ciwanski's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I was tempted to give this book a 4 star rating because I loved all the themes and messages and the poetic language, but ultimately the book was a bit of a behemoth for me to get through. In the last two years I have tried to get back into reading, and I think I've successfully done so. That being said, I haven't been reading the most intellectual of books to get me back into it, and this book had so many new vocab words in it that I often had to reread sentences and check definitions before I could get through just one page. When I did finally get through some of the tougher passages, I ended up really loving what I was reading.
Here are some quotes from the book that I especially loved:
"Uncorrected pages billowed from the crash site where the typewriter had collided with his fingers."
"Her mother still brought a Mezzogiorno mindset to suffering: it was never explicable; it was only endurable."
"The true temptation of fantasy wasn't its outlandishness but its aching plausibility."
"In my experience, when a Christian comes to town to clean things up, it rarely ends well for the locals."
"Joe Breen is as intellectually disingenuous as the thoughts before prayers."
"Every totalitarian knows you cannot change the future, only the past."
"A firework fills **REDACTED SPOILER**'s empty eyes, a molten asterisk in the heavens to which the body on the ground is a footnote."
"Devils must tell themselves they are angels too."
One of the things that really warmed me to this book was that almost every character mentioned was given some sort of backstory, some type of reality, some type of future. To me that represented that even the strangers in our lives have their own, full lives to live, and you never know how they might influence you or how you influence them.
Lots to think about with this book. Lots to say about this book. Definitely recommend it if you have the patience for it.
Here are some quotes from the book that I especially loved:
"Uncorrected pages billowed from the crash site where the typewriter had collided with his fingers."
"Her mother still brought a Mezzogiorno mindset to suffering: it was never explicable; it was only endurable."
"The true temptation of fantasy wasn't its outlandishness but its aching plausibility."
"In my experience, when a Christian comes to town to clean things up, it rarely ends well for the locals."
"Joe Breen is as intellectually disingenuous as the thoughts before prayers."
"Every totalitarian knows you cannot change the future, only the past."
"A firework fills **REDACTED SPOILER**'s empty eyes, a molten asterisk in the heavens to which the body on the ground is a footnote."
"Devils must tell themselves they are angels too."
One of the things that really warmed me to this book was that almost every character mentioned was given some sort of backstory, some type of reality, some type of future. To me that represented that even the strangers in our lives have their own, full lives to live, and you never know how they might influence you or how you influence them.
Lots to think about with this book. Lots to say about this book. Definitely recommend it if you have the patience for it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Death, War, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Hate crime and Suicide
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