Perfect. Incredible. It's stunningly violent, but in a way that didn't repel me--in fact it made me want to bite into the warm throat of a living animPerfect. Incredible. It's stunningly violent, but in a way that didn't repel me--in fact it made me want to bite into the warm throat of a living animal and feel its blood run down my chin. Okay. So this feeling is maybe not for everyone, but in my case it is exactly what i needed right now.
The novel is also one of the few I've read where the author finds a convincing, fascinating, gripping first-person voice for a young character, for a child. The voice is alchemy here. The narrator is an adult, telling a story of her childhood, a story that has already happened and is far in the past for her now, but there is no hint of an adult's wisdom mixing in and messing with the pure childlike vision, or the confusion, of the child's story. The narrator remembers exactly what it felt like to be that child and she doesn't let a breath of nostalgia or judgment about her young self creep in. It's masterful.
It's not for everyone, certainly. Most people I know will hate it. But however violent, I found the novel almost purely redemptive. It's like the story of the Passion: there is sin, and there is sacrifice, and there is atonement, and there is absolution. Yeah.
Like every other Amélie Nothomb novel I've read, Strike Your Heart felt deep, true, and perfect to me.
I try to understand why her books aren't gobbleLike every other Amélie Nothomb novel I've read, Strike Your Heart felt deep, true, and perfect to me.
I try to understand why her books aren't gobbled up by my friends and anticipated before they are published.
One reason might be because she never strays beyond the nihilistic reality of what it's like to be a woman. There's a certain cut-throat realism in this novel, and in every other Nothomb novel I've ever read. She frequently writes about just how awful women can be to one another.
Another reason that she is less lauded than she deserves might be the utter simplicity of her prose style. I don't think there is a single dependent clause anywhere in this novel.
A third reason might be because she is prolific, writing one short perfect novel after another. I think people tend to doubt the quality of the work of any writer who puts out very short books, very fast. Or they don't know where to start. (I would recommend starting with Loving Sabotage).
Every time I pick up a Nothomb novel I'm gripped by it, and I sit very still, and end up reading to the end, at which point I feel like someone just metaphorically stabbed me in the heart twenty times or so, and in a way that leaves me baffled and in love with the world....more
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