lindsaysofia_25's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I certainly liked this less than the other novel in the volume, What We All Long For. I found that the storylines were hard to keep track of because they were all so detailed and barely connected to each other. Every time a chapter returned to a character I felt like I had to go back and reread the last chapter they were in to remind myself what was happening. I also didn't really care about two of the three main storylines, and even the third I did find myself invested in (June and Sydney's), I only cared about for the last few chapters. It's too bad because I actually really enjoyed the last two or three June and Sydney chapters to the extent that if the novel had been based around those I probably would have rated it 4+ stars.
alexfredo's review
4.0
Beautifully written and very fitting for me to read at this time, because it’s about falling in love in and with Toronto.
bockney's review
3.0
3.5
Very poetic, in good and not so good ways.
This one has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read since 2014.
Very poetic, in good and not so good ways.
This one has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read since 2014.
stevendedalus's review
5.0
Dionne Brand is incapable of bad writing. The interweaving of these stories soaked in the bittersweet regrets of love comes the closest you can to capturing a feeling.
If Brand dwells overlong in the most autobiographical character, it's forgiveable for the beauty of the prose and of the thought and emphasizes the switch between characters and the familiarity and unknowability of them even as of your own friends.
It's a short book that feels like a meditative poem and is a wonderful diptych to the coldness of her latest and moat perfect book, Theory.
If Brand dwells overlong in the most autobiographical character, it's forgiveable for the beauty of the prose and of the thought and emphasizes the switch between characters and the familiarity and unknowability of them even as of your own friends.
It's a short book that feels like a meditative poem and is a wonderful diptych to the coldness of her latest and moat perfect book, Theory.
axmed's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-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
5.0
morgandhu's review
4.0
In Dionne Brand’s novel Love Enough, people cross paths in unlikely and tangential ways, creating and fighting for and losing relationships, finding their path through emotional tangles of past and present, obligation and expectation, all against the backdrop of the sprawling multicultural metropolis of Toronto. Indeed, the sense of place is strong enough to almost make the city one of the characters, the cycle of vignettes that illuminate the lives of the people also serving to illustrate the untidy diversity of the city itself.
The narrative swirls around its broken, struggling characters and the people who move into and out of their lives. June, a social activist who wanted to be a dancer. Bedri, one of June’s clients at the drop-in centre where she works, and his friend Ghost, petty thugs high on the aftermath of a violent carjacking. Bedri's cab-driving father, Dau'ud, a Somali immigrant who was once an economist. Lia, Ghost's sister, like him the survivor of abandonment by a drug-addicted mother, and a series of foster homes.
Characters that seek love, love enough to get by, at least. Or perhaps Brand’s title is an imperative, exhorting her characters, and by extension her readers, to love enough that the pain and rootlessness can be ameliorated, at least a little. Or a plea, a prayer, for love enough to overcome the distances between us.
The novel opens with an image of driving down Dupont Street - which is, truly, not anywhere near the prettiest street that Toronto has to offer - seeing it transformed by the vision of the sunset seen through the rear view mirror. Perhaps in that sunset, just enough beauty to alter the ugliness around it, is a parallel to the remembered touch of love, somehow just enough to keep us going through the night.
And the novel ends with these thoughts from June’s lover: “There is nothing universal or timeless about this love business, Sydney now suspects for the first time. It is hard if you really want to do it right.”
The narrative swirls around its broken, struggling characters and the people who move into and out of their lives. June, a social activist who wanted to be a dancer. Bedri, one of June’s clients at the drop-in centre where she works, and his friend Ghost, petty thugs high on the aftermath of a violent carjacking. Bedri's cab-driving father, Dau'ud, a Somali immigrant who was once an economist. Lia, Ghost's sister, like him the survivor of abandonment by a drug-addicted mother, and a series of foster homes.
Characters that seek love, love enough to get by, at least. Or perhaps Brand’s title is an imperative, exhorting her characters, and by extension her readers, to love enough that the pain and rootlessness can be ameliorated, at least a little. Or a plea, a prayer, for love enough to overcome the distances between us.
The novel opens with an image of driving down Dupont Street - which is, truly, not anywhere near the prettiest street that Toronto has to offer - seeing it transformed by the vision of the sunset seen through the rear view mirror. Perhaps in that sunset, just enough beauty to alter the ugliness around it, is a parallel to the remembered touch of love, somehow just enough to keep us going through the night.
And the novel ends with these thoughts from June’s lover: “There is nothing universal or timeless about this love business, Sydney now suspects for the first time. It is hard if you really want to do it right.”
lawrenceevalyn's review
4.0
I wanted to read some proper ‘literature’ set in Toronto, and it turns out that most of them skip right past the chapter of genealogy that an 18thC novel leads with (as if they have no confidence I’ll be interested in their characters if I know who they are?) and it turns out I have gotten used to having characters introduced gently and become a hostile reader when these niceties are skipped — but after DNFing two others, this one sucked me in enough to get past the first few chapters and I’m pleased I read it. There’s something complex and lovely at the heart here. And I’m only growing more tantalized by the strange sense of recognition when a book describes a place I have actually been — it makes me want to keep trying Toronto novels even if they won’t bother to introduce their characters to me, in case I can see glimpses of my life in them.
katebrarian's review
3.0
I really love reading books that are set in Toronto. There's something really familiar and cozy about recognizing place names and picturing them in your head while you read. While I didn't totally connect with all of the characters in this book, Brand's prose is so lyrical and beautiful to read. The vignettes of lives were nice - perfect for me because I don't think I'd want to read something more in depth about each character, but these snapshots were great. A fast read.
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