rebeccahowell711's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jefftstevens's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
rbarb005's review against another edition
5.0
I truly loved this book. It has a very real depiction of Middle Eastern characters, Western characters from Middle Eastern point of views, and western characters views of themselves.
It really captures the tragic nature of the refugee crisis beautifully, and the book definitely benefited from the short chapter style that Rabih used. I found myself captivated and turning the pages eagerly and also wearily wondering if what I was going to read next was going to be happy, sad, emotional, or everything all at once, and many times it was so.
This book is on my list to re-read.
It really captures the tragic nature of the refugee crisis beautifully, and the book definitely benefited from the short chapter style that Rabih used. I found myself captivated and turning the pages eagerly and also wearily wondering if what I was going to read next was going to be happy, sad, emotional, or everything all at once, and many times it was so.
This book is on my list to re-read.
ktopreads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
stucifer_'s review against another edition
2.0
(copy received through goodreads giveaway)
I am finding this book a little hard to talk about, a bit difficult to form coherent, articulate thoughts on. Perhaps because it reads a bit like a disjointed dream - not a good dream, and although it should be a nightmare, it's not that either. Maybe that's reflective of my own cultural difference, a challenge to my own empathy and witnessing of tragedy. But the book doesn't seem to ever land for me, never seems to touch the earth and concretely say "this is where we are and this is what has happened and this is what we do next"; at the very least, it never seems to clearly refuse to do this, either. It just seems to float along, much like the desperate refugees it chronicles.
I do appreciate that the narrator of this book, as well as at least one other character, is explicitly trans, without their gender having anything at all to do with the story (although it does shape their perspective). This is good representation; trans people, existing with their experiences informing how they live.
And, as much as I am unsure what exactly this book is doing and frustated a bit by it, the style of it is distinct and evocative. It's fluid and lyric, dipping in and out of timelines like memories, revisiting the past at the slightest nudge from the present. I don't think it is to my taste, but that doesn't undermine its successful execution in any way.
That said, I was let down by this. The narrator spends quite a lot of the book addressing someone in second person; chapters and chapters addressed to 'you,' parts which seem almost like a mystery in which she is tracking 'you' down, memories of 'you,' until I was quite looking forward to when she finally found you, and as a reader I learned who 'you' were, what the connection was, I got some sense of closure. It never came. Yes, she found 'you,' yes you spent time together, you talked, the book even ends with 'you' living with the narrator and her wife, but I still felt unsure of who 'you' was. Perhaps I should have been more compelled by the refugees. That was the point for all of our characters in being there; so why was I more interested in this mysterious, anxious, writer, than in the people the narrator was helping? There is quite a moving scene near the end, but so much of this book, so much of the narrator's actions, ostensibly there to help the refugees, are just floating around them. Maybe that's the point. I really don't know.
I am finding this book a little hard to talk about, a bit difficult to form coherent, articulate thoughts on. Perhaps because it reads a bit like a disjointed dream - not a good dream, and although it should be a nightmare, it's not that either. Maybe that's reflective of my own cultural difference, a challenge to my own empathy and witnessing of tragedy. But the book doesn't seem to ever land for me, never seems to touch the earth and concretely say "this is where we are and this is what has happened and this is what we do next"; at the very least, it never seems to clearly refuse to do this, either. It just seems to float along, much like the desperate refugees it chronicles.
I do appreciate that the narrator of this book, as well as at least one other character, is explicitly trans, without their gender having anything at all to do with the story (although it does shape their perspective). This is good representation; trans people, existing with their experiences informing how they live.
And, as much as I am unsure what exactly this book is doing and frustated a bit by it, the style of it is distinct and evocative. It's fluid and lyric, dipping in and out of timelines like memories, revisiting the past at the slightest nudge from the present. I don't think it is to my taste, but that doesn't undermine its successful execution in any way.
That said, I was let down by this. The narrator spends quite a lot of the book addressing someone in second person; chapters and chapters addressed to 'you,' parts which seem almost like a mystery in which she is tracking 'you' down, memories of 'you,' until I was quite looking forward to when she finally found you, and as a reader I learned who 'you' were, what the connection was, I got some sense of closure. It never came. Yes, she found 'you,' yes you spent time together, you talked, the book even ends with 'you' living with the narrator and her wife, but I still felt unsure of who 'you' was. Perhaps I should have been more compelled by the refugees. That was the point for all of our characters in being there; so why was I more interested in this mysterious, anxious, writer, than in the people the narrator was helping? There is quite a moving scene near the end, but so much of this book, so much of the narrator's actions, ostensibly there to help the refugees, are just floating around them. Maybe that's the point. I really don't know.
kristinana's review against another edition
5.0
I just loved this. A beautiful, moving, and often surprisingly funny meditation on displacement. The mundane and the extraordinary reside right next to each other, and part of the point is how loss is just a part of life. Story upon story adds up to a whole of human experience. Just stunning.
apputnam's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
piaaaaaaaaaa's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
silk4k's review
challenging
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
swegarjl's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5