Alexandra Kaste
I DONT KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT THIS BOOK! Is the darkness the horrific treatment of the Congo at the hand of the Belgians, or is it a dated and colonialist metaphor for primitivism??? Is it both??? Are we supposed to agree with the perspective of the narrator?? Are we supposed to criticize it?? I don't know! Still hard to read dehumanizing portrayals of the Congolese whatever the intended reading. Also so much tell and less show. Idk. I'll be thinking about it a lot at least.
3.5 stars really. I liked this book, which is not really the experience I expected from as divisive a figure as James Joyce. This was my first foray into his œuvre, and I liked it? But didn't love it? It's definitely a solid, fantastically observed collection, and occasionally a story did leave me staring into the distance after finishing it, particularly The Dead and A Painful Case, but it just didn't hit the same as some of his contemporaries have. One day, I'll gird my loins and actually read Ulysses, but until then I'll guard my opinion of Joyce as a very solid writer who wrote horrifying smut to his wife.
Short review: Kanye should read this book.
Long review: The only other Butler novel I've read is Dawn, which I basically couldn't put down. I'll say right off that I enjoyed that book a lot more than this one and felt that her Butler's very logical, methodical writing style better serves sci-fi with a lot of moving parts. The very unadorned prose felt a little bare in this case, with Dana often feeling one-note and almost perversely logical. But that's just style and really only affected my enjoyment of the story and less the story itself.
The story is fascinating. Slavery is one of those historical horrors that have been rehashed over and over in popular culture so much that it almost doesn't seem real. The subtleties of it are often lost in the historical retelling, becoming a horror show that your mind shuts off. Kindred is all about the subtleties of slavery, really bringing home a power imbalance that perverted both master and slave. I've never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I'd never really thought that much about the relationships that would form between people on opposite ends of the power spectrum and all the complications that that entails. The human in people recognizes the human in others, but that voice can be shut up.
At points I did want to shake Dana for what she forgave Rufus for, and it did stretch my suspension of disbelief, but I can see it as a coping mechanism. It's exhausting to live in anger, to fight back constantly, much easier sometimes to forgive and let things happen, an instinct that Dana has to actively fight against.
There's a lot more going on in this book. It's definitely one I'll be chewing on for a while, and while I didn't always love the writing, the subjects explored have so much dimension that I know I'll keep coming back to it.
There's
My feelings are very complicated. I've always kind of hated the term a problematic fave, but by golly, if this doesn't fit the bill. If I was rating this book solely based on enjoyment I'd give it 5 stars. The characters are so engaging and memorable that they practically erupt from the page. The unreliable narration is fantastically done. The world is claustrophobic and convincing. Overall it's damn fun and tragic at the same time.
But if I take any steps back and think about what this narrative is trying to convince me of, it all crumbles. Some of the issues are right on the surface. For a book trying to convince me of the humanity of marginalized people, it sure manages to caricature and dehumanize the POCs and women. The slurs thrown around in this book made me physically wince on multiple occasions. That meme about male authors writing female character who boob boobily could have been made after reading this.
And the problems aren't only skin deep. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the world of the hospital is out of order. The women (specifically unattractive and unmarried women) and black people hold the power and the white men (and our native american narrator) have been robbed of their manhood and convinced that they're weak. Our protagonist comes in and effectively puts these upstarts in their place, beating the black men in a contest of strength and silencing and sexually assaulting the woman in power.
The young sexy girls who put out and the old black man who doesn't seem intimidating are allowed to stay :))
And when you put it like that, it's a helluva lot harder to enjoy.
P.S. I'd be interested to get the perspective of a Native American on Chief Bromden. His depiction is the most sympathetic of all the POCs in the book, but I do wonder if Kesey is romanticizing them. Similarly with the Japanese nurse briefly mentioned.
In writing, characters have wants and needs, and the resolution of the need at the expense of the want is the hallmark of a happy ending. The character grows up, realizes the want was immature and becomes content with resolving the need. However, this story telling device only works if the character's want is actually immature. When it isn't, but still lives in opposition with the need, the story is a tragedy. This story is a tragedy.
Oh what webs people create for themselves to try to adhere to what's decent on the surface while their desires and actions simultaneously undermine the whole thing. This tortured book could have been avoided if they had just been respectively divorced and freed of an engagement but after reading this I can see why they didn't. They had entrapped themselves in a mesh of invisible wires that govern and shape human interactions.
Why the hell this book has 4.23 stars while Alice Munro's Dear Life only has 3.7 I refuse to understand. I finished this and honestly don't remember a single story or image. Reading it wasn't bad, but became a monotony of “how will this couple break up?” Go read Alice Munro. I care when her couples break up.
