Scan barcode
amberacks12's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I’m still processing this book. And I think I will be for a long time. This book is about so many generations of people whose varying life circumstances work together to weave the tapestry that is the little village of Al Awafi in an Oman that is rapidly changing and modernizing whether it’s people want it or not.
The characters and their struggles were compelling, the complicated family lives were fascinating, and I especially loved the elements of likability and unlikability within each character, making everyone feel like real people.
This is one book that exemplifies why I love reading translated fiction, and why I need to read more of it. This book does not pander to a western audience.
The ins and out of the ways this Omani culture exists is not explained to someone who is unfamiliar. The relationships between family members, spouses, tribes and bedouins, the mentally ill, men and women, mothers and daughters, and yes, even slaves and the families they are in servitude to: all of this is not explained, and it is all different than how I as an American have come to expect, and this book just throws you into the middle of it, expecting you to understand.
I felt like a child trying to understand an adult’s conversation. But that’s also why I loved it.
Enjoyability: 4
Emotional impact: 4
Educational value: 5
=
The characters and their struggles were compelling, the complicated family lives were fascinating, and I especially loved the elements of likability and unlikability within each character, making everyone feel like real people.
This is one book that exemplifies why I love reading translated fiction, and why I need to read more of it. This book does not pander to a western audience.
The ins and out of the ways this Omani culture exists is not explained to someone who is unfamiliar. The relationships between family members, spouses, tribes and bedouins, the mentally ill, men and women, mothers and daughters, and yes, even slaves and the families they are in servitude to: all of this is not explained, and it is all different than how I as an American have come to expect, and this book just throws you into the middle of it, expecting you to understand.
I felt like a child trying to understand an adult’s conversation. But that’s also why I loved it.
Enjoyability: 4
Emotional impact: 4
Educational value: 5
=
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Slavery and Pregnancy
Minor: Mental illness
n_asyikin_'s review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
CW: racism, xenophobia (mild), colourism, slavery, ableism, child abuse, domestic abuse, stalking, implied eugenics related to ableism
Quite poetical in narration, Celestial Bodies depicts intersectional existence, reflecting how class & wealth modulates the racist & sexist structure in the characters' world. It also explores how the society & its norms shaped one's being. Based on my limited knowledge, the poetry-like writing style resembles the dramatization and lyricism quite familiar in Arab poetry. It also shows how religiosity & spirituality are tightly interweaved into their literature.
I think going into this, one should anticipate reading it as a series of short stories told in rather personalised observational manner. It can be considered containing multiple overlapping stories relating to a big casts of characters narrated nonlinearly. That may caused confusion at times, especially as some of the characters were quite unreliable as narrators, e.g. Abdallah.
But if you see the stories as belonging to each individual characters whom happened to have connections with other characters, I think you can appreciate the book better.
The approach to the storytelling reminds me quite a bit to Orhan Pamuk's and his epic intergenerational stories centering around one family/character, except of course, Alharthi's less of an epic, more of a fleeting summation of one's lived or lingering moment/memory.
I quite liked the aspect to the story that depicts how women were raised into thinking that sacrifices were inherent in their existence. That servitude is expected from them. It could be extracted that anything related to men's well-being (i.e. to love them, to heal them, to change them, to protect them, etc) was stated to be women's responsibility. I thought it did well showing the consequences of being raised in a highly patriarchal society, how it shaped the women holding up the same system that impede them - something I could relate to.
Warning: Slavery is also depicted in the story. There are instances where victims of slavery's view on their given rights to freedom was framed negatively. Though, it is also contrasted by an opposing view through Habib & Sanjar. Also notable is Mayya's colonized perspective in the admiration for the European/imperialist views. That makes for an interesting read, because coming from a formerly colonized country, we too have many such people in our nation. I think Alharthi's intent with both topics are to highlight how sometimes people will fall-in-line & even uphold the system that failed them due to lack of awareness and/or knowledge or even familiarity (think herd mentality); a rather prominent theme in the book.
Regardless, if you like reading an intergenerational story that narrates its cast of characters' introspections, allowing for insights into moments in their lives, this book will be perfect for you.
Quite poetical in narration, Celestial Bodies depicts intersectional existence, reflecting how class & wealth modulates the racist & sexist structure in the characters' world. It also explores how the society & its norms shaped one's being. Based on my limited knowledge, the poetry-like writing style resembles the dramatization and lyricism quite familiar in Arab poetry. It also shows how religiosity & spirituality are tightly interweaved into their literature.
I think going into this, one should anticipate reading it as a series of short stories told in rather personalised observational manner. It can be considered containing multiple overlapping stories relating to a big casts of characters narrated nonlinearly. That may caused confusion at times, especially as some of the characters were quite unreliable as narrators, e.g. Abdallah.
But if you see the stories as belonging to each individual characters whom happened to have connections with other characters, I think you can appreciate the book better.
The approach to the storytelling reminds me quite a bit to Orhan Pamuk's and his epic intergenerational stories centering around one family/character, except of course, Alharthi's less of an epic, more of a fleeting summation of one's lived or lingering moment/memory.
I quite liked the aspect to the story that depicts how women were raised into thinking that sacrifices were inherent in their existence. That servitude is expected from them. It could be extracted that anything related to men's well-being (i.e. to love them, to heal them, to change them, to protect them, etc) was stated to be women's responsibility. I thought it did well showing the consequences of being raised in a highly patriarchal society, how it shaped the women holding up the same system that impede them - something I could relate to.
Warning: Slavery is also depicted in the story. There are instances where victims of slavery's view on their given rights to freedom was framed negatively. Though, it is also contrasted by an opposing view through Habib & Sanjar. Also notable is Mayya's colonized perspective in the admiration for the European/imperialist views. That makes for an interesting read, because coming from a formerly colonized country, we too have many such people in our nation. I think Alharthi's intent with both topics are to highlight how sometimes people will fall-in-line & even uphold the system that failed them due to lack of awareness and/or knowledge or even familiarity (think herd mentality); a rather prominent theme in the book.
Regardless, if you like reading an intergenerational story that narrates its cast of characters' introspections, allowing for insights into moments in their lives, this book will be perfect for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Stalking
Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
hannah_sakura's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
More...