This was Mandel's debut novel but the last one of her (currently) published books that I had to read. And I thought it was great! As with all of her bThis was Mandel's debut novel but the last one of her (currently) published books that I had to read. And I thought it was great! As with all of her books, it hooked me from the start. It was quite remarkable how she had such a clear, strong voice from the start.
This one, like the 2nd and 3rd books she published, is sort of a noir literary mystery. We follow Lilia Albert who has been on the run for most of her life. When she was 7 years old her father picked her up from her mother's house in the middle of the night and they never stopped moving. She doesn't quite recall the circumstances that led to her being taken away, but that doesn't stop her from continuing the legacy of escape. Now she's in NYC and coupled up for the last 6 months with a young man named Eli until one day, yet again, she walks out the door and doesn't come back. He's determined to find her, and as his journey begins so too does the slow unveiling of the truth of Lilia's past.
It's a wonderful debut. Sharp writing, great pacing, and intriguing characters even if, at times, they feel a bit more like pawns in the overall game than true flesh and blood people. But Mandel gets away with using these more archetypal characters because the issues she's exploring are so human, so real. There's some interesting discussion about language and legacy, about how where you are from informs so much of who you are (or are expected to be). ...more
Unfortunately I just didn't get on with this style of writing and storytelling; but I think it was executed well for what it was. I struggled to get aUnfortunately I just didn't get on with this style of writing and storytelling; but I think it was executed well for what it was. I struggled to get a hold of pretty much anything going on in this story. The narrative is very free-flowing, playful and whimsical at times.
But the parts that stuck out to me were the moments where the narrative focused on the main character's past and her struggle with grief and loss, especially as she got older and had to sort of rediscover and reclaim her identity. I can see this working well for the right audience, but that just wasn't me.
Please don't take my personal rating as an indication of this novel's merit. If this sounds good to you, I suggest you give it a shot!...more
Imagine memory like a cloud. It holds no specific shape but constantly shifts, evolving with us as we grow. Our memories are not mirrors reflecting baImagine memory like a cloud. It holds no specific shape but constantly shifts, evolving with us as we grow. Our memories are not mirrors reflecting back to us our experiences of the world, but rather memories are like windows through which we experience everything that comes after.
Issa Quincy mines the rich and intensely personal experiences of an individual life through the memories of his unnamed narrator. This is a profound and skillful debut that blew me away; one that compelled me to start reading it all over again the minute I turned the very last page.
In each section of this novel the wisps of a memory emerge from the fog of the narrator's existence, often spurred by the appearance of an object or spontaneous memory of a conversation with an old acquaintance. The narrator leads us down the rabbit trail of these memories, sometimes even nesting memories within memories for a multilayered and archaeological dig into the things we remember and the things we forget. He excavates the past, watching memories blow in and out like sand across the surface of a long forgotten structure, hollowed out but not completely lifeless.
We begin with the narrator recalling a poem from a small yellow book his mother would read to him as a child. That poem will appear again to him throughout his life creating tentpole moments around which his narrative circles. Conversations with a Boston bus driver, an Indian landlord in London, a childhood teacher, and the family friend of his godfather are woven together into a tale that spans decades of his life but feels as though we are experiencing it all as a flip-through of a family photo album.
Quincy's prose calls to mind the nostalgic atmosphere of many of Ishiguro's work. He has the ability to lead you down long, winding sentences that circle back on themselves in a way that feels revelatory, not repetitive. I read and re-read sentences for their sheer beauty, but also because, especially on re-read, certain elements, phrases, or asides seemed to connect and reveal their deeper meaning on closer inspection. It's subtly sophisticated--a book that you can read in one big gulp, but then go back to like poetry and absorb slowly.
There are too many quotes for me to put here, so just trust me when I say that Issa Quincy can WRITE. I tabbed and underlined in this 144 page book more than some twice or three times its length. Fans of reflective, interior writing will LOVE this one.
If this is Quincy's debut I can only imagine where he will go from here. This is absolutely one of, if not THE, best books I've read this year. It's a staggeringly beautiful reminder that life is both long and short, that our memories and experiences will fade, but as long as we exist in the head of another person we live on in some way....more
Becky Chambers is so good at writing cozy sci-fi stories. On top of that, her technical writing about very complex subjects is delivered in[3.5 stars]
Becky Chambers is so good at writing cozy sci-fi stories. On top of that, her technical writing about very complex subjects is delivered in a way that makes them very easy to read, without feeling dumbed down. I don't know how she does it!
This one follows a crew of 4 astronauts on a long term mission to various planets outside of earth's solar system. It takes place in the not too distant future when we have developed better technology for sustaining human life on long-haul space travel. Ariadne is the narrator writing back to earth to explain their missions, detailing the relationships with the other crew members and the 4 planets they stop at along the way.
It's a simple, lovely little story about humanity stretching out its hands to the far reaches of space looking for answers, but knowing that ultimately the best answers we can find to the biggest questions we are asking are usually right within our grasp....more
A woman experiences the fallout of a mysterious illness and a fragmented mental state as she stitches together the fabric of her life and what it meanA woman experiences the fallout of a mysterious illness and a fragmented mental state as she stitches together the fabric of her life and what it means to be human in this mosaic of a ‘novel’ from poet and Twitter comedian Patricia Lockwood.
WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU is a sort of follow up to her previous novel, NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS. it that was an internet novel, then you could argue this is a COVID novel. BUT, stay with me, it’s not explicitly focused on the pandemic. Instead it looks at the fallout of what happens when things happen to you, I.e. family loss, medical emergencies, mental breakdowns, and how we piece ourselves back together in an increasingly chaotic world.
I love Lockwood’s brain. I think she’s so clever and witty and sincere. But maybe in this one she was a bit too clever for me. This is the kind of book that feels like you’re purposely missing the key too; that if you don’t know what she’s referencing or about her life or her previous works, you might be at a loss. And I’ve read her previous stuff! At times, still, I was confounded. Sometimes I was fine with it because there’s such pleasure in her wordsmithing. Other times I felt frustrated and a bit annoyed because the writing felt more like an exercise in creative nonfiction that was surely cathartic for Lockwood herself but not for the novel reader. I mean: is this a novel? I don’t know.
I’m torn in my feelings over this because on one hand she’s an excellent writer and so creative (like Jenny Slate’s two memoirs which I LOVE). But still it felt needlessly obtuse to the point where it favored form over meaning, at least for this reader. ...more
A collection of two novellas both narrated by Buddy Glass, with a focus on his older brother, Seymour.
The first story takes plays on Seymou[4.5 stars]
A collection of two novellas both narrated by Buddy Glass, with a focus on his older brother, Seymour.
The first story takes plays on Seymour's wedding day but he is completely absent from the story itself, and instead Buddy recounts his experience at the wedding and subsequent car ride to the reception with an eccentric crew of characters. -[4 stars]
The second story is a stream-of-consciousness 'introduction,' as the title suggests, of Seymour, as part of a sort of larger work Buddy plans to write. This being only the introduction does not keep us from getting a psychological, physical, and emotional portrait of Seymour from his younger brother, written years after Seymour's suicide. I loved this one. It might now be my favorite thing of Salinger's I've read (and with this book I've completed all of his collected material). The narrative voice was SO strong. It was snarky and funny, it was sentimental and sweet, but it never delved into cliche. I can definitely see myself revisiting this one, as with most of his work, again in the future. -[5 stars]...more
It's difficult to summarize what this book is truly about because it's so full of ideas. At its core are the two title characters, but along with themIt's difficult to summarize what this book is truly about because it's so full of ideas. At its core are the two title characters, but along with them come family members that flesh out the narrative, as it moves from the mid-90s to early 2000s across India, the U.S., Italy, and Mexico. It traces the lives of characters searching-- for what? Connection? Purpose? Identity? Love? All of the above, and more. This is a meandering story, one that takes you on a journey and focuses on the development of very vivid and engaging characters. It explores themes of colonialism, globalization, art, storytelling, the legacies of trauma. It doesn't give simple answers. It devolves at times into the surreal. It causes you to question reality and how we view the events that happen to us differently than others may see them. Not everything is answered or explained, just like life. But it's a journey worth taking by a writer who is clearly skilled, ambitious and inventive!...more
In the summer of 1940 John Steinbeck set out on a boat with a small crew to travel down the West coast to the Gulf of California. Their mission was toIn the summer of 1940 John Steinbeck set out on a boat with a small crew to travel down the West coast to the Gulf of California. Their mission was to explore the intertidal zones and document the various species of animal life they encountered. They stopped occasionally in port cities of various sizes and also came to learn more about the Mexican people they met along the way. In this travelogue set over the 6 weeks or so in which the expedition took place, Steinbeck philosophizes, describes, entertains, eulogizes, and more.
He can't help himself but extrapolate from the microcosms of the marine life and apply these learnings to observations about humanity, especially an America in the early days leading up to WWII. And that is what makes this book so great. Steinbeck is obviously a skilled writer, but it's his power of observation and then his ability to take that idea, however small or miniscule it might seem, and expand it into something universal. Along the way, it's somehow not diluted. It feels almost *more* powerful because it's so relatable. And despite having never visited the areas which he is describing or having not spent over a month on a small fishing vessel with a rowdy crew collecting, dissecting, preserving and observing marine life in this way, his takeaways feel personal even to the reader.
I tabbed the heck out of this book because it's so rich with ideas and yet its so concise in its delivery. There's also a beautiful elegy to his dear friend and conspirator, Ed Ricketts, in the back that readers of Cannery Row will appreciate and see parallels to. I loved this as much as I'd hoped, maybe even more so. If you enjoyed Travels with Charley than this feels like the next obvious step. Of course, consider how times have changed in both language and attitude, but also see in many ways Steinbeck, for his time, had a very progressive and worldly POV--even calling into judgment things that resonate so deeply with issues present in American politics today.
Sad to see how some things haven't changed at all, but comforting to know others have come before pondering the same issues and put pen to paper to try and work it out. At the very least he has left a trail of bread crumbs for readers in the future to follow to hopefully a more inevitable conclusion....more
In 1519 Hernan Cortes arrived in Tenochtitlan to meet with Moctezuma II. In this novel, Alvaro Enrigue reimagines the goings-on of this meeting and thIn 1519 Hernan Cortes arrived in Tenochtitlan to meet with Moctezuma II. In this novel, Alvaro Enrigue reimagines the goings-on of this meeting and the surrounding events of that fateful day. He combines realism and surrealism in a playful style that felt like a drug trip at times, reflected in Moctezuma's own reliance on magic mushrooms and cactus. As his kingdom is threatened from the outside, Moctezuma must navigate the diplomacy of meeting with the Spaniards and securing the legacy of the Aztec empire.
Enrigue plays with time and language, even inserting himself at one point into the novel and breaking the fourth wall for the reader. He's less concerned with historical accuracy and more with playing around in the sandbox of 'what ifs' to look at how the entire country of Mexico might have had a different history had the results of this pivotal meeting between Cortes and Moctezuma come out differently.
While I struggled at the start of this novel, the farther in I got the more invested and intrigued by the characters and their machinations I became. In ways it felt like Game of Thrones: with multiple players all doing their own things but watching how the novelist moves them around like chess pieces until we get to the final stand-off between the 2 lead characters. It's more playful and subtle than a true fantasy book, but in a way it's a fantasy all its own in that it takes something real and writes into it a dream, a question of how the world could be if things were slightly different. ...more
What really sold this book for me was the main character, Natsuko. Her voice felt so authentic, and her exploration of womanhood, adulthood[4.5 stars]
What really sold this book for me was the main character, Natsuko. Her voice felt so authentic, and her exploration of womanhood, adulthood & authorship felt oddly relatable considering I am in no way similar to her as a person. That’s the mark of a good novel for me; one in which I feel seen and can also see how markedly different our experiences are at the same time. In fact there’s a sort of parallel I saw between Natsuko’s work as a writer and her interest in procreation: this act of creating something outside yourself, your desire to meet it—whether book or child—and simultaneous fears of what it can become once out of your hands. Following along on her journey as she ambles between conversations with her sister and niece, her editor and writer friends, and the acquaintances she makes during her research into donor-conception, I enjoyed the naturalistic dialogue Kawakami wrote paired with the almost dreamlike reveries Natsuko occasionally succumbs to. It was disorienting and yet full of very visceral sensory language. The descriptions of everything brought me back to Japan, and also made me feel like I was really living through these experiences with Natsuko. There was a strong theme of nostalgia and grief over childhood memories, many very difficult and full of sorrow for her and other characters, that struck a chord as well. I can see this not working for someone who wants more structure and plot, but if you enjoy more character focused and philosophical litfic especially tackling topics of becoming a parent, I highly recommend! ...more
Eimear McBride returns to Eily and Stephen of The Lesser Bohemians not long after the events of that novel. Though you arguably don't have to read thEimear McBride returns to Eily and Stephen of The Lesser Bohemians not long after the events of that novel. Though you arguably don't have to read that novel before picking this one up, I highly encourage it to get a better psychological portrait of the characters going into this story and where they are coming from. Plus, it's a knockout book that I read nearly 8 years ago now and still think about regularly. I was pleased that McBride revisited these characters and seemed to evolve her writing even further to delve into the psyche and motivations of these tortured artists.
The contents of this book mainly take place over one night in December 1996. A conversation must be had between the two lovers. Stephen, 39, is working on a semi-autobiographical film of his life and performing on the West End at the same time; while Eily, barely 20, is reclusive, recovering from some unnamed incident that has broken her down and caused an icy wall to go up between her and Stephen. Meanwhile, she reflects heavily on the last 18 months or so in their relationship after they moved into a new apartment together, and Stephen's daughter Grace (nearly the same age as Eily!) comes to visit.
Jumping back and forth regularly between the past and present, with a lengthy interlude of the characters watching a rough cut of Stephen's movie in great detail, the novel is mostly concerned with how we process our trauma. For some, it's an external act, a cathartic exploration outside of oneself to create and share with others, with the hope of making the burden for oneself lighter. For others, the trauma is internalized, perhaps processed more slowly or privately, or sadly not at all, until it combusts. Whether we can make amends while the city (or world) around us constantly changes its face, sometimes feeling like a friend and other times a foe, relies on how we respond to these past and present traumas.
As with The Lesser Bohemians this is by no means an easy read, both structurally and thematically. It deals with some VERY intense subject matter throughout, so please look up trigger warnings if you are to pick up either of these books. How McBride manages to convey all of this, though, is masterful.
Her writing is true stream of consciousness; I don't think I've ever read writing like hers that accurately conveys the in-real-time through processes of an individual, warts and all. They are ugly thoughts living in the same sentence as beautiful sentiments. Nearly manic inclinations balanced by the sedative of watching falling snow and taking a deep breath. She comes to her characters without judgment, when it's so easy to look at these characters and label them as toxic. Maybe they are? But what McBride does, rather than paint then in any particular light, is let the live on the page and nearly walk off it into the streets of London.
While I didn't love the way this book prioritized shorter scenes constantly cutting back and forth between the past and present, and the 70ish pages spent on Stephen's film script could've been cut down a bit, I think McBride is such a compelling and impressive writer I was still stunned by this book and would definitely like to revisit it again in the future (but not quite yet). I would even love for her to revisit these characters down the line, perhaps seeing where they end up 20 or 30 years later....more
My first An Yu novel and surely not my last! Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the early review copy. I was completely absorbed and compelled by this stMy first An Yu novel and surely not my last! Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the early review copy. I was completely absorbed and compelled by this strange and thought-provoking story, exploring themes of hope, survival, family and home.
Five Poems Lake is an isolated community surrounded by desert, from which no one really leaves, and if they do they are never heard from again. The sun is disappearing sliver by sliver, and at a seemingly more rapid pace as of late. Our unnamed narrator lives in the family home behind their pharmacy from which she dispenses cures for ailments to the townspeople, while across town her elder sister works at a wellness spa providing treatments to the rich. As the sun continues to dim and the temperature drops, the community members adapt to their surroundings and go on living their lives. But as the sun reaches its end, strange events start to occur in which people's heads burst into their own miniature suns. These Beacons begin appearing all over town and draw a connection to the events surrounding the death of the the sisters' father a dozen year ago.
This was a beautifully written novel that explored the themes in this almost surreal setting. The characters developed slowly on the page and came to seem so realistic in their conflicting attitudes with each other and even at times within themselves.
This, at its heart, for me was a novel of paradoxes: of knowledge versus ignorance, of optimism and pessimism, the resignation towards fate versus free will, of empiricism versus superstition, and the collective mindset versus individualism.
There are no answers. This isn't a mystery that when solved reveals WHY but only WHAT and HOW. In the face of 'unprecedented times' (a phrase anyone alive for the last 5, 10, heck 30 years has heard enough) what do we do? Can we do anything? Is it worth trying to change or better to accept 'what is'? Sometimes even the desire for knowledge is presented as altruistic but is inherently selfish. We want to KNOW so badly about things we simply can never know, and in that struggle, that back and forth seeking to know, we miss what's right in front of us. It doesn't mean we don't try but only rethink how we go about it so as not to alienate ourselves from the things we need most. What those things are, ironically, are up for every individual to decide.
What I love about this story is how it can be interpreted in so many ways. These were only my thoughts that came about while reading this story. It's strange and enchanting and dark and surreal, and one that showcases a fine talent for crafting thematic and character driven stories with a unique flair. ...more
I really enjoyed the audiobook for this! The narrator did a fantastic job performing the story and they included elements like sound effect[3.5 stars]
I really enjoyed the audiobook for this! The narrator did a fantastic job performing the story and they included elements like sound effects and other narrator's for things like formal documents, etc. that elevated this.
The story follows 56 year old Cara Romero who has been unemployed from her job at the factory of little lamps for the past two years after working there for 25 years. It's 2009, the great recession, and she's meeting with a counselor from a workforce program to find a new job. Each chapter of the story is one of her 12 sessions over the course of a few months with her counselor, as she is supposed to be talking about ways in which she can find a new form of employment based on her interest and skills, but accidentally ends up using them more as therapy sessions. She's a stubborn but generous Dominican woman who raised a child on her own and takes care of her elderly neighbor and her sister's kids.
Cara's voice is so strong and clear, and that's where the book really shines. She's funny and witty and also vulnerable, surprising even to herself at times, as she begins to recognize some blind spots in her thinking and ways of being. She reflects on how she came to the U.S. and how her childhood impacted her own ways of raising a child, and what she regrets or is proud of in those experiences. It's a short and clever story that feels very reflective of reality and one that I think many people will feel seen by or recognize someone in their lives within it. I definitely recommend!...more
[Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025]
Having recently read and loved Albert Camus's The Stranger, it was interesting to read a more co[Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025]
Having recently read and loved Albert Camus's The Stranger, it was interesting to read a more contemporary French novel also by a philosopher that explored similar ideas in a tone that reflected the near absurdity of life, of being a human, all through the eyes of a seemingly detached and off-putting narrator.
The story follows a woman who works for the French navy monitoring the English Channel/La Manche at night. She's often tasked with responding to distressed calls from immigrants attempting to cross the channel to seek refuge in the UK.
On one particular night, based on real events in November 2021, a raft of 29 immigrants meets its end. Their deaths are presumably due to the lack of urgency and consideration by the narrator who claims that help is on the way, though it is not. And her cut and dry attitude is in stark contrast to public sentiment about her perceived culpability in their undoing.
What Vincent Delecroix delivers here is a philosophical thought experiment in a stunning three-part novella that will cut you to your core. He doesn't write off the narrator's thoughts & feelings, but weaves them seamlessly into the prose in a way that forces the reader to read between the lines and consider one's own opinions and, most importantly, actions.
Each section of this book took a surprising turn. I'll avoid spoiling anything because at only 110 pages this book is one you will find hard to keep reading but not want to put down, discovering it for yourself in quick bursts. It was purposefully uncomfortable and in my eyes incredibly effective. I think this is a book that should be required reading, and one that I can definitely see winning the 2025 International Booker Prize....more
This is a book for those kids who grew up reading The Giver by Lois Lowry and then fell in love with Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. A.K.A. ME!
IfThis is a book for those kids who grew up reading The Giver by Lois Lowry and then fell in love with Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. A.K.A. ME!
If you like character-driven coming of age stories with a dystopian/speculative element, you have to check this one out. It's set in a small town nestled in a valley between two mountains. On each side of the valley, across the mountains, are identical towns to this one. However, to the west the town is 20 years in the past and to the east it's 20 years in the future. Crazy cool concept right?
Occasionally, visitors come into town from either direction for a no-contact 'visit' to see, from a distance. a loved one they either lost in the past or never got to see grow up into the future. These visits are vetted by a council that selects its members each year from a crop of students.
Our main character, Odile Ozanne, is one of those students vying for a position on the council when she accidentally witnesses a visit from the future town. She suspects she knows exactly who is visiting and what that could mean for the future of one of her companions. But she can't interfere, for any change in the present can have catastrophic consequences for the future over the eastern mountains.
There's so much to explore with a concept like that! The ethics of visitation, the regulation and decision-making behind who gets to make a visit, the butterfly effect, and all of this from a teenage perspective as she considers her own decisions, heavily influenced by her mother, and what she really truly wants out of life. Along the way the author builds out realistic, touching relationships between characters and of course throws in some twists along the way.
I hesitate to say much more because it's a book you really should read to discover on your own! I will say, if you want fast-paced, action-heavy science fiction/fantasy then this is not the book for you. It's quiet, contemplative and more literary in style; though there are definitely page-turning elements to this book purely because of the concept and what that means for the world in which they live. I was hooked from the get go, enjoyed spending my time with Odile as a main character, and very much appreciated the writing style which was so vivid and imaginative, without being overly flowery or lengthy.
I could absolutely see this as an amazing high-concept television show too. There really is so much in this world to explore and while the book doesn't fully explain all the world-building as some might want, I found it gave just enough to give context to this bildungsroman that made me feel fully immersed in this creative setting and wanting to find out what would happen....more
George Orr is an ordinary man with an extraordinary ability: to change the world through his dreams. Literally, his nighttime imaginings have real-worGeorge Orr is an ordinary man with an extraordinary ability: to change the world through his dreams. Literally, his nighttime imaginings have real-world effects when he wakes up. And his fear of this power, to completely alter the fabric of reality with his dreams, drives him to drug himself to avoid dreaming at all. This behavior lands him in therapy with Dr. Haber who begins to understand the immense power George holds and how Haber himself might harness it for his own wish fulfillment.
This book brings up issues of free will, the responsibility of those in power to lead with morals, the devastating effects of change (i.e. the butterfly effect/Mandela effect), and how we respond in the face of adversity. Le Guin explores all of these through a unique story of alternate realities and how for every action, there is a reaction which we cannot ultimately control.
Each of George's dreams is like a stone tossed in a pond, and the highlights in this book are seeing how the ripples play out in the world around him each time he wakes up.
Occasionally, because this is a science fiction novel, Le Guin drifts into a lot of technological jargon that lost me, mainly when Haber would start to describe his machinery or the processes by which he conducts his sleep experiments. I'm personally a reader that will go with the rules of the world which the author creates and don't love/need a ton of explanation. It's not poorly done and it makes sense for the character and genre, but I found those bits took me out of the story itself and the ethical dilemmas it considers.
I also wish Heather had gotten a bit more time on the page. She was an interesting character to round out the cast of three and I felt she was slightly underdeveloped. I loved whenever the narrative let us get into her mind and learn more about her world, and her place in it. But she often felt more like a pawn for George's story just as George was a pawn for Haber.
This might be an unconventional first novel to read from Le Guin but I can see why she's revered within the science fiction community, and the American literary scene at large. She's more concerned with philosophical questions than space battles and action sequences, which, as mainly a reader of literary fiction, I appreciated. She has a descriptive but concise writing style that serves the characters' thoughts and actions well, taking you along easily into its rhythm. ...more
"All Dorothea's passion was transfused through a mind struggling towards an ideal life."
I can't say much about this classic novel that hasn[4.5 stars]
"All Dorothea's passion was transfused through a mind struggling towards an ideal life."
I can't say much about this classic novel that hasn't been said before. So instead I'll simply share what struck me most in this novel and how I'm left feeing after spending over a month with the citizens of the provincial titular town.
"But pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty."
The wide cast of characters truly felt like family by the end of the novel--in that I wanted to both give them a hug and strangle them for their infuriating behavior. From Dorothea, the heroine of the novel, to Fred Vincy a gambler and a reckless cad, to Mary Garth (maybe my favorite) and her father Caleb (a close second) and the dusty Causabon. They make up quite the coterie of Georgian England, and I grew quite fond of them through the nearly 800 pages I spent with them.
-"I don't see how a man is to be good for much unless he has some one woman to love him dearly. -I think goodness should come before he expects that."
Throughout the novel Eliot explores quite large themes: of gender, class, vocation, and ambition. But through the intertwined lives of these characters she brings them to a humbler setting and creates drama that keeps you turning the page.
"Such was Lydgate's plan of his future: to do good small work for Middlemarch and great work for the world."
I was particularly compelled by the idea of desire, and how our circumstances of birth can influence what we allow ourselves to desire and in turn go after. Dorothea has such grand visions and dreams of doing good in the world. She is barely out of her teens when the novel begins and under the guise of her bumbling uncle; though she has monetary assets, she has no real means to achieve what she wants to unless she marries. Meanwhile, throughout the story, other characters have means but no respect; or respect but no direction. Often what we want and what we are capable, whether by coincidence or lack of confidence, do not align. What do we do then? And how do we view the stamp we leave on the world, writ small in our quiet English village, or at large on the world as a whole?
"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure."
Eliot takes her time with the story. It was released serially when it was first published, and you feel that as a modern reader picking up a single volume. It meanders at times and delves into issues that were likely more relevant and exciting for readers in her day; so I felt, especially in the middle 3rd or so, a bit of a drag as she develops the setting and context as well as the characters who inhabit it. But it all builds up to a fantastic finale that made it all worthwhile.
"If we had lost our own chief good, other people's good would remain, and that is worth trying for. Some can be happy."...more
Took me back to reading the first Hunger Games book when I was a teenager. It’s basically fan service and Haymitch’s backstory, but she pulls it off qTook me back to reading the first Hunger Games book when I was a teenager. It’s basically fan service and Haymitch’s backstory, but she pulls it off quite well! Much better than ABOSAS. ...more
Now this is a Novel with a capital “N”! Juicy, addictive, layered, well plotted, brilliant character work. And a debut from 1961?! Banned at the time Now this is a Novel with a capital “N”! Juicy, addictive, layered, well plotted, brilliant character work. And a debut from 1961?! Banned at the time in Ireland. Republished now by McNally editions. It’s deceptively complex. What seems like a simple page-turner lends much more to the mind than is immediately apparent.
The story revolves around a cast of main characters in a wealthy Irish home in the mid 20th century. Michael is arthritic and bedridden, cared for by his nephew & doctor, Jim, and his wife, Julia. There’s also Stephen, their manservant and the occasional visit from the local priest. It is rural Ireland after all and Catholicism reigns supreme, even if not taken very seriously by its observers. In an effort to seek a miracle to cure Michael’s ailments, the family plans a pilgrimage to Lourdes. But when mysterious letters start showing up detailing a secret that Julia would rather remain in the dark, things begin to unravel in ways that are deliciously readable and thought provoking in equal measure.
I don’t want to say too much about this book’s plot because it is SO FUN, and the book is barely 200 pages so it’s perfect for a binge read.
What I will say is that I loved how this book explored so many facets of love, sexuality, and human connection. It was sort of tongue in cheek, while also being very sincere, balancing the comical and the tragic expertly. These are characters who seem a bit cartoonish at first, but fill out as the story goes on until you’re left with an almost laugh at loud (at least for me) ending. It was delightful. ...more
[4.5 stars] There’s so much to unpack in this novel and so many ways from which to examine it. You can start with the obvious: as a critique of capital[4.5 stars] There’s so much to unpack in this novel and so many ways from which to examine it. You can start with the obvious: as a critique of capitalism. But digging deeper, you can look into the way the packaging of memory and nostalgia in consumer products and through consumerism has destroyed our communities. Our connections to where and who we come from our tied, in America at least, so much to what we come from and how we make a living. Then there’s the immigrant perspective/experience and how that often lives within and outside of this narrative. That also ties back to nostalgia and how the memories of a place, especially that of early childhood, when you don’t live in your home country are disconnected from your present reality.
Candace, the main character, is also adrift without her parents who have died and while the world slowly crumbles around her she remains steadfast in her ritualistic ways. Her work routine compels her to move forward, never stopping to look back or within for even a moment. That grind never stops and echoes the Fevered, those affected the pandemic sweeping across the country throughout the novel turning people into mindless zombies.
It’s a book that I felt added up to something greater than its individual parts. There are elements that didn’t work perfectly for me, particularly the cast of characters in the more present day storyline (a weak villain and flimsy supporters), and a rather opaque ending (though I do appreciate how you could interpret it many different ways). But all in all I found a lot to like and even love in this novel and I definitely want to check out more of Ling Ma’s work!...more