Adeline

Buddy read with @glitterpricked

Queer literary fiction taking place in 1950s Paris where David, a young American, waiting for his fiancée Hella to come back from Spain, meets Giovanni, an Italian barman and starts an abrupt and passionate affair with him. 
This short but powerful book was an incredible dense read, dealing with themes about queerness, shame, homophobia, masculinity, misogyny, social conformity.  James Baldwin delivers each line with a sharp and compelling tone. Each line written  felt experienced and personal, as he truly understands the characters and infuses them with his own story as a queer man who lived during that era in Paris. 
Both David and Giovanni are flawed and complex characters, the author perfectly described the intricacy of someone dealing with their sexuality, gender identity, their internalised bigotry in a conventional society. Yet living in a society that condemns, if not legally, then morally, that queerness, the two  characters find themselves in Giovanni's room, a place of liberation and love, where they can be themselves and not having to be in a state of self deception. 
The dichotomy between the two, is shown literally: Giovanni is a passionate, solar being, who search for a true emotional connection but is utterly unable to live alone. He also shows himself as a very traditional Italian, with a patriarchal and misogynistic attitude.   David on the other hand, displays moment of selfishness, denial and impassiveness. His struggle with his sexuality and sense of self, his shame and self loathing, his struggle with his masculinity, his inability to accept love, dating back to his unhappy youth, did softens his flaws, making him a interesting character.    Metaphorically I also noted this opposition between the two is shown throughout different references in the book ( for example Judas/Jesus or innocence/guilt). 
Sometimes it felt as David saw himself in Giovanni, or as his mirror image, specifically the passages where he imagines what Giovanni is doing, it felt like he was living through them.  
Their secretive, whole consuming passion (une passion dévorante as we say in French), in addition to Hella's impending return and other various problems (money, unemployment, dubious relationships), makes the tension slowly escalate and the author perfectly describes this mounting dread that slowly eats away at both characters until it explodes into a tragic finale.  
This book felt very much like a photograph of its time yet it reminds us that today acceptance and respect are essential. 
This review is a mess, a more capable reviewer will probably articulate better why this book is incredible, yet I feel with this book I felt I experienced more than I read it. 

Literary dystopian fiction taking place on an unknown island where objects disappear suddenly. An unnamed young novelist is trying to save her editor, alongside her new manuscript, from the ominous and fascistic Memory Police who ensure the disappeared objects are eradicated completely. 
This novel absolutely floored me on every level and I literally cried at the ending.  As always Japanese fiction (visual or written) pierces my heart with its ability to portray emotions or moments with a quiet intensity and tender elegance.  It's always hard to judge the writing for a translated novel, as we say in Italian “traduttore,traditore”. Still, I absolutely felt melancholy in the main character, the existential dread of the disappearing objets, the bleak everyday life on the island and the authoritarian menace of the Memory police.  The author expertly weaves into the story the importance of memory, identity, family, grief, culture, the power of writing, revisionism, authoritarian governance, and overall the duty of remembering. I loved the inclusion of the main character's story into the book, as it drew parallels with the main plot but had a more twisted and dark fantasy tone to it.  I had read Ogawa's Revenge short stories before this and I loved it very much, so I'll definitely check out the author's other works. 

3.25

4.5 actually (Spoiler Matthias tho ;_; sobbing and flipping tables )

4 stars
Literary fiction following a young Turkish American college freshman as she navigates her first year at Harvard, meeting different people and visiting Europe while teaching summer classes. 
The writing was evocative and sharp, and I love how the authors approached various themes (academic or otherwise), especially relating to language and communication. She did a great job showing the life of a university student and showing the academic atmosphere, the different countries during the 90's era. I really liked the main character, Selin, her fantastical personality and smart insights, loved how her intelligence and curiosity was mixed with awkwardness and surrealist humour. I liked the side characters, though I didn't care for the love interest.  The author did a great job showing us her personality and life on a university campus.  I personally preferred the first part and felt the novel was a bit too long for my taste and the pacing uneven, so some parts I felt bored. Plus it felt more character centric than plot centric so it wasn't a page turner kind of book.  Still despite my reservations about this novel, I'm looking forward to read the sequel.