nitroglycerin's Reviews (952)

This is a tough book to review as I think it requires a second read through for me to fully understand how the earlier parts, which went over my head a bit, link in with the realisation I had closer to the end of the book.

Water: A Chronicle is a fractured collection of short stories set around the shifting watery landscape of southern Vietnam. Each tale also seems tied to, either loosely or more directly, to the tale of a woman seeking a cure for her child. Whether this is woman is the same woman or several women is hard to determine and purposefully ambiguous I feel. 

While the meaning of the book only started to make sense at the end, the journey was thoroughly enjoyable due to the wonderfully lyrical prose and expert translation. 

Thanks to Major Books for the gifted finished copy for me to read and review. 

Hedgelands was nominated for The Wainwright Prize for obviously well founded reasons. 

Hedgelands is a wonderful exploration of the history and ecology of hedges. If you're an ecologist, environmentalist or someone who loves nature (like me!), this book will completely be your cup of tea. The author takes us through the history of hedgerows as well as their makeup, the wildlife they support, the food they provide and the way they help with climate change. He is clearly passionate about the preservation of hedgerows and it fully rubs off on you while you read. I really want to restore hedges for a living now. 

As the outsider observer in Liguria, Italy, we are shown snippets of life lived in rural communities. The narrator/author does great work in using imagery to set the scene, making the reader feel as though they are a part of each chapter.

Structurally, there is very little linear progression in Commedia Mortale. We bounce between location and time without much of a hint of context to place yourself, or any sort of conclusion. I personally enjoyed going from the Italian restaurant owner, to 1970’s America, and back to Italy reminiscing on WWII antifascist resistance, not to mention the cameo of a certain famous chef (known as Tony). 

Honesty time though:

It took me almost a month to read Commedia Mortale. It was easy to put aside and pick up another book. Very easy to ignore. Unfortunately. 

Auto-fiction can be super hit or miss, and in my opinion this is a miss. While there were snippets of brilliance smattered throughout, it was bogged down by the uninteresting, mostly the foodie talk.  

There was also a lot of Tell and not enough Show, which as a reflection on conversions and observations collected by a person makes sense, but having characters deaths just dropped in as minor information was jarring. We didn’t spend enough time with any one person to care either. Perhaps as an outsider myself, I like to seek books with characters that i feel a connection to and without that, there no satisfaction in the reading. 

Full disclosure, I skim read most of the second 50% because it had already lost me. 

Thanks to Influx Press for the advance gifted copy. 

Rabbits for Food is like if Carrie from Sex and the City was chronically depressed. Rich and privileged Bunny (her real name) is woefully depressed and despondent. Being inside her mind was an eye-opening view on the mind of a depressive. 

Binnie (the author) is quoted to have said “I don’t like likable characters,” and “I want to see the ugly side of humanity and know that there’s still humanity in there.”  She also said she was miserable as a teen and was “probably always depressed”. Knowing this influences my interpretation of the novel. I don’t think it’s fully autobiographical, but there must be a lot of Binnie in Bunny. This probably adds to the realistic portrayal of Bunny.

Structurally the novel was a challenge. The super short chapters made it easy to put down and get distracted by anything else other than the book. A shame because the writing is sharp and witty while examining such a dark theme.  

Overall, for a sad girl book, it’s not bad. I’ve definitely read better. I feel like I prefer ones set in the U.K. rather than NYC. Sometimes you have to read something to hone your tastes and that is exactly what this book has confirmed. 

Oh I wanted to like this so much more than I did! I love a story of reminiscence. But something about The Book of Goose just left me cold. 

Agnes and Fabienne are best friends. Their relationship is toxic bordering on incredibly unhealthy and codependent. But they only have each other. As Agnes looks back and described the games they played, she does so with a detachment that keeps us at arms length. It makes me really dislike her family and Fabienne. I didn’t even really like Agnes either. 

I think I only finished the book in hopes that it would explain how Agnes went from a peasant girl in France to a married woman in America, but it skims over this so fast and then ends so abruptly that it didn’t really satisfy. 

I see a lot of reviews comparing it to the Neapolitan Quartet which has been on my tbr for years so maybe I’ll prefer those instead. 

I read a lot of reviews for this early on in my listening experience of Gold  Rush that complained it was too slow, underdeveloped and shallow. I think the slowness is a strength of the book though, allowing things to  spiral as the book goes on and MC’s mental health is affected by the events. 

Starting with the MC, Rose is young and naive. She comes across as pretty realistic as a character. She’s flawed. She isn’t a good friend at some points, but she’s let down in turn. Shes privileged but not alien. She’s human and the author allows us time to get to know her in that way. 

The topic is a heavy one - set in 2017 at the beginning of the #metoo movement - sexual assault being the main plot point and emotional domestic abuse being a secondary side plot. The main thing I feel the book is trying to get across is the point that these happen to women of all backgrounds. Rich and poor, influencers and nobodies, and that we can be complicit in it (the hen do), as well as the strength needed to help each other (Rose’s friendship to Clara).

It’s a complicated and messy story, as is real life. We don’t want to accept these things have happened. We try to pretend everything’s fine. We don’t want to be the only one that stands up and says that’s wrong and ruin the fun atmosphere or that next time it will be different. 

One review I read lamented that “we don’t see the abuse that’s happened” which made it harder to connect emotionally to the story. I counter that by saying why should we give airtime to the horrible things that happen to women? That is the least interesting part of the tale. What’s important is how we get over what happened. How we bring people who do these things to justice. Hold them accountable. Change the systems that stop this from happening. (No this book doesn’t touch on the politics of misogyny or 🍇 culture, but it does lean on how men with power abuse that to get what they want and then throw the women aside).  

There are 2 criticisms I have of the book, I didn’t like the short part where the POV changes to Oliver (Roses colleague), although it did give some insight into his treatment of Rose throughout. And secondly, a criticism of the audiobook narrators Geordie accent. That was awful hun - please don’t do it again. Ever.