I don’t have a significant analysis to provide for the book. I loved the experience of reading this book for the first time and found it interesting. But Neither did I find it particularly stimulating or emotionally moving. It was just a better than typical experience that did exceed expectations. Which, as I mention with all classics, is a feat in of itself to me, as I look at them as needing to justify their cannon and meet the considerable expectations we have for them every single year they remain.

Another book I wish had made the shortlist over some other selections for the Giller Prize, tbh.

Beautifully written and surprisingly rich in complexity, this tale of a family fractured in pursuit of their own individual autonomy and the invisible chords that bind them forever was very compelling.

The narrative follows a married couple in China through the cultural Revolution to a more contemporary time (roughly, sometime in the 80s, I believe). Each of the couple have a complicated past and their intimacy mixed with estrangement due to their partnership tests them in ways that become apparent as the narrative goes back and forth between past and present for each of them, as well as their child, left behind in China as each parent attempts to carve their own respective paths in the world.

This was really effective at showing the motivations for each character via their past at very apt times in the overall narrative. It makes a book with not all that much plot feel much more dense while also dolling out information, mostly cultural, in an easily internalized manner that could have been an infodump that was forgotten or, perhaps, overwhelming. The framing is also very precise. I don’t want to spoil the fun of reading this book much, so I’ve been necessarily vague. But the arrangement of the plot beats is excellent and could have been reframed so as to cast a light onto either parent that would have given a completely different impression of them. I think it was very well handled. It also forms a sort of synchronicity with the through line of music, which is very satisfying.

I think a lot of westerners don’t “get” the notion of grandparents raising grandchildren either. Willfully, or otherwise misconstruing the cultural context. This does a great job of showing why this is fairly common place in a way that feels full of heart and withholds judgement either way. It also empowers the mother character extremely well. Again, feeling non-judgmental and allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions without feeling like a thumb on the scale.

Very enjoyable, certainly recommend it. The narration was also quite good if you go with the audiobook, as I did.

Brilliant rendered with a seemingly studious eye for interactions and psychology of the various adolescence peopled in this narrative. This stands out especially for the ways in which the protagonist reacts to her friend.

Their life movements are very believable and astute. Alternating between the sea and a bluff, the two continually shape one another but often, without meaning to, by the grating of miscommunication and misunderstandings that are so pronounced in the(arguably) most formative years of a life.

The contrast between them is really interesting because it’s also first person narration, and so inherently unreliable. The white space is very interesting. It feels like memory; transitory but in small instances very pronounced and vivid. Other times events skate by. I feel like this made it more believable than authors who try to fill in every granular detail. It feels impossible and places a lot of difficulty on the suspension of disbelief area. Do they have an eidetic memory? Also, the voice is convincing. It straddles sounding much older, looking at reflection, and so able to have a much more refined and not annoying, as these often trend to be, with YA voice.

Not all that much actually happens with the length of the novel but I loved the experience of listening to this. The narrator was excellent and I was really quite happy to hear about absolutely anything happening. People who want a really pronounced plot won’t like this, though. Sweeping, this is not, either—as a lot of coming-of-age readers might expect. But again, it’s all compelling to me. There is character growth and psychology and plenty of tension. Will try the next, without a doubt.

This is so stylistically and structurally unique that I’d have probably gotten enough satisfaction just from those elements. But in the extreme stream-of-consciousness of our quintessential Ohioan housewife there is a whole lot to unpack.

It is somewhat difficult to read. Not because it’s like 8 run on sentences separated with commas. But because within the stream there are so many references to media and memories and other associations. It’s emergent thinking. Not wholly unedited, of course. It’s self evident there is a lot of writer craft at work to make this consumable. The sentence construction, the timing of the references, and the length of the sentences themselves, all signal to the reader when the natural breathing points are. And the references will send your own mind out on spirals that mimic the digressions of the protagonist, so you’ll naturally be pausing.

I did sometimes get a bit too day dreamy and in my own head after some time though. I would take short breaks every 50 pages or so and then come back to it. And I think that’s sort of meant to be. The longer the text you’ve consumed percolates the more connections you’ll draw between things.

And things do coalesce quite a bit; more than I’d expected, actually. There begins to be some reoccurring themes. Mostly, they centre on modern anxieties such as gun violence, climate change, media consumption, political ramifications of Trump in office, pollution, the generational gap between herself and her kids, and death, in general.

These all become the centrifugal force with which our housewife orbits continually, which then draws them in sharper definition. They end up encapsulating the 2017-2018 “moment” of life in western culture and the US incredibly vividly. And, later, the sort-of plot situates those subjects directly into the housewife’s life. There is masterful foreshadowing at work.

It’s also just mesmeric and beautiful. Thoughts you’ve had, or ones like them, will appear from time to time, and those create a bond between the text and reader that rivals the empathy felt for other characters in other books, in my experience. Within the granularity there is a universal human experience that resonates.

Absolutely fantastic read and I think one id re read in the future. Recommend it as an off and on side book with other goings on. Take your time with it and be patient with yourself. It’s in no hurry (though the last 100+ pages will be gripping—I won’t say why).

This book won’t be for everybody, I’ll say that. It’s experimental in terms of structure, form, plot, genre (conventions); basically most things. It’s highly subjective—my personal catnip—it’s cerebral and extremely engaging to read.

It’s about a philosophy student who meets a guy named Logan and hooks up with him, and the rest is a series of vignettes that depict the trajectory of their relationship, as it pertains to the narrators point of view. Her lens is very unique and often runs together with trains of thought that are how she reveals her character. Even when the random thought is a macabre or disturbing, it gets screen time. There’s not that much censoring, but simultaneously also an arrangement in which some it is it is rhyme and meter and legitimately just poetry. Not all the time, but a lot of it is interspersed.

It is phenomenal at conveying important character elements through action, even as it is relayed through the heavy philosophical component. What things feel like are sometimes literalized. What is imagined is as important as what seems to be grounded in the external. It does not differentiate between a rich internal world and how a particular conversation she is overthinking to try to fit in with strangers.

It’s othering while relatable, strange but alluring. It is a hallmark of excellent writers to produce a unique lens that, in its specificity, elicits thought and nuance and edification, while also, in its tightness, be instantly relatable and connecting for the reader.

This does that beautifully. It’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind within the mind of a philosophical student grappling with love and existential crisis in the commingling of identity as we attempt to understand another person, foreign as they are.

Self aware, self referential, and meta in, essentially, all the ways I can think of. While meta is something I quite like as additional context through connective tissue, the other qualities are things I typically dislike - sometimes outright despise, actually.

Yet it all works wonders here. Even when referencing antiquated stories I am barely familiar with or haven’t even a vague inkling of, because they are make his own, it also doesn’t quite matter. I’m sure it might be slightly more satisfying to know how they have been altered but the context provided through the one of the particular piece usually enough. And then it begins to build on itself in compelling ways. Referring to books that do or do not exist and have been expounded on previously. Altering existence as we know it in order to theorize about the craft even as he is applying the trade as you watch.

Even the book gets additional context through a fictional book and location in one such ‘story’. It’s very stimulating and dense in a way I had not expected. The accessibility, I think, is not as exclusive as I imagined. Diction is intuitive and does much of the work. It’s economical and has flow, but you also cannot read it quickly. You’ll trip over yourself and need to go at the pace Borge likes, controlling even that aspect of experience.

Where most fiction attempts to produce some kind of truth, or universal kind of experience as the buttressing for the lie, that is, the conceit or overt fiction which will require the suspension of disbelief, Borges simply refuses to distinguish or accept that framing device. A review of a story sounds incredible. When you search for it, however, it is completely fictional. But it is also already somewhat consumed by the reader with the review and by the intertextual elements later on in the book.

While I have always subscribed to the strict framing of the real and the unreal, I have also never read an agreement that illustrated my own position to me before.

3.5 rounded up

As always, the voice crafted for Murderbot is great. Equal parts deadpan humour, logic, and angst. I always sort of marvel that it works. But it really does. Though, as always, the language feels simplistic because it fits the character internal processes. But here, because it is longer, it is even more noticeable and gives more of a chance to get annoyed by it. Probably the audiobook is the way to go with the sentence structure not being super interesting stuff.

This go around does feel slightly padded to me, probably because everything else is a contained, fast paced novella and this has more room to breath, but still felt like the arch of the novellas. Lots of action. Occasional philosophy tied to, typically sociological or political factors that directly affect the autonomy of Murderbot. Good, satisfying plot. Good characterization. Fun mystery. Murderbot is always solid, thus far.

There are some fun call backs to former novels, but I think also would be a good jumping on point, which I’m sure is what they intended with this. Many people don’t pick up novellas. Hopefully they—and others, give this a shot. There’s a reason is has such widespread appeal.

Liked this more than Black Hammer vol1 I think! Works so well in tandem with it, and the actual plot is better crafted for both sets of stories. One, the daughter of Black Hammer, grown—a journalist trying to figure out what happened to the “main cast” of supers. The other, Doctor Andromeda’s life, essentially. While the later was more tangential, I found it overall more surprising and good. It starts off very trite and navigates to an original place, to great effect.

This is very good at a lot of things. It brings in characters from the previous two books in a really great way. It confronts directly atypical circumstances for both of the leads in this and high standards rooted in ethnicity (as far as I know, anyway; that’s what it seems like to me).

Best of all, the dynamics are far more compelling to me as well. Cultivating intimacy is rooted in an organic way and during trying events for both characters. It feels less contrived, for the most part. There’s some communication problem tropes, but the contrived aspects of that is buttressed with the overarching issues they’re dealing with. I really like that it’s a romance with less of a magical sexy-time followed by The Problems.

It provides so much more characterization and doesn’t leave cultural things by the way side, digging into family dynamics and history. Its just a really great novel. And, ironically, it’s because it’s less of a romance, maybe? Focusing on everything else about their lives just really works for me, though. Far more interesting and feels more “real”.

Oh, I did think of an annoying thing: The male voice actor in contrast to the woman is terrible. Just let her narrate the whole thing. The woman is emotive and fantastic and the guy is way monotone and boring.

I was fairly certain I might have a problem with this collection when I saw the first page with a quote, “For anyone who has ever loved a beast”, followed by Mr. Rogers, “There isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you’ve heard their story.”

I was right.

Not reading the blurb was A Mistake. But I did try to accept each story for what it was. I made it 80 pages in and it turns out not only is this messaging not actually what the story collection seems curated for (you should read the blurb); it hinges on animal-human connections rather than a human empathy configuration. It’s very odd. It also reads as very white, and very performative throughout.

Every story seems literally curated to tug on your heart strings such that it feels like the conceit of each is a fugazi gem. There is no craft in terms of the buttressing needed to present the unfailingly unearned endings. Highly emotive language, myopic, and no context for the desired emotional impact.

Anyone who isn’t pulled by the siren call of animals loving people that ostensibly shouldn’t be loved because various people shun them for varied reasons will find this lacking substance. Those that are really into the concept might pull through. This whole concept feels like a foregone conclusion.

Perhaps people who can’t find sympathy with animals will be lifted by this curated collection? but otherwise the start sets up the completely wrong expectations and the premise wears very, very thin at even 3 stories in. It also conflates genuinely shitty people, some of whom don’t want to improve in any way, with actual victims who get comfort from animal companionship. Somehow weighing them equally, deserving of the same formula.

This must be the most solipsistic collection of short stories I have ever read. Nothing feels real. All of it feels designed to be palatable, which means it will be well received.