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worldofbooks's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It’s an amazing book describing the strong depression after loosing an unborn baby. Is really intense and really horrible what human mind can do. Fortunately it has a good ending
gremily's review
4.0
Poking around Goodreads and the Internet, I see this has mixed reviews, but I thought it was excellent, if not without flaws.
It’s been in my to-read pile for at least five years, since I read an excerpt in a Granta collection about the pursuit of a literary hare:
I will, in this great library – cavernous yet luminous – on this wooden chair, at this wooden desk, attempt to hunt the hare haphazard; to examine the quotidian grasses, to sniff the wind of correspondence, to trace the found tracks of the intentional, to crumble or squidge the meant droppings, and to come – eventually – to the real presence of a real living literary animal-idea, and not kill it.
The novel is prefaced by three short pieces: the one about the hare, a three-pager about foxes, and a presumably autobiographical account of the author and his girlfriend experiencing a trio of early miscarriages. The main book, about a couple who move into a house shortly after the stillbirth of their second child. It’s a literary ghost story, with the emphasis firmly on literary: it’s entirely realistic, with some suggestions of the fantastic.
This is a formula that almost always works for me, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also find Litt to be an excellent writer, both on a sentence level and in terms of psychological insight. There may have been a smidge, just a smidge too much psychological insight at times, but it was very well done.
My own real quibble is with the autobiographical section. It’s very well written too, but reading about other people’s miscarriages, like other people’s labour, is a bit like reading about bureaucracy: everything follows along well-worn tracks, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.
Anyway, Litt has been a very satisfying (re)discovery. His latest novel, [b:Patience|45286740|Patience|Toby Litt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556103426l/45286740._SX50_.jpg|70001894], got very good reviews and I’m glad it reminded me to read this.
It’s been in my to-read pile for at least five years, since I read an excerpt in a Granta collection about the pursuit of a literary hare:
I will, in this great library – cavernous yet luminous – on this wooden chair, at this wooden desk, attempt to hunt the hare haphazard; to examine the quotidian grasses, to sniff the wind of correspondence, to trace the found tracks of the intentional, to crumble or squidge the meant droppings, and to come – eventually – to the real presence of a real living literary animal-idea, and not kill it.
The novel is prefaced by three short pieces: the one about the hare, a three-pager about foxes, and a presumably autobiographical account of the author and his girlfriend experiencing a trio of early miscarriages. The main book, about a couple who move into a house shortly after the stillbirth of their second child. It’s a literary ghost story, with the emphasis firmly on literary: it’s entirely realistic, with some suggestions of the fantastic.
This is a formula that almost always works for me, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also find Litt to be an excellent writer, both on a sentence level and in terms of psychological insight. There may have been a smidge, just a smidge too much psychological insight at times, but it was very well done.
My own real quibble is with the autobiographical section. It’s very well written too, but reading about other people’s miscarriages, like other people’s labour, is a bit like reading about bureaucracy: everything follows along well-worn tracks, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.
Anyway, Litt has been a very satisfying (re)discovery. His latest novel, [b:Patience|45286740|Patience|Toby Litt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556103426l/45286740._SX50_.jpg|70001894], got very good reviews and I’m glad it reminded me to read this.
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