Lark Benobi's Reviews > The World and All That It Holds

Aleksandar Hemon gallops right up to the line dividing "perfect" from "overwritten" but he never steps over it. Every sentence is so lush and so rich. It took some getting used to. It was like falling in love when I didn't want to but in the end I had no choice. It's rococo writing. It's full of filigrees and flourishes. I fell in love with each wavy swirling sentence--the way each sentence always manage to fit in one more perfect clause before the period came along. I read this book in electronic ARC while also listening to the audiobook. I adored the narrator of the audiobook, Aleksandar Mikic--what a talent!--but I also loved reading the words on the page at the same time, so that I had a view of the hills and valleys of the sentences as they came along. I appreciated having both audio and print versions handy, as I read, where they could reflect and refract one another in my brain. This is rich writing. It required a few channels into my thoughts and feelings for me to fully engage with it.

There are so many specific scenes that took my breath away. So many varied moods. One aspect I particularly loved in the novel were the wrenchingly beautiful lovemaking scenes between men--scenes that are full of desire, but also, great gentleness. They were a little gauzy. There was a romantic sheen on the writing that fit the story so well and made me realize how rarely I've read scenes where two men get to be gentle and romantic with one another, vs having a more visceral physical experience on the page...and I thought it was great.