Mats
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- Dec 31, 2007
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and have moved onto Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun. momentum!
I've got about 50 pages left and am only finishing it because I'm reading it for a book club. very disappointing
and have moved onto Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun. momentum!
Oh no, really?I've got about 50 pages left and am only finishing it because I'm reading it for a book club. very disappointing
I DNF'd The Buried Giant (but that had mixed reviews anyway) - however, I highly rate Never Let Me Go, Remains of the Day and, most of all, A Pale View of Hills.I've got nothing to compare to, I haven't read any of his books, but I find both story and style unremarkable
A COUPLE OF QUESTIONSA Pale View of Hills is one of my favourite books. Chilling.
A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS
What do you think of the theory that the Etsuko was telling her own story, inventing Mariko's story to distance herself from it? It's quite a nice idea although I'm not sure it totally hangs together. I really enjoyed the book though.
What did you find chilling in particular?
There's definitely a lot of similarities. And Etsuko doesn't have a very strong personality compared with Mariko, like a blank canvas - she really only reflects the other characters a lot of the time. Interesting!I do subscribe to that theory, as there are so many similarities and it ties in with Etsuko's attitude to her past and perhaps her guilt. Also Etsuko admits her memory is hazy and that may be why she comes off as an unreliable narrator, but I enjoy the ambiguity of it all!
Chilling...well, I find the whole book has a creepy, haunting atmosphere. The suicides, the child hanger back in Japan, the moments with the rope towards the end of the book that hint at all sorts of awful things when you dig deep. It just creeps me out!
I DNF'd The Buried Giant (but that had mixed reviews anyway) - however, I highly rate Never Let Me Go, Remains of the Day and, most of all, A Pale View of Hills.
currently reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
it's fucking awful. I don't want to finish it but it's the first book of our book club so I probably SHOULD.
Jiva, I saw on insta that you were reading What Belongs to You; what did you think of it?
(I hated it)
or maybe Murakami is getting quite old now and the ideas are all gone...The whole 'Murakami and female characters' debate is really getting quite old now at this point, even for The Guardian.
Ageism is not a good look Jark! Neither is sexism of course but some of the best writers and novelists wrote their best works in their latter years.or maybe Murakami is getting quite old now and the ideas are all gone...
1Q84 is fantastic. I see it all as one large book though I bought them in separate volumes for practical purposes at the time.
Sometimes I like the unnecessary crap... like when the protagonist makes himself a simple meal of rice and vegetables with potato salad or something.I have all three volumes in one book, but I’m not going to count it as one and ruin my Goodread stats.
I mean I’ve loved almost everything I’ve read by him, but by God there is a lot of unnecessary crap in his stories. I don’t need to know minute details about everything, especially not which brand each clothing item is from. Leave some room for the reader’s imagination and get to the point!
So I've started Unaccustomed Earth and so far so wonderful, as expected. It makes me remember how wonderful Interpreter of Maladies is.Have started three books this week and gotten distracted 20 pages into each.
Gonna download some Jhumpa Lahiri on the kindle this evening though cause I know it'll be one that I'll actually stick to.
Finished Unaccustomed Earth and it was so stunning that I'm not fully able to move on, so I've started The Lowland, also by Lahiri.
Trying not to be put off by some negative Goodreads reviews.
excited and hopeful for a sob then!I think The Lowland is amazing! One of the few books to make me cry
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.
These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.
To Paradise is a fin de siècle novel of marvellous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love – partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens – and the pain that ensues when we cannot.
excited and hopeful for a sob then!
Beverley, have you read Unaccustomed Earth? I was so devastated when each story ended - I kept forgetting I was reading short stories.
And then midway through the second story in Part Two I realised that the Hema and Kaushik stories continued on from one another and it was wonderful.