kweekwegg's review
4.0
While I must say it required of me a strange state of mind in order to relate to the subject of addiction, it certainly did put me through a great process of thought and comprehension, which I greatly appreciated. How he openly links the subject of addiction to universal, everyday experiences particular basic human actions, was extremely clear, very well elaborated. I won't hesitate to reread and meditate on this essay in the future.
wrengaia's review against another edition
3.0
I thought that this book was beautifully and insightfully written, but lacked the clear structure to make for compelling reading.
Hens' autobiographical analysis is beautifully rendered, firstly. His writing is simultaneously dense and heady, and clear and introspective. I even found the interspersal of photographs (which I think can sometimes be an unnecessary addition to text) to improve the texture of the work as a whole. Moreover, I think that through the course of this essay/autobiographical work Hens makes some observations about the nature of addiction that are very acute and insightful. Having never smoked myself, I found the careful and meticulous analysis of the psyche of a smoker that more or less comprises this work to be completely fascinating. This work is both an individual analysis, into Hens' own addiction, how it started and how he has overcome it, and a sociological insight into the state of addiction throughout the twentieth century and into the modern day, as smoking has gone from being an unremarkable, even encouraged, habit, to being something that is socially vilified. This text takes a form that I tend to enjoy in these kinds of autobiographical essay, as it alternates between the remembrance of a significant moment and a more general rumination upon the topic at hand.
And yet, for all that I enjoyed it, this text frustrated me immensely. All that I have just praised it for made itself apparent in the first couple of pages, and then I found that it failed to offer much else. For an essay of this considerable length, I would have expected a more significant development to Hens' overall argument, or even a sense that there was more of a thread holding the text together, but it felt disorganised and loosely comprised to the end. I spent most of the book in anticipation of some revelatory moment - though I'm not sure what I was expecting - that never actually came. In the Afterword, Hens comments very briefly on how he actually stopped smoking and goes on to comment on the value of learning and freeing oneself from seemingly ingrained behaviours, which perhaps would have left the book feeling as though it had more direction had it been explored more wholly in the body of the work itself.
Overall, I thought this book had an immense amount of potential and I did enjoy reading it, but I think that it lacked direction and coherence.
Hens' autobiographical analysis is beautifully rendered, firstly. His writing is simultaneously dense and heady, and clear and introspective. I even found the interspersal of photographs (which I think can sometimes be an unnecessary addition to text) to improve the texture of the work as a whole. Moreover, I think that through the course of this essay/autobiographical work Hens makes some observations about the nature of addiction that are very acute and insightful. Having never smoked myself, I found the careful and meticulous analysis of the psyche of a smoker that more or less comprises this work to be completely fascinating. This work is both an individual analysis, into Hens' own addiction, how it started and how he has overcome it, and a sociological insight into the state of addiction throughout the twentieth century and into the modern day, as smoking has gone from being an unremarkable, even encouraged, habit, to being something that is socially vilified. This text takes a form that I tend to enjoy in these kinds of autobiographical essay, as it alternates between the remembrance of a significant moment and a more general rumination upon the topic at hand.
And yet, for all that I enjoyed it, this text frustrated me immensely. All that I have just praised it for made itself apparent in the first couple of pages, and then I found that it failed to offer much else. For an essay of this considerable length, I would have expected a more significant development to Hens' overall argument, or even a sense that there was more of a thread holding the text together, but it felt disorganised and loosely comprised to the end. I spent most of the book in anticipation of some revelatory moment - though I'm not sure what I was expecting - that never actually came. In the Afterword, Hens comments very briefly on how he actually stopped smoking and goes on to comment on the value of learning and freeing oneself from seemingly ingrained behaviours, which perhaps would have left the book feeling as though it had more direction had it been explored more wholly in the body of the work itself.
Overall, I thought this book had an immense amount of potential and I did enjoy reading it, but I think that it lacked direction and coherence.
vans's review
4.0
This book had the most beautiful writings I have ever seen about addiction. This wasn't a self help book, it doesn't give you any advice on how to quite smoking . What it does give you is a beautiful yet tragic love story of his life and how intertwined it was with smoking ( spoiler alert it was the mommy and daddy issues). Bug it showed the truth that it's not exactly a diseased that humans caught it , its sometime just a survival instinct.
Anyways his passion and obsession is truly worth a read.
Anyways his passion and obsession is truly worth a read.
gwentolios's review
5.0
I wasn’t sure what to expect about this before reading. It was handed to me at BookCon. It shortness and taking place partly in Germany is what captured my attention initially. But I quickly became enamored with it.
I don't smoke. Probably never will, so I cracked the cover with some trepidation. But saying this book is about an addiction to nicotine is shallow. It's a beautiful thought essay on how Gregor feels about smoking, yes, but it more importantly him trying to understand the experiences he's had in his past.
He's quit, but this book doesn't paint cigarettes in a negative nor nostalgic light. It’s simply an effort to understand himself - not just his smoking habits but all his habits. Why he thinks and does what he does. And it's all done is stunning, stunning prose. (kudos to translator jen calleja)
Now that I'm done, I'm torn between going through to pick out the poignant parts or shoving it in people's faces and saying "read this".
I don't smoke. Probably never will, so I cracked the cover with some trepidation. But saying this book is about an addiction to nicotine is shallow. It's a beautiful thought essay on how Gregor feels about smoking, yes, but it more importantly him trying to understand the experiences he's had in his past.
He's quit, but this book doesn't paint cigarettes in a negative nor nostalgic light. It’s simply an effort to understand himself - not just his smoking habits but all his habits. Why he thinks and does what he does. And it's all done is stunning, stunning prose. (kudos to translator jen calleja)
Now that I'm done, I'm torn between going through to pick out the poignant parts or shoving it in people's faces and saying "read this".
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