frombethanysbookshelf's review
5.0
"It is as though in the literary imagination climate change were somehow akin to extraterrestrials or interplanetary travel."
Here Amitav Ghosh brings together his own experience and the works of several other writers to give his thoughts on just why we as a society struggle to grasp the severity of climate change. Providing an interesting and cleverly thought out exploration into the literary world where climate issues only appear in the fiction section, this was deeply personal and thought provoking providing plenty of room for introspection.
Uncanny and Improbably Events is probably the 'wordiest' of the collection I've read so far and is quite dense, but in just under 100 pages it is definitely a must-read especially for other writers.
Here Amitav Ghosh brings together his own experience and the works of several other writers to give his thoughts on just why we as a society struggle to grasp the severity of climate change. Providing an interesting and cleverly thought out exploration into the literary world where climate issues only appear in the fiction section, this was deeply personal and thought provoking providing plenty of room for introspection.
Uncanny and Improbably Events is probably the 'wordiest' of the collection I've read so far and is quite dense, but in just under 100 pages it is definitely a must-read especially for other writers.
kstrange's review
4.0
A crucial text for anyone interested in the Anthropocene narrative within literature! Highly recommend.
stormblessedt's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
This is the 4th booklet I’ve read in this series, and probably the one I had the hardest time getting through. The topic and the writing is impactful, but a little dense; might be a case of “I’m too dumb for this”. Still worth reading as there are sentences and paragraphs that I’ll probably think about for a long time. Would love a similar essay/book centered on the Philippines.
coepi's review
2.0
I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
My low rating doesn’t reflect any issues with the text itself - it’s just that I don’t really understand the point of this book. To be clear, this is a re-published an extract from Ghosh’s book The Great Derangement under a new name. The Great Derangement is a good book that I would recommend to anyone. But it’s only 164 pages long (at least in my hardback copy) - so why not read or buy the full book, instead of this, which is a short extract from it? Similar, the original retails at about £10 while this costs £5, for I believe less than half the content. I’m not opposed to re-publishing in all forms, but this edition doesn’t add anything as far as I can tell; it’s not updated, it doesn’t collate a few speeches or articles published elsewhere into one volume, or include anything new from Ghosh. Just buy The Great Derangement instead.
My low rating doesn’t reflect any issues with the text itself - it’s just that I don’t really understand the point of this book. To be clear, this is a re-published an extract from Ghosh’s book The Great Derangement under a new name. The Great Derangement is a good book that I would recommend to anyone. But it’s only 164 pages long (at least in my hardback copy) - so why not read or buy the full book, instead of this, which is a short extract from it? Similar, the original retails at about £10 while this costs £5, for I believe less than half the content. I’m not opposed to re-publishing in all forms, but this edition doesn’t add anything as far as I can tell; it’s not updated, it doesn’t collate a few speeches or articles published elsewhere into one volume, or include anything new from Ghosh. Just buy The Great Derangement instead.