Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Trilogia della città di K. by Ágota Kristóf

5 reviews

skimgoth's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I just read The Notebook by Agota Kristof and I got that feeling like I did reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Like I just need to go rock in a corner for a while.

The San Francisco chronicle calls it “stark and haunting”

NYT Bestselling Internet Aunt Sara says “omg listen to the San Francisco Chronicle”

God, I have so much I could say, but I think it boils down to:

this book made really horrible stuff really elegant and cut nightmares out of crisp, accessible prose.

The character of Harelip. The maid. Those boys. What happened to each of the parents. That last chapter. Shaking, grateful I read it, changed, inspired as an artist, deeply bothered.

I think I’m going to write a note to my children about how “this book is A LOT to parse as an adult so please don’t get a wild hair and read it yet” and stick it in the cover before putting it up on a shelf. My kids are like me. If a book is around, they might read it, especially if I put it on a high shelf. This one is WAY too readable, like at any age, and they could get thru it. So a “last warning” note for when they find a chair to get to my grownup books. Lmao

(This is a trilogy but I only bought it for the first one, no plans to read the other two for now)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Excrement, Gore, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Antisemitism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Genocide

cami_y's review

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Self harm, Pedophilia, Deportation, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gun violence, Sexual content, Rape, Cursing, Mental illness, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Bullying, Incest, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Minor: Antisemitism

sofiaacanepa's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gun violence, Dementia, Incest, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Child death, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, War, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Antisemitism and Police brutality

morebedsidebooks's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

2.75

Born in Hungary in 1935, Ágota Kristóf, after the bloody suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 against the USSR became a reluctant refugee living in Switzerland where she learned French. She then began writing in such with the help of a dictionary, going on to become a notable francophone author. 

From 1985-1991 she would write the trilogy of The Notebook, a psychological tale beginning in the childhood of two twin brothers over the course of many years through war, regimes, and the evils around them. Major theme in the series is one of identity not only in conflict and West vs East but the lines and blurring of truth and fiction. What is more the latter dichotomy can either be viewed as either the greatest asset or weakness to the text. Lessons and writing are from the beginning essential tasks, notebooks an important possession throughout. 

 

When you feel too much pain, too much sorrow, and you don't want to talk to anyone, write it down. It will help you." 

 

Yet a later exchange in the book lays bare the double edge and struggle: 

 

“I try to write true stories but that at a given point the story becomes unbearable because of its very truth, and then I have to change it. I tell her that I try to tell my story but all of a sudden I can't—I don't have the courage, it hurts too much. And so I embellish everything and describe things not as they happened but the way I wish they had happened.
She says, "Yes. There are lives sadder than the saddest of books."
I say, "Yes. No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life." 

 

The trilogy is not just about limits of humanity but expression and language. The compulsive force of putting experience into words (too what tongue when one is bilingual) privately or publicly. Oh so complex trauma, dehumanization, distance, fragmentation, memory, history reshaped in the mind’s eye. Characters more like thematic vehicles than individuals and every ugliness instead devoid in what becomes a meta like parable. 

 

Kristóf’s The Notebook has the earmarks of success. Winning awards and translated in many, many languages along with being lauded in lists such as the top 100 Women in Translation. (In English translated by Alan Sheridan, David Watson, and Marc Romano.) In 2013 the first book in the trilogy was further adapted to film by director János Szász, winning prizes in Europe and Israel but, narrowly missing the final nomination list in the 86th Academy Awards. 

Still one part, though the novels were presented independently originally, doesn’t do Kristóf’s creation justice. Read all of what dare I say is a most manipulative trifecta in literature. Especially between the lines from this unusual writer in French. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Blood, Incest, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Ableism, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, War, Abandonment, and Pedophilia

zolalethiel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is solidly on a list I like to call "Books I absolutely love and would never recommend to anybody". Amazing, incredible book, but set aside a day or two to be fucked up after reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, War, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Genocide, Torture, Suicide, and Rape