drlark's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
A meandering, mostly vibes meditation on having/not having kids, sex and sexuality, suicide, and familial love. I like the complexity of the narrator -- a woman drifting through life who just wants to read books, have lots of sex with lots of women, and determine the right time to exit the world. Though that last one gets consistently derailed. Sometimes funny, sometimes super dark, and sometimes over-written, this is a quick, moody read that I picked up for Women In Translation Month. Glad I did, as it definitely has a European sensibility -- our narrator moving from Barcelona to Scotland to Belgium, teaching Spanish, speaking Catalan, and au pair-ing in English -- that I enjoyed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
topbitchidk's review
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
there are some banger quotes
leic01's review
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Mental illness
liweir's review
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
pawlavelasco's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
xaviterradellas's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
emsemsems's review
4.0
“I’m an imperfect woman, stiff as licorice, flinty and exasperating as a splinter of rabbit bone wedged between two molars. I hope they find me before the birds spot my eyeballs. Birds have always inspired in me a sort of ancestral terror; their despotic beaks admit no feelings and I have feelings.”
Poetic prose at one of its finest moments. Been a while since I read a whole novel in one go. And/but I have to say that I’m very partial to novels/book with this kind of ‘tone’, and this 'type' of protagonists. In fact, I don’t even like the narrator/protagonist, but she makes me laugh, and she makes sickly, jaundice-yellow daisies grow in the cold concrete corners of my heart – so much so that I can almost trick myself into loving her a little (as a beautiful, and harmless illusion).
“I’m a huge fan of cadaverines and putrescines. Decomposing amino acids, a top-notch source of life!... Tonight my sister will eat anything. A blow to the self-esteem leaves a deep but non-lethal wound, a black hole that can suck up scraps of death and memory.”
The plot’s so cleverly composed, and the writing is absolutely marvellous. Every sentence/line in the book is brilliant; no waffles to provoke eye-rolling, and none of that lazy, half-arsed attempts to build momentum/cheap ‘shock value’. To put it very briefly, it’s like putting Maggie Nelson and Ottessa Moshfegh into a centrifuge (sprinkled gently with cocaine before serving). But even with the playfulness of the tone/writing, and the darkness of the humour, underneath it all – Baltasar approaches mental health, suicide, and familial/societal issues seriously.
“Who knew, maybe luck was on my side. A death by melanoma was a death worth considering. A word so close to “melomaniac” and “megalomaniac” couldn’t be that bad, a slight etymological violation. “You should make an appointment to see the dermatologist. At a private practice. It’ll have spread to your internal organs by the time you’re seen to at a public clinic.” A sensible idea. I mulled it over for a few days, then made an appointment with a public health physician.”
Julia Sanches – you absolute legend – a fantastic writer/translator – just look at those crazy beautiful lines. It just makes me want to read everything written/translated by Sanches. But that aside, I love how Baltasar sieves social/political satire into her work so cleverly. Not only does it help to highlight the problems and issues in the protagonist’s life, but it also enhances the characterisation, and cheeky plot pattern in the novel. The protagonist fantasises about her own death almost romantically a lot while she deals with her own reality – issues relating to post-grad dread, an unstable mental health, and her relationship with her family (when I was reading it, felt too close for comfort).
“Sex distances me from death, thought it doesn’t bring me closer to life… My life is an accident, predicable and transgressive. It gives no ontological meaning to my existence, but rather occupies it like a sentinel, where it grows strong and renders me absolute.”
On top of all that, the protagonist even tries to find ‘love’(mostly a good fuck) time to time – in the most hopeless ways/places – leaving it all to ‘chance’ (a thing which she so passionately embraces while she shoves to the side anything godly/divine). Her lack of care, and frivolous approach led to her not being able to take any of her love affairs seriously. The romantic and sexual relationships described in the novel felt superficial and disconnected, but mostly a very entertaining read. The sex felt as if both partners were objectifying each other (mostly the protagonist; but then again, we only get her perspective of it all), and a lot of it was just a repetitive stretch of pointless pleasures.
““What have you done to your face?” I ask. “Teeth whitening and two chemical peels. It really shows, doesn’t it?” She bares her teeth and smiles like a horse. The end result is outstanding, paediatric white up to the canines… Conversations with my sister are a never-ending source of inspiration. I think of Paul Klee’s ‘A Tiny Tale of a Tiny Dwarf’. He probably had a sister like mine. A shame I never did get that fine arts degree. I’ve got a sister as untapped as a Christmas hamper at my mother’s house.”
The character and relationship development of the sisters in the novel is brilliant. It reminds me of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s [b:Fleabag: Scriptures|51042792|Fleabag Scriptures|Phoebe Waller-Bridge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574176782l/51042792._SX50_SY75_.jpg|72698950], and Mieko Kawakami’s [b:Breasts and Eggs|50736031|Breasts and Eggs|Mieko Kawakami|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573825173l/50736031._SX50_SY75_.jpg|74401064](I can’t forget the retinol-nipples – an absolute joy to have read). The familial issues/element of the novel is what’s missing in Ottessa Moshfegh’s [b:My Year of Rest and Relaxation|44279110|My Year of Rest and Relaxation|Ottessa Moshfegh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597676656l/44279110._SY75_.jpg|55508660]. I think that it’s a brave move to write so intimately and vividly about family relationship considering Baltasar drew inspiration from her own life. This novel is undoubtably a work of art. Maybe not a masterpiece, but very close to one. Read it even for the dark/dry humour alone – it’s worth almost 200 pages of glorious writing. Short chapters too, which is brilliant for someone (like me) who tend to get distracted rather easily.
“Is it possible that the image owed its existence entirely to the musicality of the (Catalan) words? Had that felicitous, musical connection between the words ‘cortineta’ and ‘cuina’ not existed, would the author have arrived at this image at all? If so what should I prioritise? Does the image take precedence over the music, or do I do my best to maintain both? To what do I owe my contentious fidelity?” – Translator’s Notes
I probably wouldn’t have had the pleasure of reading this novel if not for translator’s notes (thank you S.Penkenvich for sharing). The essay itself is a glory of its own. Sanches compares translated literature to music, which I adore. The ‘musicality’ and ‘rhythm’ in the novel were so meticulously put in to place without losing too much in translation (if at all), which I think is extremely admirable. I don’t know if Sanches was mirroring Baltasar’s play with the punctuation (in this novel), or if it is produced from her own creative experimentation of translation – but either way I found it impressive. It creates a pleasing rhythm/movement in the novel that takes the reader through the whole thing without feeling exhausted/distracted. A very easy novel to read in one go. While S. Penkenvich listened to Serotonin by Girl in Read while reading this , my music of choice was Berlioz’s ‘Le Spectre de la Rose’.
This is one of the best creative translation/translated literature I’ve ever read (if not the best); and overall a stunning novel. I like how Sanches kept the non-English words in the text. Not once did I have to stop to think about how the story would read better in Catalan. I’m so satisfied with the translation (a rare occasion as I usu. complain a little when it comes to translated novels; is this the curse of being multilingual?). I think a good translator is like a ghost – seemingly without the littlest effort, entering and occupying all the literary cracks and spaces that a less experienced/less skilled one can’t.
“Perhaps translation is as much about being a careful reader and having a good ear as it is about the details that settle like sand on the seabed of our memories, about the company we choose to keep, and about the place and the moment in time when we go about our craft – word by painstaking word.” – Translator’s Notes
sunnydays's review
dark
emotional
medium-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
5.0
i found this similar to ‘notes from underground’ by dostoyevsky in a way because i found the exploration of the narrator’s flaws, depression & her relationships with everyone around her from her perspective only really interesting; i also liked this a lot for how it spoke about lesbianism and not only her exploration of it through her many lovers but also how people interacted with her because of it. definitely worth the read, once i picked it up i couldn’t stop
brina_petrovcic's review
3.0
looking at the last chapter with my mouth opened in a shock of a plot twist.