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kareila_booksLike The Nightingale, this is a depressing novel about life during wartime, except in Chechnya instead of Nazi Germany. I'm going to have to insist that my local book club chooses something cheerful for its next selection, because everything we've read together so far has been grim, sad, or both.
Even more so than in any other novel I can recall reading, the characters and events of this story present themselves in a jumbled jigsaw pile. Often the recollection of the effects of an event significantly predates the description of the event itself, to the point where the final telling feels like the missing piece you couldn't find for three weeks. Irrelevant characters will have their lengthy pasts and futures briefly summarized in situ, like pieces of a different puzzle that somehow ended up in the wrong box and must be scrutinized before being discarded. I suppose the overall effect could also be compared with the process of sifting through the rubble of a bombed out town to decipher the histories and possible whereabouts of the former occupants, so perhaps the choice was appropriate.
Even more so than in any other novel I can recall reading, the characters and events of this story present themselves in a jumbled jigsaw pile. Often the recollection of the effects of an event significantly predates the description of the event itself, to the point where the final telling feels like the missing piece you couldn't find for three weeks. Irrelevant characters will have their lengthy pasts and futures briefly summarized in situ, like pieces of a different puzzle that somehow ended up in the wrong box and must be scrutinized before being discarded. I suppose the overall effect could also be compared with the process of sifting through the rubble of a bombed out town to decipher the histories and possible whereabouts of the former occupants, so perhaps the choice was appropriate.
SOMETHING MORE CHEERFUL, PLEASE
Date: 2018-08-31 07:42 am (UTC)actually the setting and how the story is told sound like something i would like a lot (very Kate Atkinson-literary). borrow when you're done?
no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 11:35 am (UTC)