and unremitting monologues that could easily rival Dostoyevsky’s ones. The characters are preoccupied with their past, the meaning of life, human nature, war, history, particularly America’s, morality, death, with madness. Many of them are pessimistic and bitter, jaded by age and/or experience, weighted by guilt, and haunted by past choices and loves. They recount anecdotes, confess their fears and desires, and lose themselves in speculations and diatribes of a philosophical nature. Much of the book focuses on the encounters and conversations that our aptly named protagonist, Western, a shadow of a man working as a salvage diver, makes as he traverses the Southern States and later on as he drives toward the Northwest. These talks he has, be it with strangers or old friends, are presented as if from a transcript. We are made to feel as if we were actually there, witnessing these people talk. McCarthy certainly succeeds in conveying the cadences of their speech and the kind of vocabulary they would use. Western, a good listener, often lets the other person initiate and dictate the direction of their conversation. His motives and thoughts remain somewhat of a mystery, but we can often tell what is important to him or what he feels about something by the questions or statements he chooses to dodge or elide. During his various exchanges with people he meets in bars and restaurants in New Orleans and later when he has hit the road, we learn that he was in love with his sister and that his father collaborated with Oppenheimer and contributed to the atomic bomb. Haunted by his guilt, his sister’s death, and his father’s legacy, Western exists dimly. Interested with Western’s story, are short italicized chapters in which his sister, a promising mathematician, is being belittled by her hallucinations, in particular by the one referred to as ‘the Kid’. His rambling yet frenzied voice dominates these sections, and much of what he says and does is of an absurd, nonsensical nature, on the lines of Alice in Wonderland. The sister’s voice remains absent, but whereas we ultimately come to know Western, as someone who is lonely and bereft, yet willing to let people open up about their thoughts & feelings, the sister remains an impression of a beautiful yet ‘broken’ young woman. We know she wants to die, that she is tired, that her hallucinations are a source of torment and exhaustion…but I couldn’t get a grasp on her the way I did Western. Had her chapters allowed us to hear more of her, for instance, in regards to her feelings towards her self, her family and Western, maybe then she would have come across as a more believable character. Although there are women here and there, the novel mostly consists of the voices of men: men who feel forgotten, who are spiralling into addiction, and who view the world through grimey lenses. They share a preoccupation with questions of a philosophical nature, history, and science. They speak of war, of death, of politics. Yet, despite the depressing and often dismal mood permeating Western’s physical and metaphysical meanderings, there were many moments of wit, some really good banter, and a lot of cleverly delivered lines. There are only echoes of Western and his sister’s relationship, as we are given brief glimpses and fragments into the forbidden feelings they felt for one another. Because of Western’s avoidance of his past, his sister is more of a quietly haunting presence. I would be lying if I said that I understood the novel, as many passages and exchanges flew over my head. Yet, I found the writing compelling, especially McCarthy’s ear for language. The novel is certainly very atmospheric, even if the landscape we are being presented with feels desolate, an America from a bygone era. This is very much of a slow-burn of a novel, with subtle moments of introspection. Despite Western being followed by these men for unclear reasons, The Passengeris not a thriller, but rather an analytical psychodrama, where characters dispense historical, mathematical, and scientific facts left and right, all the while our central character is struck in a limbo of sorts. However, there is an obliqueness, an ambivalence, to the events that have and are transpiring that does add tension to Western's story and his past. The narrative is quite self-aware: from a reference to Joyce, to Western's nicknames, to the idea of playing the role of the tragic hero in the story of your life. Despite the story's gritty ambience there were many moments that I found moving, endearing even. The story's exploration of grief and alienation were certainly thought-provoking and evocative. This was my first foray into McCarthy's ouevre and I am definitely planning on making my way through his backlist. some quotes: “You believe that the loss of those you loved has absolved you of all else.” “Grief is the stuff of life. A life without grief is no life at all. But regret is a prison. Some part of you which you deeply value lies forever impaled at a crossroads you can no longer find and never forget.” “They’re sad. The dead are not loved long, you said. You may have noticed it in your travels, you said.” “Good guys, bad guys. You’re all the same guys.” “How come you never got another cat? I just didnt want to lose anything else. I’m all lost out.” “He was wet and chilled. Finally he stopped. What do you know of grief? he called. You know nothing. There is no other loss. Do you understand? The world is ashes. Ashes. For her to be in pain? The least insult? The least humiliation? Do you understand? For her to die alone? Her? There is no other loss. Do you understand? No other loss. None” “In the spring of the year birds began to arrive on the beach from across the gulf. Weary passerines. Vireos. Kingbirds and grosbeaks. Too exhausted to move. You could pick them up out of the sand and hold them trembling in your palm. Their small hearts beating and their eyes shuttering. He walked the beach with his flashlight the whole of the night to fend away predators and toward the dawn he slept with them in the sand. That none disturb these passengers.” “People want to be reimbursed for their pain. They seldom are.” “You see yourself as a tragic figure. No I dont. Not even close. A tragic figure is a person of consequence. Which you are not. A person of ill consequence.” “she was right. People will go to strange lengths to avoid the suffering they have coming. The world is full of people who should have been more willing to weep.” “A recluse in an old house. Growing stranger by the day.” “Much has changed and yet everything is the same. I am the same. I always will be. I’m writing because there are things that I think you would like to know. I am writing because there are things I dont want to forget. Everything is gone from my life except you. I dont even know what that means. There are times when I cant stop crying. I’m sorry. I’ll try again tomorrow. All my love.” “What was it she wanted? Come on. No. I dont know. She wanted to disappear. Well, that’s not quite right. She wanted not to have ever been here in the first place. She wanted to not have been. Period.” “I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” “History is a collection of paper. A few fading recollections. After a while what is not written never happened.” “Okay. Are you all right? No. Are you? No. But we’re on reduced expectations. That helps.” “I have a feeling that the shape of your interior life is something you believe somehow exempts you from other considerations. ” “evil has no alternate plan. It is simply incapable of assuming failure.” “A frail candle tottering in the darkness. All of history a rehearsal for its own extinction.” “ Fathers are always forgiven. In the end they are forgiven. Had it been women who dragged the world through these horrors there would be a bounty on them.” Merged review: ❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “I think a lot of people would elect to be dead if they didnt have to die.” By turns, blunt and meandering The Passenger presents its readers with an unsparing tale permeated by existential angst. Cormac McCarthy’s prose is uncompromising: much of the narrative consists of dialogues: rambling conversations, mystifying backwards and forwards, sharp repartees, and unremitting monologues that could easily rival Dostoyevsky’s ones. The characters are preoccupied with their past, the meaning of life, human nature, war, history, particularly America’s, morality, death, with madness. Many of them are pessimistic and bitter, jaded by age and/or experience, weighted by guilt, and haunted by past choices and loves. They recount anecdotes, confess their fears and desires, and lose themselves in speculations and diatribes of a philosophical nature. Much of the book focuses on the encounters and conversations that our aptly named protagonist, Western, a shadow of a man working as a salvage diver, makes as he traverses the Southern States and later on as he drives toward the Northwest. These talks he has, be it with strangers or old friends, are presented as if from a transcript. We are made to feel as if we were actually there, witnessing these people talk. McCarthy certainly succeeds in conveying the cadences of their speech and the kind of vocabulary they would use. Western, a good listener, often lets the other person initiate and dictate the direction of their conversation. His motives and thoughts remain somewhat of a mystery, but we can often tell what is important to him or what he feels about something by the questions or statements he chooses to dodge or elide. During his various exchanges with people he meets in bars and restaurants in New Orleans and later when he has hit the road, we learn that he was in love with his sister and that his father collaborated with Oppenheimer and contributed to the atomic bomb. Haunted by his guilt, his sister’s death, and his father’s legacy, Western exists dimly. Interested with West ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Dec 26, 2022
not set
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Dec 28, 2022
not set
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Feb 09, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 0063227215
| 9780063227217
| 0063227215
| 3.20
| 382
| 2020
| Jun 06, 2023
|
liked it
|
3 ½ stars Mellow yet meaningful, People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice is a sensitively written and delightfully earnest collection of short stor 3 ½ stars Mellow yet meaningful, People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice is a sensitively written and delightfully earnest collection of short stories. Consisting of three short stories (“Realizing Fun Things Through Water”, “Bath Towel Visuals”, “Hello, Thank You I’m Okay”) and the title novella, “People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice”, this collection struck me for its empathy, and for its focus on characters who are (for whatever reasons) made to feel different. Throughout these stories, Ao Omae explores the experiences of characters who feel constrained by patriarchal norms of gender and sexuality. Omae is in particular critical of strict gender roles, heteronormative notions of dating and marriage, and traditional ideas of masculinity. In “People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals Are Nice” we follow Nanamori, a college student who is disenchanted by other men’s braggadocio attitudes towards women, from their crass banter to the way they objectify women and belittle men who are to whatever degree ‘atypical’. Nanamori longs for a more genderless society, and he finds solace in one of his college clubs, a judgment-free place where students talk to plushies for emotional support. Nanamori continues to feel guilty by association when it comes to his peer’s sexist and/or homophobic behavior, and he struggles with his own desire to ‘fit’ in. Throughout the novella, the narrative also explores his confusion when it comes to separating friendship from romance. In “Hello, Thank You I’m Okay” a shut-in young man delights his family when he announces that he is planning to invite his new friends over to his birthday party. When the time comes, his mother and sister realize that his friends are not exactly part of the ‘material’ world. Yet, not wanting to hurt his feelings, they play along and soon find themselves believing in their existence. The other two stories in this collection are more forgettable, not quite as funny or touching as the titular novella or “Hello, Thank You I’m Okay”. Still, it was an insightful collection that gives readers a glimpse into contemporary Japan and the different perspectives of young(ish) people questioning and pushing back against tradition. The translation was good, but some scenes/descriptions could have benefited from some added clarity. For instance, we have this scene where a character comes up with a fake name, “Kotori”, after seeing a bird outside the window, but unless you know that bird is “tori” in Japanese her name seems very random. Nevertheless, the unadorned writing style is very easy to read. I liked this collection well enough. The stories, while slightly humorous, are grounded in everyday reality. The characters are not particularly fleshed out but we gain an understanding of their perspectives. The narratives are focused on exploring certain issues and they succeed in doing that. I appreciated the author’s sensitivity and that he allows characters to change their mind and/or question their own opinions and beliefs. I would definitely check out more of his work. If you are looking for an easy yet thoughtful read, look no further. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 06, 2024
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Jan 08, 2024
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Dec 25, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0593448200
| 9780593448205
| 0593448200
| 3.74
| 70,947
| Aug 29, 2023
| Aug 29, 2023
|
liked it
|
3 ¼ stars I believe there’s a fine line (if any) between optimism and willful idiocy, so I try to avoid optimism altogether, lest I fall over the line3 ¼ stars I believe there’s a fine line (if any) between optimism and willful idiocy, so I try to avoid optimism altogether, lest I fall over the line mistakenly. Happiness Falls is an ingeniously suspenseful novel that blends together various genres and plotlines. What begins as a missing person story evolves into a courtroom drama, all underpinned by a sensitive exploration of developmental disabilities. The novel addresses the prejudices and ableism that individuals with disabilities face, as well as the difficulties and frustrations experienced by both the affected individuals and their loved ones. Happiness Falls story plays with characters' (mis)perceptions of events, in a way that reminded me of Koreeda’s Monster. However, unlike that film, the book is weighed down by heavy-handed foreshadowing, characters that lack depth, and a mystery that ultimately feels both bloated and empty. Nevertheless, I found myself gripped by the unfolding events and the thought-provoking themes raised by the narrative. It is certainly informative, providing much food for thought. Its social commentary, particularly on how insidious and widespread ableism is, to be deeply affecting. I also appreciated the honest depiction of the protagonist's more unflattering thoughts, especially when younger. The author's interrogation of happiness, a central aspect of the story, was also very compelling. The deciding factor that turned this from a flawed yet engrossing read into a questionable and frustrating one is the way the book deals with one character in particular. His cryptic characterization,—which I acknowledge that given that this is achieved retroactively, it faces more constrains that the other characters—and the failure to address the true repercussions, let alone the ethics, of his actions were disappointing. The novel opens with a rather long-winded prologue that establishes the story, its themes, and the narrative style. Set during COVID, the novel revolves around the aftermath of the narrator’s father's disappearance. Mia, a Korean-American 20-year old overthinker, has just broken up with her boyfriend but soon finds herself dealing with a much larger issue when her younger brother Eugene, who has been diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called Angelman syndrome, returns distressed and alone from his daily walk with their father. It takes a while for the realization and panic to hit Mia, her mother, and her other brother. The remainder of the novel provides a step-by-step chronicle of the investigation conducted by both the police and Mia's family. It soon becomes apparent that the authorities blame Eugene and have little interest in pursuing other avenues. Desperate to protect him, Mia and her family try to learn more about that morning’s events. The scattered information they have only confuses things further. A video seems to suggest Eugene may have attacked their father, but more worrying still is that Mia’s father was hiding many things. The novel explores the idea of incomplete information and the assumptions we make. It also deals with how Eugene’s condition affects him, their family unit, and how society perceives him (from infantilization to discrimination). I was engaged by the mystery and found myself caring about Mia and her family, although this had less to do with how well-developed the characters were and more with the injustices and adversities they face. Mia did not come across as a believable 20-something, reminding me of other novels where the protagonist's age seems more reflective of the author's. Despite the narrative’s attempts at quirkiness, Mia feels flat, and her supposed tendency to overanalyze is contradicted by her shallow consideration of significant issues, like her father’s actions. She reminded me a bit of the protagonist from Special Topics in Calamity Physics, in that they both penchant for footnotes, asides, and speculating. Mia had a vaguely nancy drew vibe going for her, and flashbacks do contribute in providing some context for some of her behaviours and so on, but, still, she felt very beside the point. Given that we are meant to see her as this clever and quirky person it seemed odd that then the narrative would want us to believe that she has 0 emotional intelligence or that she wouldn't question certain things further. Mia’s mother is denied much agency, receiving only a few compelling sidenotes but not enough attention to come across as a well-rounded character. It's insulting that her feelings are glossed over during major discoveries, such as learning about her partner’s deceit and dubious research. Mia’s other brother is likable but receives less attention than Eugene, which is understandable given the story's focus on Eugene and all that he goes through in this novel. The most infuriating character is the missing father. Mia learns many troubling things about him, including his manipulative behavior and emotional betrayal. (view spoiler)[He treats his children like experiment subjects, lies to them, and hides his activities from his wife, whom he should have informed about engaging Eugene in new therapy. (hide spoiler)] The novel skirts around his emotional betrayal, idealizing him instead of delving into the true scummy depths of his actions. It seemed like such a Choice™ on the author's part to gloss over so many things, and it made her novel feel incomplete. I personally found the reveal about the therapist (or whatever her official title is) to be a cheap way to mitigate the severity of his actions. (view spoiler)[The story teases the possibility of him cheating on his wife with the therapist, only to reassure us that this can't be the case because her partner is a woman. (hide spoiler)]However, I would still feel deeply hurt if my partner were hiding something related to our child while sharing that experience with someone else. And yet everyone accepts this because surely the shitty dad was just trying to protect them and so on (way to infantalize your wife dude). Despite its flaws, Happiness Falls raises important questions about family, ethics, the assumptions we make about one another, as well as the notion of happiness. Angie Kim elevates what could have been a straightforward missing person story into something more nuanced, even if the execution doesn't quite hit the mark. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 24, 2024
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Mar 28, 2024
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Aug 28, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 0735272794
| 9780735272798
| 0735272794
| 3.73
| 5,120
| Apr 2016
| Apr 10, 2018
|
liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 06, 2023
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Mar 10, 2023
|
Mar 06, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| B002P8P956
| 4.43
| 2,800
| 1925
| 1945
|
liked it
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It might be unimaginative to use a descriptor such as ‘lyrical’ to describe a poetry collection but I can’t help finding lyrical to perfectly sum up T
It might be unimaginative to use a descriptor such as ‘lyrical’ to describe a poetry collection but I can’t help finding lyrical to perfectly sum up The Weary Blues. Some of the poems read like time capsules, or snapshots, that in just a few verses manage to capture the zeitgeist of the 1920s. Langston Hughes hones in particular on the experiences of Black Americans, and he does so both with joy and sorrow. Some of the poems are full of zing, as they are populated by dancers, lovers, and music. Others are more contemplative, as Hughes writes about history and the continued social injustices experienced by his community. While many of his poems are playful and thrumming with energy, some are startling for their seeming simplicity. I found myself loving those latter ones in particular. In these poems Hughes experiments with his voice and style and the result is a multivalent collection; while some poems did come across as more 'finely tuned' than others, I found myself charmed by his collection and look forward to reading more of his poems. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 16, 2023
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Feb 21, 2023
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Feb 16, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1583222561
| 9781583222560
| 1583222561
| 4.32
| 53,482
| Mar 14, 2000
| Sep 04, 2001
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liked it
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 2023
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Apr 2023
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Jan 29, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0735244766
| 9780735244764
| 0735244766
| 3.75
| 1,104
| Aug 22, 2023
| Aug 22, 2023
|
really liked it
|
3 ½ stars (rounded up) Great start, meandering middle, satisfying conclusion. Percy Jackson by way of Neil Gaiman, Zalika Reid-Benta's River Mumma is 3 ½ stars (rounded up) Great start, meandering middle, satisfying conclusion. Percy Jackson by way of Neil Gaiman, Zalika Reid-Benta's River Mumma is a short yet compelling urban fantasy novel inspired by Jamaican folklore that explores the importance of ancestral ties in the modern world. Set in Toronto, our main character is Alicia who is very much going through a quarter-life crisis after finishing grad school. she's now 'stuck' in a retail job she neither likes nor is particularly gifted at, and tends to isolate herself from others. Alicia's humdrum existence is brought to a halt by River Mumma, a Jamaican water deity, who appears to Alicia and tasks her with a time-sensitive quest: Alicia has 24 hours to find River Mumma's missing comb. Much like Percy Jackson, Alicia is not alone in her quest. By her side is Heaven, who is very knowledgable in Jamaican folklore, and Mars, whose participation in this possibly life-endangering adventure is reluctant at best. I really liked the banter and friendship between Alicia, Heaven, and Mars, and I also found Alicia's current 'predicament' (feeling lost after finishing grad school, unsatisfied but unable to leave the world of retail), all too relatable. The fantasy elements and the various 'obstacles' that present themselves along the way to finding the comb were imaginative and engrossing. What I did find repetitive and somewhat of a 'filler' were the scenes featuring these flashbacks into Alicia's ancestors. I just thought that they detracted momentum from Alicia's 'present'. Maybe I would have preferred it if these flashbacks weren't so samey, both in their vocabulary and imagery, and I would have felt more of a connection if, like in Reid-Benta's previous novel, the focus had been on her more immediate family (her mother and so on). Still, I did find River Mumma to be a captivating read that succeeds in imbuing a contemporary coming-of-age tale with folklore. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 25, 2023
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Aug 30, 2023
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Jan 29, 2023
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0593595270
| 9780593595275
| 0593595270
| 3.51
| 12,884
| Nov 10, 2011
| Apr 18, 2023
|
liked it
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❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars “The lit fuse of the chilly explosive primed in her heart is no more. The int❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars “The lit fuse of the chilly explosive primed in her heart is no more. The interior of her mouth is as empty as the veins through which the blood no longer flows, it is as empty as a lift shaft where the lift has ceased to operate.” In a clinically detached prose Han Kang examines in exacting detail the experiences of two individuals whose ability to perceive the world and be able to express themselves, to interact with others, are impaired. Preoccupied with the notion and the reality of communication, perception, language, and sight these characters feel increasingly alienated from their everyday reality, unsure of themselves, their senses, and their bodies, and attempting to find a new way to occupy space, of navigating their world, by, in the case of the woman, distancing herself from that which was familiar, and, in the case of the man, retreating inward to recollect the past and to understand the origins and effects of his linguistic and cultural disconnect. Unsparing and analytical, Greek Lessons is permeated by ambivalence. This atmosphere of unease and the characters’ aloofness succeed in making us feel a sense of estrangement from the text, which is compounded by the prose’s impersonal way of addressing the characters and how events that should carry some emotional impact are delivered and/or recounted in a distinctly dispassionate way. Kang places her characters under a microscope, zeroing in on momentary discomforts and sensations, be it a character’s dry lips or quivering eyelids. These close-ups are often uncomfortable, but they do succeed in conveying with precision the characters’ experiences. These coldly anatomical descriptions interrupt the characters’ introspections, which often amount to a lot of navel-gazing. Their preoccupation with the function and reality of a language, of linguistic barriers, of bilingualism, of ‘dead’ languages, of the way language and communication are necessary to navigate many spaces, and without it, one can find themselves on the margins, a passive spectator. The woman’s difficulties in conveying and articulating her thoughts and feelings definitely resonated with me. She is unwilling or avoids explaining her ‘loss’ of language, and there was something like resilience in her silence, in her choice to remain opaque. I was reminded of a Georgian film I watched a while back, My Happy Family, which revolves around a middle-aged woman who decides to leave her husband and family to live by herself and throughout the film refuses to explain her choice or back down from it. Here of course the circumstances of the woman are quite different, soon after the death of her mother the woman loses a drawn-out custody battle over her eight-year-old son. Severed from her son, grieving the loss of her mother, the woman, a professor, falls once again victim to a ‘malady’ that results in a loss of speech. “Before she lost words—when she was still able to use them to write—she sometimes wished that her own expressions would more closely resemble inarticulacy: a moan or low cry. The sound of suffering through bated breath. Snarling. Humming in one’s half-sleep to pacify a child. Stifled laughter. The sound of two people’s lips pressing together, pulling apart.” Yet, her loss of language cannot be easily ascribed to these losses. Feeling disconnected from Korean, the woman attempts to approach the language anew. To do so, she distances herself from her mother tongue and chooses to study a dead language, ancient Greek. These classes are taught by a man who grew up between Korea and Germany, and because of this has long felt not only a linguistic divide but a self-divide, perpetually longing to belong, to feel at ease. For years he has been gradually losing his sight, and so he finds himself questioning how he can retain independence, observing the world around him with regret and yearning. He writes letters to his sister, recounting his childhood experiences, from the shock of moving from Korea to Germany to the pressure to ‘assimilate’, and he also reflects on past friendships and loves. “Even the occasional memorable event is soon erased without a trace under time’s huge, opaque mass.” By switching between these two individuals Kang draws a parallel between their experiences and realities, as they both find themselves having to reevaluate new ways of perceiving and communicating with the world around them. There is, towards the end, a moment of kinship between the two, that felt startlingly poignant. “Sunspots explode, without a sound, in the distance. Hearts and lips touch across a fault line, at once joined and eternally sundered.” The narrative expounds on these two individuals' theoretical and personal ruminations, mirroring and juxtaposing their experiences and perspectives. Their reflections on languages, spoken and unspoken ways of communication, expression and perception, memory, grief, and the body (the way they fail and change us), are rendered all the more lucid by the author’s unsparing style. Yet, despite how clinical and ascetic her style was, there are moments where Kang’s prose is elevated by an elegiac, lyrical even, use of language. “If only she’d made a map of the route her tears used to take.” Greek Lessons makes for a fascinating read. The two central characters remain slightly outside of our reach, despite the time we spend alongside them. The subject matter and language itself are the core of this novel, making it sure, intellectually and stylistically arresting but, except for a few moments, I felt not only at a remove but as if I was reading a textbook. I couldn't help but compare this unfavourably to two favorites of mine, Whereabouts and All the Lovers in the Night (both novels also explore loneliness in women who assume the role of observer). Nevertheless, I do admire what Kang achieves in Greek Lessons and I found the ending to be quite rewarding. Some quotes: My love for you wasn’t foolish, but I was; had my own innate foolishness made love itself foolish? Or is that I myself wasn’t at all that foolish, but love’s inherent foolishness awakened any foolishness latent in me and eventually smashed everything to pieces? [T]here had once been a word that encapsulated both beauty and the sacred, without their having yet fallen away from each other, just as colour and clarity had formed one body within another word—the truth of this had never before been brought home to me with such vibrant intensity. Whatever their motivation, those who study Greek share certain tendencies. They walk and talk slowly, for the most part, and don’t show much emotion (I guess this applies to me too). Perhaps because this language is a long-dead one and doesn’t allow for oral communication. Silence, shy hesitation and reactions of muted laughter slowly heat the air inside the classroom, and slowly cool it. What a strange thing one's flesh and blood is. How strange are the ways that it brings us sorrow. Ink overlays ink, memory overlays memory, bloodstain overlays bloodstain. Serenity over serenity, smile over smile, bears down. Do you ever wonder at the strangeness of it? That our bodies have eyelids and lips, That they can at times be made to close from the outside, and at other times to lock fast from within. She knows that no single specific experience led to her loss of language. Language worn ragged over thousands of years, from wear and tear by countless tongues and pens. Language worn ragged over the course of her life, by her own tongue and pen. Each time she tried to begin a sentence, she could feel her aged heart. Her patched and repatched, dried-up, expressionless heart. The more keenly she felt it, the more fiercely she clasped the words. ...more |
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Jan 09, 2023
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Jan 10, 2023
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Dec 22, 2022
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| 0802142621
| 9780802142627
| 0802142621
| 3.73
| 6,656
| 1999
| Sep 14, 2006
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❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars “I felt as if this place I had come to was nowhere. As if I no longer had a❀ insta ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars “I felt as if this place I had come to was nowhere. As if I no longer had a home to return to. That road I had been on didn’t lead anywhere, this trip would never end—it seemed to me as if next morning would never arrive.” Banana Yoshimoto is at her whimsical best in the two short stories collected in Hardboiled & Hard Luck. Her storytelling is so carefree, unconcerned by plot or traditional narrative structures. Yet, it is characterized by a breeziness that adds a propelling energy to her stories. Maybe this energy comes from her protagonist’s voices, which remain easy-going and often oddly cheerful, regardless of their circumstances. Far from inducing one to sleep, the dreamlike atmosphere that is typical of Yoshimoto’s work, has a charming effect. Yoshimoto’s knack for surreality, and her tendency to dabble in magical realism, revitalize what would otherwise be more grounded slice-of-life stories. Yoshimoto’s off-beat realism is charming, occasionally bizarre, and ultimately heartwarming. In 'Harboiled', my favorite of the two stories, we follow an unnamed narrator who after a hike in the mountains she goes to stay at a hotel. We learn that it is the anniversary of her ex-lover’s death. The narrator dreams of this lover, a woman by the name of Chizuru, and recalls the way they came together and, eventually, apart. The narrator is not only visited by Chizuru, another woman comes to see her. While the story features ghosts and haunted places, the narrative feels far from eerie. These visitations feel far from fantastical, but rather natural extensions of the ‘real’ world. While the narrator is taken aback by her encounters with the dead, she takes the experience in stride, and so does the woman working at the hotel. The bittersweet mood permeating this story adds to the overall atmosphere. Witty yet heartfelt, 'Hardboiled' is a delightfully dreamy story about past loves and regrets. The second story instead follows a young woman whose sister is in a coma. Knowing that she will soon die, the sister longs for past days. She forms a tentative connection with the older brother of her sister’s fiancé, but the timing makes it impossible for them to explore or deepen their relationship. This story does seem to incorporate many of Yoshimoto’s thematic trademarks (sisters, comas, jokes about incest, cold male love interests), but given its brevity, it isn’t weighed down by them. I guess both stories in this collection are about letting go, reconciling yourself with past loves, and moving forward. Balancing melancholy with humor, Hardboiled & Hard Luck makes for a quick yet dreamy read. ...more |
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Jan 02, 2023
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Jan 05, 2023
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Dec 20, 2022
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| 3.43
| 81
| unknown
| Jan 08, 2021
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “Love doesn’t belong to any of us—it exists elsewhere, complete, from beginning to end. We sim❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “Love doesn’t belong to any of us—it exists elsewhere, complete, from beginning to end. We simply have the privilege of coming into contact with it every once in a while.” The dreamlike mood permeating this short story by Mieko Kawakami is reminiscent of Elisabeth Thomas’s Catherine House, Sylvia Plath, and Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days of Discipline. The idyllic scenery is counterpointed by Marie’s disenchantment. We learn that, alongside other girls, she stays at Mia dormitory, a place which, unlike her home, is safe. A former lover, Karen, wants to know if Marie really loved her, and this leads to a discussion on love, God, transcendence. The story also touches on the grief experienced by Anna, a guardian at Mia dormitory, over her one-year-old daughter's sudden death. With clarity Kawakami renders Anna’s sorrow, allowing Marie’s feelings to be more opaque, ambivalent even. Despite the story’s short scope, Kawakami is able to capture Anna's grief and Marie’s alienation and loneliness. 'Marie’s Proof of Love' makes for a contemplative piece that is at once intriguing and poignant. “Marie’s proof of love was a sentimental cliché. But she had arrived at it herself. To give shape to her unformulated thoughts was an arduous task as if she were performing surgery on her own body, grasping what lay whirling around her throat, cutting and sewing them into words.” You can read this story here. ...more |
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Dec 16, 2022
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Dec 16, 2022
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Dec 02, 2022
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| 1250850878
| 9781250850874
| B09YPWJDR4
| 3.93
| 775
| Apr 20, 2022
| May 11, 2022
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars Despite its short length Men, Women, and Chainsaws packs a punch. This novella is ch ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars Despite its short length Men, Women, and Chainsaws packs a punch. This novella is characterized by Stephen Graham Jones' signature style, which is as propelling as it is chaotic. The central character's knowledge of slashers and her intense personality brought to mind Jade from the author's The Lake Witch trilogy, so I found myself rooting for her despite her questionable morality. The supernatural element here pays homage to a long line of horrors featuring (possibly) possessed (or otherwise ) cars...but Jones really makes it his own, so that things don't pan out the way we might expect. Men, Women, and Chainsaws makes for an excellent Halloween read featuring revenge, female rage, and tons of references, so I would definitely recommend it to fans of the horror genre. ...more |
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Oct 31, 2022
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Oct 31, 2022
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Oct 31, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 1250806208
| 9781250806208
| 1250806208
| 3.99
| 420
| Jan 24, 2023
| Jan 24, 2023
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “It will hurt. It already hurts. Everything fucking hurts, and still we are bigger than our tra❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “It will hurt. It already hurts. Everything fucking hurts, and still we are bigger than our tragedy. We are not deviant, we are exultant. We are on top of the world. We are bigger than our tragedies.” The Minus-One Club is a sad, sometimes funny, ultimately bittersweet coming-of-age exploring grief, love, identity, as well as depression, addiction, and faith. The short chapters, some not even a page long, the simple yet punchy prose, and the focus on mental health, make The Minus-One Club the kind of read that is hound to appeal to fans of Benjamin Alire Sáenz and K. Ancrum. The Minus-One Club is the kind of ya book that I would have absolutely loved 10 years ago, but now, I can only ‘just’ like. There were these moments of tenderness that did get to me, and I found the author’s portrayal of grief, acceptance, and sexuality to be realistic, so much so that readers looking for books where everything works out, in the end, should approach The Minus-One Club this with caution. “It didn’t feel like anything to me,” he says. “I don’t feel anything anymore.” Our narrator, 15-year-old Kermit Sanders, is bereft. His older sister, died in a car accident, and Kermit’s life will never be the same. His very religious parents seek solace in God and in their local church, but Kermit doesn’t know what to believe anymore. When he returns to school he feels at remove from everything, miles away from the ‘petty’ concerns of other high school students. His best friend, alongside most of the school, doesn’t know how to deal with Kermit’s loss, so they either proffer unwanted platitudes or avoid him altogether. Kermit can’t stop thinking or dreaming of his sister, often hearing her voice in his head. And then he finds in his locker a mysterious invitation that leads him to the “Minus-One Club”. The club is made up of five other students, all of whom have ‘lost’ someone. They meet up after school, to play cards together or other games. They offer a weird type of moral support as they are never to discuss their losses. The club is in fact a place where they want to be free of other people’s sorrys, or have to talk about their feelings. Here they can just be. Despite belonging to different ‘social’ groups, and not being able to talk about ‘stuff’, their bond is an unspoken one. Kermit finds himself growing particularly close to one club member, Matt, a seemingly happy-go-lucky guy who happens to be their school’s only ‘out’ gay student. The more time they spend together, the stronger Kermit’s feelings for Matt become so that soon enough his crush develops into something harder to ignore. But spending time with Matt and the club sees Kermit drift away from his parents. Not only do they impose stultifying rules on Kermit but they expect, demand even, that he continue to attend church and take part in church-related activities. As Kermit realizes that Matt may feel the same as he does for him, he struggles to reconcile his sexuality with his faith. Not only is his church particularly homophobic but his parents are too. As Kermit tries to unlearn those beliefs that have made him view his desires and himself as sinful, and wrong, he is forced to decide whether he can continue ‘pretending’ to be someone that he is not. Kermit and Matt’s relationship however is further jeopardized by Matt’s own troubles. Despite his carefree attitude, Matt is not doing well at all, and as his drinking worsens it falls Kermit, and all of the club really, have to confront the dangers of keeping silent about their grief and their pain. In addition to exploring the realities of grief and depression, Kekla Magoon touches on peer pressure, both when it comes to drinking and having sex, and bullying. Some of the characters act in ways that are, to put it mildly, problematic, but rather than condemning them, we are made to understand what and how they may have come to behave in such a way. I appreciated the empathy Magoon shows her characters and the sensitivity she demonstrates in treating such complex issues. My heart went out to Kermit, Matt (flawed as he is), and the rest of the club. I liked that the ending is hopeful yet realistic, in that some things remain (for the time) unresolved. I also appreciated that the story not only shows how grief expresses itself differently in different people (some like matt develop a self-destructive streak, others find thesmelves questioning theri faith, some cry, others don't, etc.) but the repercussions of having emotionally abusive and/or neglectful parents. Kermit's parents fail or refuse to, recognise his grief as 'genuine' (because he hasn't cried), or allow him to be himself. They even try to stop him from spending time with Matt, even when that's what makes him happy and pressure him to go to church even when he expresses the desire not to. Superficially Matt's father may seem great, given that doesn't care whether Matt goes to parties or who he brings back home with him. But, after certain events later in the story, Kermit comes to realize just how hurtful it can be to know that your parent doesn't really think of you. Another strength of The Minus-One Club was that Magoon doesn't gloss over Kermit's internalised homophobia nor is his faith depicted simplistically as Magoon takes time to explore the whys & hows of his fraught relationship to his religion and his parents. While I could have done without the 3-page farting/dream sequence (maybe that’s just me) I did find those sillier moments between Kermit and Matt or between Kermit and his sister, to add much-needed levity to the story. The chapter titles also provided a source of humor. Anyway, if you are looking for a ya read that will pull at your heartstrings, look no further. I know I said earlier on that I didn't love this, I just liked it, but now that I have thought back to it, I can honestly say that I am fond of this book. Kermit, Matt, and the rest of the club got to me. They have these very wholesome moments that felt so very precious. Also, I think this book delivers several important lessons in a way that felt authentic and poignant (as opposed to contrived and 'preachy'). And while not everything is resolved by the end, those final pages were rewarding and full of heart. Ultimately, the book shows the importance of being honest, about your feelings, ugly or sad as they may be, of being there for your friends, even when they try to tell you nothing is the matter and everything is a-okay, and that sometimes, you can't just 'get on with things' or push through it, and you have to allow yourself time, to feel, and maybe even, one day, heal. ...more |
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1
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Jan 24, 2023
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Jan 26, 2023
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Aug 18, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 1911027999
| 9781911027997
| 1911027999
| 4.07
| 799
| Jun 2020
| Jul 02, 2020
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really liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “I am full of nouns and verbs; I don’t know how to live any other way.” Equal parts winsome and ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ “I am full of nouns and verbs; I don’t know how to live any other way.” Equal parts winsome and wistful Magnolia, 木蘭 makes for a dreamy yet insightful collection of poems that read like a meditation on the interplay between language, memory, and heritage. In some of these poems, Nina Mingya Powles examines how language has affected the way she interacts with her family members, her grasp of Mandarin, and writers like Eileen Chang and actors like Maggie Cheung. Some of these poems are light, ephemeral even, others appear more like snapshots, ones that capture in vibrant detail a certain mood. “When reading her stories in translation it’s like trying to see her from a great distance. Or through a thick pane of glass. I am standing outside, peering into rooms where her ghost has been.” Sometimes a certain memory or image leads Powles, and us, into unexpected places, so that we come to surprising realizations or observations. Many of these poems are suffused by a sense of longing, a nostalgia even. Powles yearns for connection, for clarity, for a more clear understanding of her own history. While the experiences and images within these poems are clearly very specific to Powles, there were many instances where I felt very in sync with the way Powles articulated her feelings and/or impressions. I liked the rhythm of her words, the imagery she creates, and the reflections she makes. The melancholic atmosphere permeating these poems adds to their introspective mood, and I even found myself revisiting my favorites once I’d finished the collection. “Everything is in a haze, a sunken dreamworld seen through pink stained glass. Everything around me might collapse at the slightest touch. Light, sound, the air that separates you and me.” Powles’ interrogation of language, its limitations, and its potential, brought to mind the work of Jhumpa Lahiri, Kim Thúy, and Victoria Chang. The comparative dimension Powles brings into her poems, as she refers to real-life people and art, brought to mind Olivia Laing. If you are looking for a melodic collection exploring language, memory, and identity you should definitely add this release to your tbr list. “In Chinese one word can lead you out of the dark / then back into it / in a single breath”...more |
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Sep 02, 2022
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Sep 12, 2022
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Jul 09, 2022
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Paperback
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| 125023557X
| 9781250235572
| 125023557X
| 4.37
| 6,659
| Nov 09, 2021
| Nov 09, 2021
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars Himawari House breathes a breath of fresh air into the contemporary graphic novel ge ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars Himawari House breathes a breath of fresh air into the contemporary graphic novel genre. I have never come across a multilingual graphic novel so it was really refreshing to see Harmony Becker seamlessly incorporate English, Japanese, Korean, and Singlish in her work. I loved that the English equivalent of whatever was being said in Japanese was imperfect, or incomplete, to convey a specific character’s ‘limited’ knowledge/understanding of the language. We follow Nao, a Japanese-American young woman, over the course of a year that she spends at the Himawari sharehouse in Tokyo. Nao longs to reconnect to her Japanese heritage, but soon after arriving in Tokyo is made to feel like an outsider, an American, a ‘foreigner’. Growing up in America she was also made to feel like an outsider, with her white peers taunting her for the way she looked, for the food she ate, etc. In going to Japan Nao hoped to find that which she’d been so yearning for, a place to belong to. Thankfully for Nao, she’s not alone in her attempts to master the Japanese language and understand/adapt to Japanese customs. She bonds with two other girls staying at the Himawari sharehouse: Hyejung, who is Korean, and Tina, who is from Singapore. The three study Japanese at language school, find part-time work, explore the city, go to festivals, share meals together, etc. The story has a very slice-of-life feel that really gives us an impression of the characters’ everyday lives in Tokyo. Additionally, Becker gives us insight into the girls’ pasts, and we learn more about Hyejung and Tina’s lives prior to Tokyo, what led them there, and what made them stay. I loved the friendship and their moments of bonding together, and I found myself really liking Hyejung and Tina. Now, Nao was harder for me to like. Which is weird given that—to a certain degree of course—I understood her longing to belong, and what she says about feeling more American in Japan and more Japanese in America made me think of how I feel, and I am made to feel, like a foreigner both in England and Italy (*tiny violin playing in the background*). But she had this very binary way of looking at things and her understanding of everything was very…dare I say, American? I could see why she was frustrated by the way Japan is portrayed and spoken of in the West, and her anger at the kind of white people who think that because they watch anime that means they speak Japanese or know all about Japan (there is this hilarious video on youtube that makes fun of this type of person) but the idea that a country or a language belongs only to those who have lived there or have parents who were born there, well, it makes me a bit sad I won’t lie (i am definitely more in line with jhumpa lahiri's way of thinking). Maybe I am being too sensitive about this because I am living in a ‘foreign’ country…I don’t quite know. Also, while she does usually specify that she dislikes white people who playact being Japanese, I thought she was a bit insensitive towards Tina and Hyejung, especially when she complains about being seen as a foreigner (or seems to see this word as inherently negative) when both of them also are foreigners and will undoubtedly experience xenophobia for not being Japanese. I don’t know, I just didn't like her that much. Then again, maybe I am being a bit hypocritical in disliking her...boh. Anyway, despite not really liking Nao, I still loved the friendship she forms with Hyejung and Tina, and I did appreciate the characters' conversations on language, belonging, and identity. The romantic subplots were a bit too heteronormative for my liking (don't @ me, there was some good queer potential here). I’m glad the author didn’t couple up everyone at the house but still…I wish the focus could have remained on the friendship between Nao, Hyejung, and Tina. While I wasn't wholly enamoured by Becker's art style, her illustrations generally strike a good balance between being cute and simple, and she usually conveys really clearly the characters' various states of mind. All in all, this is a good read and I look forward to reading more by Becker. If you are looking for a coming of age graphic novel exploring the realities and complexities of being a young adult, specifically of living abroad, well, look no further. The story has many moments of lightness and sadness, and the ending is rather bittersweet. Becker captures the experiences of feeling like a perpetual outsider, the difficulties in learning and adapting to another culture (or a culture that is you consider yourself part of but did not grow up in), and of making your own way into the world, even if it means leaving your loved ones 'behind'. And of course, the multilingualism at play here is just *chief's kiss*. More of this, please. ...more |
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May 31, 2022
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Jun 03, 2022
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May 19, 2022
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Paperback
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| 0062960067
| 9780062960061
| B09TL3FD2Q
| 3.60
| 368
| Nov 09, 2022
| Nov 29, 2022
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really liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ (rounded up) Drawn by its stunning title & cover, I requested an arc for A Coastline Is a ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ (rounded up) Drawn by its stunning title & cover, I requested an arc for A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing. For some reason or other I ended up neglecting to read it but at long last decided to give it a try, and I’m really glad that I did get round to it. Written with clarity and precision, A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing Mary-Alice Daniel together a more intimate coming-of-age memoir with historical accounts. Daniel writes with compelling authority and her recollections will undoubtedly plunge readers into her childhood and adolescence. She’s able to conjure up not only past feelings but vividly reenact episodes from her youth. The people, dynamics, and situations she presents us with are evocatively rendered, as they seem to capture the mood, essence even, of what is being portrayed. Daniel depicts her family with a heartfelt mixture of love, understanding, and frustration. In these more personal chapters/sections Daniel, born in Nigeria to a Longuda father and a Fulani mother, chronicles her experiences moving from Nigeria to England before finally settling in America. Daniel conveys the seen and unseen difficulties she, alongside her family, experienced once in Reading. She articulates the loneliness and confusion brought about by this dislocation and by an environment that labels you as foreign, other. Her shifting and confused perception of her identity is exacerbated by her Longuda and Fulani heritage and by her adoption of English customs and exposure to English culture. Eventually, Daniel’s family relocates to Nashville, America. Here Daniel is marked as an oddity, yet again subjected to the white gaze and often made to feel excluded from Black American culture. In retracing her childhood, Daniel reflects and gives insight into the experiences of the Black diaspora, contrasting and comparing America and England’s treatment and perception of Blackness and Black immigrants. Daniel addresses and challenges stereotypes about Nigerians, which often place them as ‘inferior’. While terms like resilient may seem trite when used to describe books concerned with immigration and Blackness, it did come to mind while I was reading this. Much of the book adopts a more, not quite detached, but more educational tone. Daniel examines tribal traditions and mythologies, the aftereffects of colonialism, past and present internecine conflicts, and religious and cultural divides. There is a lot of history to unpack but Daniel does so swiftly and skilfully. Sure, Daniel walks down some well-treated paths, for instance when writing about Ham, but she also shines a light on forgotten, or at least overlooked, mythologies and histories. These sections often use an anthropological lens to discuss the traits, histories, and customs of the Fula and the Longuda people. In her overview of Nigeria Daniel looks at its many different ethnic groups and its religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and traditional worship, that often exacerbate civil unrest. By depicting Nigeria as a multivalent country, Daniel demystifies Western misconceptions of Nigeria and West Africa itself. I did prefer when these more informative sections drew from Daniel’s own family histories and myths, as these family tales often enlivened the writing. Belonging is one of this memoir’s major themes, as Daniel probes her conflicted sense of self in the face of dislocation. Daniel shows how one’s identity is shaped both by one’s home environment and by the ‘dominant’ culture of the place one grow up in. Language, accents, family lexicons, food, beliefs, mannerism, popular media, we see how all of these play a role in her ‘coming of age’. Given that movements, be it from continent to continent, or from culture to culture, and the dialogue between past and present are motifs within this memoir, Daniel did try sometimes too hard to anchor her experiences into a larger historical context. For instance, when she mentions "In 1895, the controversial Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in Reading, the town I grew up in", which came across as very random and not particularly relevant. While I may have felt more invested by Daniel’s more personal insights into her family and experiences growing up, I did find the themes, histories, and mythologies she surveys throughout her memoir to be captivating. ...more |
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1
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Dec 17, 2022
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Dec 19, 2022
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May 18, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 1593767226
| 9781593767228
| B09NXPLQZX
| 3.92
| 1,169
| Sep 20, 2022
| Sep 20, 2022
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really liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars Restrained yet acutely realistic, Tell Me I’m An Artist presents its readers with the ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars Restrained yet acutely realistic, Tell Me I’m An Artist presents its readers with the unfinished portrait of an artist as a young woman. Throughout the course of this novel, we read of the trials and tribulations of an art school student Joey, who attempts to reconcile herself with a new existence in San Francisco. She struggles to navigate her new surroundings and often feels alienated by the wealth and stability her peers seem to enjoy. Joey enrols in a film elective and is given an assignment that despite its seeming simplicity sees her moored in procrastination. As she struggles with her initial conceit, that of remaking Wes Anderson’s 'Rushmore' despite having never seen it and relying only on other people’s recollections of it, she adopts a self-doubting mindset, and not only does she begin to doubt her portrait idea but her identity as an artist. Amidst her internal confusion Joey also has external worries pressing on her: her sister, an addict with a long history of erratic behavior, has gone MIA and left her toddler with their mother who in turn blames Joey for not helping more. Joey oscillates between feeling guilty and resentful of her mother and sister, and as she glimpses the lifestyles of her peers, well, she becomes all the more aware of how different her situation is. Her loneliness sees her seeking solace in her friendship with Suz, who seems much more sophisticated and put-together than her. Yet Suz soon reveals herself to be far less enthusiastic about their friendship. Joey’s finances also preoccupy her, especially when her family asks her for bailouts. Tell Me I’m an Artist interrogates the meaning of art, artistry, creativity and authenticity as well as questions the ways in which we attribute meaning or value to our and other people’s art. In doing so the novel offers a lot of food for thought. I appreciate Joey’s narration, which was full of acts of introspection, navel-gazing, and self-doubting, and permeated by longing and disorientation. Joey’s morphing anxieties and desires are articulated in razor-sharp prose that captures with clarity her various moods and states of mind. She may not be likeable but her likability is certainly not the point of this novel. Chelsea Martin allows her to be thorny yet occasionally pathetic, solipsistic yet perspective. Her observations of the people and world around her as well as her reflections on art, academia, and privilege all resonated with me. In rendering Joey’s unease, ennui, and disenchantment Martin demonstrates a keen eye for these difficult-to-pin-down feelings and emotions. We see how Joey’s sense of self-worth affects her art and her self-belief, leading her to procrastinate. The more she worries and agonizes over this portrait, the less she wants to do it. Personally, I found her idea somewhat interesting but as she oscillates between various methods or ways of going about it, I found myself kind of bored by it (which was probably intentional). I would have liked more from the secondary characters, as they seemed kind of hazy around the edges in terms of characterisation. In reading about Suz (whom i disliked given that she disses radiohead fairly early on in the book) I found myself wishing for Selin and Svetlana's friendship in The Idiot and Either/Or. Speaking of Batuman, Tell Me I’m an Artist will definitely appeal to fans of hers. While Martin’s novel lacks Batuman’s deadpan humor it definitely has a similar vibe, especially if we consider the way both these authors have a penchant for describing and detailing the minutiae of their narrator’s day-to-day lives. The settings too are also similar as we follow young women trying to navigate the world of academia and questioning the functions of art, language, etc. All in all, I found this novel to make for a really immersive reading experience. I liked the atmosphere, the unadorned writing (we even get pages with joey’s google searches), and the themes that are at play in it and I look forward to whatever Martin publishes next. If you are a fan of character studies and/or books focused on young women searching for something, even themselves, and attempting to understand themselves and their role in the world, such as Lucy & Wish Me Something, definitely add this to your tbr pile. I could also see this debut to readers who look for books exploring female creativity, such as Writers & Lovers by Lily King, We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman, and Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon. ...more |
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1
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Sep 28, 2022
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Oct 2022
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May 12, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 1982189738
| 9781982189730
| 1982189738
| 3.61
| 1,661
| Mar 07, 2023
| Mar 07, 2023
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liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ¼ stars “It seems now like everything I’ve done in my life I’ve done because of love, a usel❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ¼ stars “It seems now like everything I’ve done in my life I’ve done because of love, a useless, gutting love that left me devoured from the inside.” Fans of books exploring white-collar crime and/or conmen & scammers should definitely give Rafael Frumkin’s sophomore novel Confidence a shot. There were aspects of the storyline that reminded me of certain sections from The Goldfinch and A Beautiful Crime, a book about art 'heist' & queer love. While the publisher’s comparisons to The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Great Gatsby don’t quite convince me, there were moments within the narrative that had definitely had Succession vibes. There is much to be admired in Confidence and overall I definitely liked it more than not, however, it is very much plot-driven, and I’m afraid that the fast pacing comes at the expense of the story and its characters. In the opening pages of Confidence, we learn that our protagonist, Ezra Green, is in prison. Far from penitent, Ezra is putting his conman skills to good use as he has recruited a fellow prisoner into what I can best describe as a pyramid scheme. He then gives us a retrospective of his life in crime, starting with the pivotal meeting of Orson, who is charismatic, conventionally attractive, and confident. The two meet as teenagers at Last Chance Camp, a place for ‘troubled’ teens. Ezra, who comes from a low-income household, ends up there after he begins selling knockoffs and other things to his peers. His parents want him to ‘straighten’ up his act, so the awful Last Chance Camp. Ezra and Orson bond very quickly, and we know from the first that Orson is undoubtedly aware of the effect and hold he has on Ezra. This unbalanced power dynamic becomes all the more glaring as the years go by. “The rich glamorize being poor […] They think it gives you integrity or something. They think it’s like noble somehow to have been poor once. It means you’ve earned your wealth. But that’s a myth, because the poor just stay poor. No one gets rich.” This early section exploring this period of their life is perhaps the one I found most engaging as here Frumkin maintains a good balance between plot and character development. Sadly, the following periods and years of Ezra and Orson’s lives are often presented to us in a stop-and-start fashion, so that we fast-forward over some major events or potentially interesting moments of transition in their lives & cons (rather than showing how they get from A to B, we are told that they have gone from A to B). It was a pity as I think Confidence could have benefited a lot from a slower pace, one that could have allowed for a more detailed and vivid portrayal of their life in crime. Ezra’s compelling voice makes his narration fairly absorbing, to the point where I immediately found myself making excuses and exemptions for his criminal activities and the way he is complicit in and/or the instigator of some very sh*tty behaviour & dealings. Even so, I would have liked for his narration to provide us with some more moments of introspection, rather than consisting so heavily of him giving us summaries of his and Orson’s various schemes or detailing certain aspects of their cons. I also thought that the narrative could have done with more tension and that if Ezra and Orson ’s relationship had remained the focus of the story it would have resulted in a more charged atmosphere. Orson’s had the potential to be the type of character who is a bit cypher and leaves you wanting to know more about the way his mind operates (like Ripley). But even when Orson is making an on-the-page appearance, he never captured my attention. I struggled to understand why so many would fall for his manipulations as most of the stuff he says is flimsy & kind-of-generic. I also don’t understand why his presence is so often relegated off page so that I sometimes even forgot of his existence until Ezra reminds us that he worships him and is wholly devoted to him. The side characters were fairly one-note and often come across as caricatures of rich & otherwise privileged people…which weren’t particularly funny or cutting. While the details and information we are giving about ‘Synthesizing’ and ‘Bliss-Mini’, which are at the heart of Ezra and Orson’s latest & biggest con, did not fascinate me all that much, I did find their earlier scams fairly gripping. In their early cons we can feel their titillation and excitement, that rush of adrenaline at getting away with it and ‘sticking it to the man’ and the ‘blood suits’ (white wealthy men). As the years go by however it becomes apparent that Orson is never really satisfied, that he is always on the lookout for the next big thing, and even when the two begin the whole ‘Bliss-Mini’, he still doesn’t seem to have found ‘it’. Ezra, whose criminal activities were borne out of financial necessities, only wants to be with Orson, which also means following him into his increasingly risky and unethical endeavours. As the two expand their operation and make more and more money, we have to question what happened to their earlier motivations, if they have become the people they had set out to take down, and the fallacies of the American Dream. I liked that despite their appearances & first impressions, the author doesn’t push Ezra and Orson into that tired introvert/extrovert mould. While it is clear that Orson is using Ezra, we can see that his manipulations are not wholly devoid of fondness. Yet, I did think that their dynamic could have been portrayed with more depth and nuance. I wanted to ‘feel’ more but was often left rather unmoved by what I was reading. We are told that Ezra is hopelessly in love with Orson, but I couldn’t quite ‘feel’ that. More emotion, more angst even, would have taken their supposedly intense relationship to the next level. It's a pity as I tend to love books that combine the kind of atmosphere & aesthetics you would find in a psychological thriller or crime novel with a tale queer unrequited love (Giovanni's Room, The House of Stairs, An Ocean Without A Shore, Apartment). While the characters populating the rarefied sphere our mc's come to move in where fairly one-dimensional, the social commentary is not, as there are many scenes or observations where the author is able to delve into themes such as privilege, class, and capitalism. I really liked the way the casual way in which Ezra and Orson's sexualities are depicted, without shying away from the realities of being gay/queer/bi in a heteronormative society. Still, even if I didn’t always like how the story was executed I did find Frumkin’s premise & prose to have a lot of promise and they are an an undoubtedly talented author. I will definitely read whatever they write next… grazie to the publisher for granting me an arc <3 ...more |
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1
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Jun 20, 2022
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Jun 23, 2022
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May 12, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 1914198166
| 9781914198168
| 1914198166
| 3.60
| 7,553
| Aug 2018
| Aug 18, 2022
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liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ¼ stars “I felt almost affectionate towards those machines, a kind of pity tinged with fear❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ¼ stars “I felt almost affectionate towards those machines, a kind of pity tinged with fear. As soon as they were fed, their contents would be regurgitated, undigested.” I am happy to report that I found Shua Dusapin’s second novel much more to my liking than her first one (which i actually tried revisiting hoping that it would be one of those ‘right book, wrong time’ kind of cases but nope). Cool yet incisive The Pachinko Parlour is an accomplished work that is able to simultaneously convey some of the protagonist’s feelings and thoughts with piercing clarity and to lend a certain ambivalence, opacity even, to her narration. Much of what Claire, our main character, experiences and observes is in fact permeated by an almost a hazy dreamlike quality, that really conveys that sense of being stuck in-between two different phases of your life. Claire is spending her summer in Tokyo with her grandparents who own a pachinko parlor called Shiny . She tutors 12-year-old Mieko, a clever yet sheltered child who takes an interest in Shiny. At times the prose is unflattering in its descriptions of Claire’s environments and the people who populate them. Yet this adds authenticity to her narration, as her reality is rendered to us no matter how mundane. Some of the descriptions did bring me pause however, such as ‘Her teeth look discoloured, like shrivelled olives’ or ‘I take a good look at her. Long nose, rounded belly, like a baby seal’, as they seemed a wee bit contrived. During her stay in Tokyo, Claire begins to reflect on her grandparents’ experiences from fleeing a civil war to finding themselves in a country where they are labeled ‘Zainichis’ and even after 50 years they do not seem to feel at ‘home’ in. They lead a fairly isolated life, even keeping themselves apart from other ‘Zainichis’. “Looking at them, I feet overwhelmed. Their lives begin and end with the pachinko parlour.” As Claire considers her family’s history she finds herself thinking about their relationship to her mother, the physical and emotional distance between all of them. The author at times articulate Claire’s sense of directionless and ennui in a way that is at struck me as crystal clear, and at other times instead she plays into the ambiguous and dreamlike ambience of her story, obfuscating and confusing our perception of Claire and the people around her. The Pachinko Parlour is characterized by a coolly hypnotic tone, one that makes Claire’s interactions and introspections all the more captivating. I can see this type of unsentimental yet affecting writing appalling to readers who were fond of Jessica Au's Cold Enough for Snow and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts as well as the work of authors such as Jamaica Kincaid, Katie Kitamura, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, and Mieko Kawakami (despite thematic differences their works tend to be focus on solitary and/or lonely women prone to prolonged acts of introspection). ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 28, 2022
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Aug 31, 2022
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May 07, 2022
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Paperback
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| B096DH78WQ
| 3.96
| 1,584
| May 03, 2022
| May 03, 2022
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liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars “Yes, of course. It is always him they want to know about—the father, not the other❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ stars “Yes, of course. It is always him they want to know about—the father, not the other mother.” The Other Mother is an affecting and nuanced multigenerational tale unearthing long-buried family histories. The author's interrogation of motherhood challenges the heteronormative archetype of the nuclear family, as she focuses on the experiences, choices, and parenting of single-women and same-gender couples. Throughout the course of the novel, readers will witness how parental love is not dictated by blood and the complexities that arise from that. Within these pages, motherhood is a multivalent term, one that changes from mother to mother. The two mothers that are at the chore of the story are flawed and imperfect individuals, who make mistakes believing that they are doing what’s best for their child. The author however is never not sympathetic towards them, nor does she condone their behaviour, allowing instead her other characters within her narrative, and readers as well, to reach their own conclusion about some of their choices. We are made to understand their states of mind, the events leading to them making those choices or the circumstances that aggravated certain ‘bad’ habits. The ‘democratic’ structure of the novel allows for all of the people connected to Jenry Castillo to be given a perspective, to give their side of the story and the rift between his two families, the Pattersons’ and the Castillos’. “What Jenry does know is that he doesn’t belong here, which is how he’s felt about almost every place he’s been. Call it the mark of illegitimacy. But somehow this campus feels different. He’s come here to find something; more specifically, to find someone, which alone gives his presence a purpose. He has come to find his father.” The narrative opens with Jenry starting his 1st year at Brown University after earning a music scholarship. Jenry was raised by his mother, Marisa, a nurse. While thanks to his grandparents he feels a connection to his Cuban heritage, neither they nor Marisa can fully understand his experiences as the only Black kid in his neighbourhood or fill the absence of his father, Jasper, who died when he was two. He has learnt that his paternal grandfather, Winston Patterson, is none other than a renowned professor of African American history at Brown, so once on campus Jenry sets out to find him, wanting to know more about the kind of person Jasper was. When he does speak to Winston, the encounter is far from the bittersweet reunion between two estranged family members. Winston seems not particularly interested or surprised by his estranged grandchild’s existence, and is unwilling to reveal more about Jasper. In fact, he asks why Jenry is so focused on Jasper when it was his sister, Juliet, who was involved with Marisa. Upon learning this Jenry is shocked and confused, angry at Marisa for having hidden the truth from him, and unsure what it even means that at one point in his life he had two mothers. The following sections, focusing on Marisa, Juliet, Jasper, Winston, and Victor, Jenry's maternal grandfather, give us a retrospective of what occurred between Marisa and Juliet, their love story and the eventual dissolution of their relationship. We know from the start that Marisa took Jenry away from Juliet without any warning, leaving her with no way of contacting them. Since then Juliet has struggled with addiction and has only in recent years been able to find a stable relationship and job. Her career as a musician seems to have gone astray soon after Marisa left, leaving Juliet bereft and alone. And what role did Winston and Victor play in their daughters' stories? Both men disapproved of their relationship and their ‘unconventional’ family, but, did they eventually try to do what’s right by them and Jenry? I really appreciated the uneasy questions this narrative raises in terms of doing right by others and yourself. If you do something terrible (whether it is taking them away from a parent, pressuring them academically, or forcing them to deny who they are) but you have convinced yourself it is the best thing for your child, can you and should you be forgiven? The narrative shows the many ways in which parents hurt their children out of ‘love’ or because they are unable to accept them and their choices, without exonerating them or villainizing them. Other characters may blame them but thanks to the book’s structure we can’t really favour one perspective over another. If anything, the author is able to show the justifications and fabrications some of the characters make in order to justify to themselves, and others, their actions. I appreciated how imperfect and messy the characters were and the different forms of love we see in this story. The author captures the longing, heartache, and regret experienced by her characters in a melodious prose. “The loss of him fills her body, courses through her veins. And now, as her memories replay over and over, she can’t help but feel it all—the sadness, the loss, the love she had and perhaps still has for him—flowing into her limbs, making her skin twitch, her fingers ache, till it spills from her eyes as tears.” The uneasy character dynamics that are at play within the story were deeply compelling and enabled the author to incorporate larger discussions on gender, sexuality, race, class, motherhood, cultural and generational differences. Additionally, grief underlines much of the narrative. It may be grief at the death of a loved one (Jasper) or grief resulting from physical and emotional separation (Jenry being taken away from Juliet, the unbridgeable rift between Marisa and her mother, the distance between Juliet and Winston and eventually Jenry and Marisa). I loved much of the story and found myself particularly moved by Juliet’s portion. The author beautifully articulates her sorrow, without romanticizing her struggles or painful experiences. Initially, I found myself also feeling sympathetic towards Marisa, despite her choice to take Jenry away from Juliet. We see how unrequited love and rejection can eventually alienate you from the ‘object’ of your desire. But then in the latter portion of the book, any affection I held for Marisa perished when she behaves in a really crappy and unfair way to her son. Jenry, upon learning that she had lied to him for years, is obviously angry and upset. She is initially shown to be desperate to make amends, and I really felt for her especially given what she is going through. But then when she eventually reaches Jenry she tries to force him into forgiving her by threatening to make him leave Brown, saying that this place had clearly ‘changed’ him and he’s clearly not ready or something…and cristo dio. Wtf?! What a f*cking stronza. Really. When she said that sh*t and the narrative glosses over it I just could not move past it. It infuriated me beyond measure and soured the remainder of my reading experience. Additionally, there was a predictable soap-opera reveal that was hinted at earlier on that just made me roll my eyes. The ending sequence was tonally a lot different from the narrative so far and struck me as mawkish and really jarring. But hey ho, I did love most of the book so I would still recommend it to others. If you are a fan of multigenerational sagas, such as the ones penned by Brit Bennett, Ann Patchett, and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, or authors such as Hala Alyan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kirstin Valdez Quade, Danielle Evans, and Francesca Ekwuyasi, you should definitely not miss The Other Mother. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 13, 2022
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May 16, 2022
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Apr 30, 2022
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Kindle Edition
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| 1665900709
| 9781665900706
| 1665900709
| 4.09
| 4,441
| May 10, 2022
| May 10, 2022
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really liked it
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ (rounded up as i am not really part of this book's intended audience) Zachary Ying and the ❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ 3 ½ (rounded up as i am not really part of this book's intended audience) Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor is an engaging start to an action-driven fantasy series that is written in a winsome prose that is guaranteed to appeal to fans of Rick Riordan. Like Riordan’s books, Zhao combines an action-driven quest with a coming of age tale exploring the highs and lows of being a 12yr boy. I loved the way the author managed to incorporate—with varying degrees of self-awareness—existing tropes of the 'chosen one/kids with powers' genre whilst adding new dimensions and elements to their story. Additionally, unlike a lot of MG books, Zhao addresses serious and topical issues/realities in a very clear-eyed and straightforward manner. Zachary Ying, our main character, has tried to distance himself from Chinese culture in order to fit in his white majority school. His mom, who is his sole carer, works long hours, so Zack spends a lot of his time playing Mythrealm. One day at school he comes across Simon who seems eager to get to know Zack. Turns out that Zack, the host of the spirit of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, who, alongside Simon, host to Tang Taizong, and later on Melissa, host to Wu Zetian, are tasked with a crucial mission: they have to seal the portal to the Chinese underworld before the Ghost Month. Zack doesn’t really want to be part of all of this but with his mom’s life in jeopardy, he has little choice in the matter. Unlike Simon and Melissa, however, Zack’s emperor was not fully able to possess him and was forced to tie himself to Zack’s AR gaming headset (which lends many of the action sequences a gameplay quality). To rectify this Zack flies to China to strengthen his bond with his Chinese heritage, all the while being chased by baddies…but as their mission unfolds and Zack learns more about the emperors’ reigns, he begins to worry that he is not working for the good guys either. Throughout the course of the narrative, the author references superhero comics, games, anime (i mean, code geass gets a mention which will always be a win in my books), as well as, you guessed it, Avatar: The Last Airbender. The narrative is quite self-aware in that these references often come at an apt moment, and usually poke fun at the existence/perseverance of said trope/storyline (for example with the 'fridging' of zack's mom). I liked this meta aspect of the narrative as it gives the storytelling a playful edge that serves to counterbalance the more serious themes/scenes. Through Zack’s storyline, the author is able to explore the everyday realities of being a Chinese-American kid who feels pressured by his white peers to distance himself from his own Chinese heritage. Additionally, Zack is Hui, an ethnoreligious minority group with Islamic heritage and/or adhere to Islam. Like other minority groups in China, the Hui can be and are discriminated against by the current Chinese government. Zack’s father was executed after protesting the government's treatment of Uighur Muslims, and this makes his journey to China all the more fraught. While the author criticizes the current Chinese government, through Zack’s quest they are also able to showcase their love for Chinese culture and history, presenting us with a complex image of this country, its past and present. The author's depiction of and discussions around China oppose the kind of monolithic and homogenous image of this country that sadly seems to prevail in a lot of western media and public discourses. The China that emerges from these pages is enriched by its expansive history and many idiosyncrasies (other MG authors, please take notes!). I loved the way they incorporate historical facts in the action sequences, so when we are introduced to a new historical figure we get a punchy introduction giving us an overview of their life. There were instances where I wish the author had not added American, or otherwise western, equivalents when introducing a certain figure or when touching upon a certain historical period (we often are given enough context to understand the cultural/historical significance of said person/period). Still, I really appreciated how the author avoids the usual good/bad dichotomy that tends to be the norm in a lot of MG books. Zack repeatedly questions the past behaviours and present motivations of the emperors. The chapters all have funny titles that were very much a la Riordan. The banter between the various emperors and historical figures was very entertaining, even in those instances where it was trying a bit hard to be ‘young/relatable’. I loved the way the narrative includes and discusses historical-related things, as it very much reminded me of the author’s youtube content, which—as you may or may not know—I am besotted by. While I thought that the historical characters were equal parts interesting and amusing, the contemporary ones, except Zack, were not quite as dynamic. Simon and Melissa in particular lacked dimension and seemed the type of stock characters you find in any ‘trio’ (melissa in particular is the kind of aggravating sidekick who is meant to be a 'spunky girl' but comes across as kind of a jerk). I didn’t like them that much either, even before the latter half of the novel. Zack deserves some real/better friends. Anyway, Zack steals the show as this is ultimately his story. He goes through a lot in this book and is forced to question the kind of person he wants to be/become. He makes mistakes, and he learns from them. He knows he wants to be stronger but finds his notion of strength to be challenged more than once. I wish that the narratives had called out a bit more people like Melissa who mistake his moments of vulnerability or hesitancy as signs of weakness or a 'lack of moral fibre'. Dio mio, he's a KID, leave my boy alone. I don't know, I felt protective of Zack and because of this found myself rather peed off by anyone who tried to make him feel ashamed of being sensitive. But I digress. Overall I thought this was an enjoyable book that manages to blend together history and technology. If you a fan of heroes' quests you should definitely give this one a try. Added bonuses: hints of casual gay rep + positive Muslim rep. I for one liked it a lot more than the author's debut novel, which I sadly was unable to enjoy (i know, don't get me started if i could actively control and change my response to that book i would). I found the author’s prose to be a lot more confident in this one and their style really worked for this MG-type of storytelling. This is the kind of book I wish had been around when I was a 12yr old as I would have been able to love it, whereas now I can only just ‘like’ it. Anyway, I liked the humor and the historical facts, so this gets a thumbs up from me and I look forward to its follow-up. ps: i just remember but some of zack’s reactions to learning some of the horrific things the emperors did are gold ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 05, 2022
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May 12, 2022
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Apr 29, 2022
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Hardcover
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luce (cry baby)
>
Books:
4-good-reads
(373)
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 3.58
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really liked it
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Dec 28, 2022
not set
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Feb 09, 2024
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| 3.20
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liked it
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Jan 08, 2024
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Dec 25, 2023
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| 3.74
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liked it
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Mar 28, 2024
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Aug 28, 2023
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| 3.73
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liked it
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Mar 10, 2023
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Mar 06, 2023
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| 4.43
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liked it
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Feb 21, 2023
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Feb 16, 2023
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| 4.32
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liked it
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Apr 2023
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Jan 29, 2023
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| 3.75
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really liked it
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Aug 30, 2023
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Jan 29, 2023
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| 3.51
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liked it
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Jan 10, 2023
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Dec 22, 2022
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| 3.73
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liked it
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Jan 05, 2023
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Dec 20, 2022
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| 3.43
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liked it
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Dec 16, 2022
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Dec 02, 2022
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| 3.93
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liked it
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Oct 31, 2022
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Oct 31, 2022
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| 3.99
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liked it
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Jan 26, 2023
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Aug 18, 2022
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| 4.07
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really liked it
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Sep 12, 2022
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Jul 09, 2022
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| 4.37
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liked it
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Jun 03, 2022
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May 19, 2022
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| 3.60
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really liked it
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Dec 19, 2022
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May 18, 2022
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| 3.92
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really liked it
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Oct 2022
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May 12, 2022
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| 3.61
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liked it
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Jun 23, 2022
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May 12, 2022
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| 3.60
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liked it
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Aug 31, 2022
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May 07, 2022
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| 3.96
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liked it
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May 16, 2022
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Apr 30, 2022
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| 4.09
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really liked it
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May 12, 2022
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Apr 29, 2022
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