camiarnett97's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
5.0
sber8121's review
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
whogivesabook's review against another edition
3.0
Let's get one thing straight, the writing itself is technically brilliant and very engaging. It stirs you up inside. The slight failure here is that sometimes it stirs you up a little too much. I especially loved the train scene. It managed to present me with a character that I felt like I knew well, despite knowing so little about him. A sign of great writing. To give you a sense of a person with one small scrap of them showing. You learn to intuit them.
So that I don't ruin this one for anyone, I'll put this little advance warning. It isn't a major plot point really, so the rest of the story remains unblemished. This criticism will tackle something halfway through the book though, so be mindful.
The main character is told to get checked by someone. He gets checked. The author makes the diagnosis very negative and serious. This felt really disproportionate to me. In fact, it felt a little problematic. Because if you gear up one illness to the place of another, you devalue the worse one. In this case. Here it is. The author describes the devastating impact of a diagnosis of gonorrhoea. But it's lingered over and preempted to the point of farce. It feels like this diagnosis is HIV. It feels like the story might slide in that direction. But even when it is clearly just gonorrhoea, it still has this really unsettling poignancy. It feels disrespectful. And don't think that I mean poignant in a purposeful and interesting way. I mean it's like getting really emotionally expressive about a broken toe... to a point where if you had a leg amputated, you'd tell them to get a grip.
That aspect ruined this book for me. It's a massive shame too. The story was a 4. The writing style was a 5. Characterisation was a 4. But that single aspect... for me... Leaves this one at a 3.
I've bought the authors second book Cleanness. So hopefully that's better.
zadel's review
4.0
I was accustomed to thinking of my real life existing in some distant place or future time, projecting forward in a way that I was afraid might keep me from living fully where I was.
Everytime that I stumble upon a rich contemporary novel, I feel myself falling for the genre over and over again and truth be told, it had been a long while since the last time that I had read a contemporary as beautiful and as touching as [b: What Belongs to You|22929602|What Belongs to You|Garth Greenwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447384662l/22929602._SX50_.jpg|42499130].
Every aspect of this book from the narrative to the characters and even to the atmosphere -which is seldom paid much attention to in literary fiction- was absolutely excellent, well-thought and truly humane.
This book was [a: Garth Greenwell|4774349|Garth Greenwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1449012095p2/4774349.jpg] debut novel and I have to say *cough* sir, you've already set the bars WAY TOO HIGH! (Not that I'm complaining tho)
He had always been alone, I thought, gazing at a world in which he had never found a place and that was now almost perfectly indifferent to him; he was incapable even of disturbing it, of making a sound it could be bothered to hear.
nafas_a's review against another edition
4.0
Awh the imagery! Awh to be apart of someone’s unconscious narrative! Awh to be able to step side by side, and travel not just to the streets but also to step on the same pavement and share the feelings too
vdokk1's review
4.0
Elegant writing that describes life as much as it does a situation. The story line seemed old, toward the end of the book. I was expecting more to happen, a more life-altering event but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
baruss666's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Violence