Cat
Tawada ist ein Sprachgenie und ihre Überseezungen das allerbeste, das ich je um Sprache und ihre Beziehung zur Seins gelesen hat.
(Ich bereue nur, dass ich kein Japanisch kann, und das Ende der Erzählung “die Botin” bleibt mir verborgen und undurchsehbar).
When I grow up, I want to be a Jennifer Egan.
Masterful is the exact adjective for Emerald City.
I want to be able to nail it, exactly as she does. Every word, every phrase is impossibly right.
The Stylist and One Piece will be forever etched in my heart.
I kept reading about the terrible horrible, no good, very bad plot twist, but nothing could have prepared me for it.
It's one of those literary moves that could make or break a novel and I'm not completely sure whether it breaks it or it makes it.
It shatters every single thing you have come to believe about the main character, Jas, turning a quite superficial novel about adolescence and stupidity into a very uncomfortable piece about identity, perception and, I suppose, mental illness.
So, why the two stars?
The plot twist's timing and execution.
Although I don't know how Malkani could have done it any differently, I think it's the gem and the fatal flaw of this book. Its purpose is, if possible, too of open for debate.
At the end of Londonstani I'm not shocked by the intrinsic existential void it depicts, I don't feel any urge to gain a better understanding of our consumerist society and I'm left unable to empathize with an unlikable main character that is all there is to the book.
On the back it says: “‘breathless - hilarious and convincing' The New York Times”.
I say: long-winded, occasionally brilliant, sometimes deeply disappointing, ratty, coward. A con of a book that I'm unwilling to praise but certainly can't ignore.
I was looking for a light read and I got one.
Unfortunately the author's talk at Google's is just as informative and more entertaining.
Absolutely brilliant. A great read for those who wish to know a little more about how our brains are just hard-wired to escape rationality.
This was difficult to rate.
Tara's storyline is winding and the editing is inconsistent.
The first half of the book reads as if it were a written version of Final Destination, but with a family of Mormon fundamentalists for protagonists: who will be torn apart, burned or mangled next?
The second half is what made me give this four stars: the tale of how the main character ultimately saves herself from decades of gaslighting and psychological abuse is worth the read.
Oh! A love story, ok.
Three months later: ok, this Connell guy seems to be a fuckboy.
Two months later: ok, Connell is an idiot.
Six weeks later: Connell is still an idiot
One year later: Connell? What a moron.
Two weeks later: oh, Marianne is pretty f***ed up too.
Twelve days later: Connell is still pretty dumb for someone who is supposed to be a genius. Marianne is still a mess.
...
Four years later: Connell is still a stupid man and Marianne is still a mess, but a little better. All in all, they are indeed pretty normal people.
Very descriptive.
By page 200 of 440 you have a good grasp of exactly how obscenely rich these crazy rich asians are and yet it won't stop brandchecking and namechecking.
Still, a pretty entertaining mindless book.
I swear, I never eat corn. Ever.
This being said, I suddenly felt the urge to munch on some. And I did.
Am I deranged or is it just that thing, that they tell you not to think of a polar bear, and all you can do is picture polar bears dancing the tango, driving steamrollers down some interstate and so on?
Personal musings aside, this might be the one John Green's book I enjoyed the most yet. Probably because there's no sickening love painted all over. I'm an awfully cynical person, I know. Despite not being a fan of vampire/werevolf/shapeshifter/zombie-ish fiction I liked this tiny thing.
Enjoy, everybody. It's free and there are no unicorns in it.
Young is totally fictional, but he feels so real it's almost like a little miracle.
I loved everything about this book, from the introduction to his zany, rebellious friend Jae-Hee, to the heartbreaking process of holding oneself together after having lost a first love, and again after forcing oneself to letting go of loving Gyu-Ho.
Well-crafted parody. Utterly uninspiring. Despite claiming not to be (and ot wanting to be) the author sounds like a true asshole most of the times.
I really liked Eileen. Both the book and the “unlikable” character it's about. The only perfectible aspect to this book is that, somehow, it feels a little unbalanced: a lot of build up, for a short development and an ending that could have been shorter, or longer and somehow is neither. Still, this is nitpicking and as a debut novel it's simply beautiful.
To the guy at Bergen's Strandgaten Norli who recommended this: TUSEN TAKK!
Don't be fooled by the English title, this is truly a “Sea Book”, just as in its original version (Havboka).
The only downside: I can't leave for Lofoten right away.
Oh, Goodreads, when are you going to give us the luxury of half-stars?
This was a 2,5 for me.
Interesting premise, decent execution, meh editing from 65% on - and a major letdown for an ending.
An okay guide to New Zealand. Only bought it because I couldn't find a Bradt one. Not repeating the mistake.
Loss. Be it of a loved one, of one's identity, of one's life goals or desires, loss is sometimes made much harder when we are confronted with the fact that we actually didn't know what we lost as we thought we did - more often than not because we didn't want to know.
Please look after Mother is an interesting study of grief and a beautiful portrait of an amazingly strong woman, painted with negative strokes.
When you feel like being chastised for the way you speak and write in English, come to this book.
Naiv Super var den første boka jeg leste på norsk. Boken gjør en bra jobb med å forklare hva en midlife crisis er og hvordan føles en. Jeg likte noen av listene og lo her og da. Kan ikke si at jeg skal anbefale det.
pretty pointless.
people will do perverse things in an effort to make things better, this is how we are flawed as a race, better live your life when you feel like living it, blah blah blah.
whatever, Kazuo.
Recommended by a friend. Found a handful of interesting insights, hated the way it's written.
Actually 3.75, but not quite a 4 stars.
Han Kang writes beautifully as ever, and language, which is everything to this novel, has always been very important to me.
And perhaps it's exactly because of this, because I was already sold on the idea that language truly is the matter constituting our whole world, that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I should have.
Reading Pod feels like reading Blackfish or The Cove, but if they were beautifully written fiction. Not surprised to see them quoted as inspiration for the novel.
There were a couple of things that made me quirk my brow and felt a tad too YA for my taste, but Pod remains one of the best books I've read this last couple of years!