It seemed to him ever more insistently that he and Valette were dead, that they'd died long before, with a bullet in their heads in some far-off wadi.It seemed to him ever more insistently that he and Valette were dead, that they'd died long before, with a bullet in their heads in some far-off wadi.
This is one of the best (the best?) novels I've read about the disorientation of soldiers feel, after experiencing extremes of bloody conflict, when they return to the 'normality' of civilian life. The novel much more understated and less sentimental than other novels I've read on the subject.
This novel perfectly captures the complete dislocation between those returning from the war, and those who never left. I love it for the way it refuses to provide relief or redemption. The soldiers feel ennui and despair when returning to their homes on leave, and cynicism and helplessness when they must return once more to a war they know is pointless and unpopular and that will probably kill them....more
Maylis de Kerangal's novel The Heart was perfectly told. The story itself was very simple, and that is what made perfection possible, and de Kerangal Maylis de Kerangal's novel The Heart was perfectly told. The story itself was very simple, and that is what made perfection possible, and de Kerangal never tried to oversell me or inflate the story to be bigger than it was.
Painting Time feels so much more ambitious and it isn't perfect but it is very interesting. The style itself (a blended voice between author and translator, in this case, as I'm reading it in Jessica Moore's English translation) is breathless and break-less and filled with forward momentum. Sometimes I felt as if the author missed a chance to allow us readers to pause and reflect, but for the most part I enjoyed the language almost more than the story itself--it swept me along.
Like this:
"The discovery, already, is a wound--Paula pauses, she doesn't let go of the phone, but slips off her shoes, her socks, and climbs onto the bed--the outside and the inside open to each other through a hole that is scooped out--it's about twenty centimeters wide on the day of the discovery, and five by five meters only a month later--and through this contact, something is irreversibly lost. When the cone of loose scree is destroyed, the cavity loses its climatic, hydric, and thermic stopper, and the stability of the environment inside the cave is changed--the exact relation that existed between the air, water, and stone is disturbed, and a continuity of twenty thousand years collapses."
It make sense in context. But you need to pay attention. Reading this novel is like swimming underwater a little longer than you imagine is possible and then the air when you get to the other side is so sweet....more
Maybe everyone knows this but it was news to me that at https://www.comixology.com I'm able to read graphic novels in a very reasonable way online--inMaybe everyone knows this but it was news to me that at https://www.comixology.com I'm able to read graphic novels in a very reasonable way online--including this novel, which is hard to find in English in a nondigital form (and maybe doesn't exist). I'm amending this review to include this information, for those who were interested in reading this after reading my review and didn't know exactly where to find it.
I can't recommend this graphic novel enough. I found it groundbreaking and intimate and humane, and, when called for, shockingly real.
This is the first book of any kind I've read that has an intersex protagonist. The story was so thoughtfully told. There is a fairy-tale level of coincidence in the top-story happenings that is lovely and that needs to be accepted on its own terms. The joyful buoyancy of that story allows a very nuanced and disturbing and enlightening and life-affirming story to be told underneath it. It's a story about gender, and genitals, and sexual attractiveness/confidence, and body acceptance, and listening. and agency, and medicine vs. healing. Just an incredible amount of stuff going on! This graphic novel exemplifies all the ways graphic novels can impart meanings that are deep and best told in this form and no other.
I loved both the art and the storytelling flow of this graphic novel. The main character Jean was instantaneously knowable and human, from simply drawn gestures, facial expressions, bare scraps of dialogue. The art is fantastic! I loved...Jean's ears! What a wonder how a few lines could show such subtle and thoughtful storytelling. The movement from frame to frame was a delight. My only regret is that I wasn't able to find a physical copy to buy that was in English--I did enjoy it in the Comixology app, though. I'm very curious now to read the novel on which it was based....more
Beautiful galloping prose. Almost too personal. The events described felt suffocatingly close to my head--they got inside my head. Even though the twoBeautiful galloping prose. Almost too personal. The events described felt suffocatingly close to my head--they got inside my head. Even though the two books each describe a very different childhood, the reading experience reminded me of THE GLASS CASTLE--I felt threatened, and on the edge of peril as I read.
This novella read like a narrative summary written by a writer who is bored with her own story. Compared with The Heart which I adored and which was fThis novella read like a narrative summary written by a writer who is bored with her own story. Compared with The Heart which I adored and which was full of vivid human happenings, it felt detached and insignificant.
Or it could be I just can't get excited over novels about food, and cooks. I felt the same way about the 2020 novel The Cheffe: A Cook's Novel by Marie N'Diaye, another writer whose past novels have left me stunned and speechless, and grateful....more
The premise is interesting, but the story execution was (except for some flashes of brilliant imagery that made me sad for what might have been) tedioThe premise is interesting, but the story execution was (except for some flashes of brilliant imagery that made me sad for what might have been) tedious-to-ridiculous. The author seems to have had an idea for a story that didn't quite work. I kept wanting to edit the story as I read and that is never a good sign. Too much of the story line depends on a dog that behaves in unbelievable, non-doggish ways. I can’t recommend it....more
This fiction was just way too overworked for me to enjoy completely. I want to read more of Danticat's fiction as I think it may be an acquired taste.This fiction was just way too overworked for me to enjoy completely. I want to read more of Danticat's fiction as I think it may be an acquired taste....more
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