megan_prairierose's review against another edition
3.0
I found once I had a good chunk of time to sit and read this book I enjoyed it a lot more. Too bad that didn't happen until I was 2/3 of the way through.
saxamaholly's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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
3.5
noahh's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Death
Minor: Misogyny
jasonvpurcell's review against another edition
4.0
Great narrative construction, interesting positioning and narrative voice. Looking forward to talking about this on Hello Hemlock.
mckenzierichardson's review against another edition
2.0
For more reviews, check out my blog:Craft-Cycle
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't really know anything about the book going into it. The summary on the back cover sounded interesting enough. Once I started reading, I was really confused. The back cover says Jonathan's parents split up, then his mother vanishes and later transitions into a man. So reading this, I assumed Jonathan was raised by his father. It took forever for me to figure out he was raised by a lesbian couple who then separated (one of whom transitions into a man). The summary wasn't wrong, but was rather vague. The family dynamics were very unclear and confusing to start. Even I, as someone who comes from a "non-traditional" family had to reread sections to figure it all out. It was such an easy fix, it seemed silly to start out so vaguely.
Once I got over that bump, I was ready for the book to get good. Unfortunately, that never happened. "Moving forward sideways like a crab" is the beautiful idea of telling a story from a roundabout way, focusing on all of the surrounding details. This is a great concept, but makes for a very drawn out and dull read.
At one point, Sydney states, "of course one wants relief after suspense, and I must admit that in a life like mine, there seems to be constant suspense and little relief, even now" (187). This pretty much sums up the book. There is so much buildup and it really doesn't lead anywhere. Nothing amazing or profound happens. By the end, the layout is pretty predictable. It ends right about where you expect it to, with little actually occurring. Yes, there is some emotional stuff and relationship stuff, but it was pretty boring.
Also, Jonathan himself was a very irritating character. I couldn't get over how whiny, self-centered, and petty he was. I just kept wanting to slap him and shout, "It's not that big of a deal! Chill out!" He seemed so overdramatic all the time.
There were also moments that felt unrealistic. At one point, some of Sydney's friends visit the house. Jonathan overreacts (big surprise) and starts freaking out, babbling on in the narrative, comparing it to a circus and saying other transphobic things. Then he passes out, one of the visitors is nice to him, and he magically is not transphobic anymore. I'm glad he changed, but it came about so suddenly and awkwardly that it didn't feel real.
Boring book. I bumped it up to 2-stars, because I think it had an interesting idea, but horrible execution.
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't really know anything about the book going into it. The summary on the back cover sounded interesting enough. Once I started reading, I was really confused. The back cover says Jonathan's parents split up, then his mother vanishes and later transitions into a man. So reading this, I assumed Jonathan was raised by his father. It took forever for me to figure out he was raised by a lesbian couple who then separated (one of whom transitions into a man). The summary wasn't wrong, but was rather vague. The family dynamics were very unclear and confusing to start. Even I, as someone who comes from a "non-traditional" family had to reread sections to figure it all out. It was such an easy fix, it seemed silly to start out so vaguely.
Once I got over that bump, I was ready for the book to get good. Unfortunately, that never happened. "Moving forward sideways like a crab" is the beautiful idea of telling a story from a roundabout way, focusing on all of the surrounding details. This is a great concept, but makes for a very drawn out and dull read.
At one point, Sydney states, "of course one wants relief after suspense, and I must admit that in a life like mine, there seems to be constant suspense and little relief, even now" (187). This pretty much sums up the book. There is so much buildup and it really doesn't lead anywhere. Nothing amazing or profound happens. By the end, the layout is pretty predictable. It ends right about where you expect it to, with little actually occurring. Yes, there is some emotional stuff and relationship stuff, but it was pretty boring.
Also, Jonathan himself was a very irritating character. I couldn't get over how whiny, self-centered, and petty he was. I just kept wanting to slap him and shout, "It's not that big of a deal! Chill out!" He seemed so overdramatic all the time.
There were also moments that felt unrealistic. At one point, some of Sydney's friends visit the house. Jonathan overreacts (big surprise) and starts freaking out, babbling on in the narrative, comparing it to a circus and saying other transphobic things. Then he passes out, one of the visitors is nice to him, and he magically is not transphobic anymore. I'm glad he changed, but it came about so suddenly and awkwardly that it didn't feel real.
Boring book. I bumped it up to 2-stars, because I think it had an interesting idea, but horrible execution.
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Can you imagine a more beautiful and provocative beginning to a novel than this:
Surely it is a failure of our human design that it takes not an hour, not a day, but much, much longer to relay what flashes through the mind with the speed of a hummingbird’s wing.
Moving Forward employs multiple viewpoints to tell us the story of a parent and son, and the distances—literal and figurative—they have travelled on their own journeys and to reunite later in their lives. The person through whose voice we hear most of the story is Jonathan, who grew up in Toronto in the 80s with two moms; when the couple break up, his adoptive parent disappears dramatically from his life and he is left with his birth mom, a selfish aristocratic British-born woman absorbed by her work as a writer and unwilling to assuage his feelings of loss and abandonment. As an adult, Jonathan searches for his beloved parent, only to find the person he knew as Sid now goes by Sydney and is living in his native Trinidad. As the title suggests, the story does not move linearly, but rather goes back and forth in time and place (Toronto to rural Trinidad and back).
Mootoo can’t help but write beautifully...
See my full review here: https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/a-big-sky-in-my-heart-a-review-of-shani-mootoos-novel-moving-forward-sideways-like-a-crab/
Surely it is a failure of our human design that it takes not an hour, not a day, but much, much longer to relay what flashes through the mind with the speed of a hummingbird’s wing.
Moving Forward employs multiple viewpoints to tell us the story of a parent and son, and the distances—literal and figurative—they have travelled on their own journeys and to reunite later in their lives. The person through whose voice we hear most of the story is Jonathan, who grew up in Toronto in the 80s with two moms; when the couple break up, his adoptive parent disappears dramatically from his life and he is left with his birth mom, a selfish aristocratic British-born woman absorbed by her work as a writer and unwilling to assuage his feelings of loss and abandonment. As an adult, Jonathan searches for his beloved parent, only to find the person he knew as Sid now goes by Sydney and is living in his native Trinidad. As the title suggests, the story does not move linearly, but rather goes back and forth in time and place (Toronto to rural Trinidad and back).
Mootoo can’t help but write beautifully...
See my full review here: https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/a-big-sky-in-my-heart-a-review-of-shani-mootoos-novel-moving-forward-sideways-like-a-crab/
thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
tshepiso's review
2.0
Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab is a book I could have liked. On paper, its themes of intersectional trans identity and complex parent-child relationships sound fascinating but Shani Mootoo's framing didn't connect with me.
My first and biggest problem with this story was its narrator, Jonathan. This novel is about the life of an Indo-Trinidadian trans man but is primarily told through the perspective of a cis straight white Canadian. I understand that this was an artistic choice by Mootoo, but Jonathan was an uninteresting character. When not being blatantly transphobic Jonathan's inner life was dull and whiney.
Mootoo's circular narrative structure also didn't do much for me. Like the title suggests time in this book often moves sideways as the narrative rehashes moments and skip around rather than moving linearly from beginning to end. This literary device while something I'm sure I could write a solid academic paper on didn't enhance the story for me.
Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab did have fleeting moments of intrigue, especially when it focused on the perspectives of its queer POC characters, but the vast majority of it just didn't work for me.
My first and biggest problem with this story was its narrator, Jonathan. This novel is about the life of an Indo-Trinidadian trans man but is primarily told through the perspective of a cis straight white Canadian. I understand that this was an artistic choice by Mootoo, but Jonathan was an uninteresting character. When not being blatantly transphobic Jonathan's inner life was dull and whiney.
Mootoo's circular narrative structure also didn't do much for me. Like the title suggests time in this book often moves sideways as the narrative rehashes moments and skip around rather than moving linearly from beginning to end. This literary device while something I'm sure I could write a solid academic paper on didn't enhance the story for me.
Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab did have fleeting moments of intrigue, especially when it focused on the perspectives of its queer POC characters, but the vast majority of it just didn't work for me.
chloegj's review
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? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Transphobia
Moderate: Transphobia, Death, and Abandonment
Minor: Infidelity and Homophobia