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carolinetew's review
3.0
3.5/5
Okay yes, this may be true literary mastery but also what is the point of it’s so damn boring. On a prose and narrative structure level, the author imposes the stifling feelings of the main characters on the reader. Well done! Except I don’t come to books to feel like I’m drudging through the monotony of a stagnant, unfulfilling life. I wanted more of the haunted elements, or perhaps I wasn’t sophisticated enough to pick up on how haunted those elements were? I loved the part about the wedding in Ladivine’s section, which was where the book shined. Everywhere else felt discombobulated and isolated. The characters didn’t feel like they even knew one another despite being family, which I guess is the point. But it felt too exaggerated: what daughter changes her name and never mentions in her weekly visits to her mother that she’s married with a child? What grandfather has never met/spoken to his son in law or grandkids without some serious economic or geographic barrier? I think I wanted something more impactful for the amount of work this novel took to read.
Okay yes, this may be true literary mastery but also what is the point of it’s so damn boring. On a prose and narrative structure level, the author imposes the stifling feelings of the main characters on the reader. Well done! Except I don’t come to books to feel like I’m drudging through the monotony of a stagnant, unfulfilling life. I wanted more of the haunted elements, or perhaps I wasn’t sophisticated enough to pick up on how haunted those elements were? I loved the part about the wedding in Ladivine’s section, which was where the book shined. Everywhere else felt discombobulated and isolated. The characters didn’t feel like they even knew one another despite being family, which I guess is the point. But it felt too exaggerated: what daughter changes her name and never mentions in her weekly visits to her mother that she’s married with a child? What grandfather has never met/spoken to his son in law or grandkids without some serious economic or geographic barrier? I think I wanted something more impactful for the amount of work this novel took to read.
hannahlee's review
4.0
This novel was truly different from anything I have read before, and I mean that as a great compliment. The surreality of it is almost like magic realism, and yet different. At every turn a new seemingly-innocuous-but-nevertheless-ominous detail is revealed, with deeply unsettling outcomes for the reader. Formally, thematically, and linguistically, this is a strange, strange book. I really liked it.
aasplund's review
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
gorecki's review
1.0
I always feel guilty when sharing a negative view on a book - I'm aware of how much work goes into a book and how it's the fruit of someone's sweat, tears and dedication. But even so, there are books that unfortunately really drag me out of my skin and I can't rest until I get the frustration off my chest.
Ladivine starts as a very good read - uncomfortable and pretentious, but still good in its topic - Malinka is the daughter of a black woman who works as a cleaner. Growing up poor and without a father, being called a princess by her mother who tries to give her everything she needs, Malinka starts feeling ashamed of her mother which leads to her treating her as a slave, calling her her servant when one of her classmates sees her, and running away to another city, changing her name and only visiting her mother on the first Tuesday of every month without telling her anything about herself and her life - not even that she's married or has children. I believe this is the only part Ndiaye had figured out before she set out to write this novel. Probably not even the whole part. After this, it all goes downhill.
The language of the whole book is intolerably pretentious, trying hard to be deep but never achieving it. The whole novel reads like an endless character development exercise - what little traces we have of a storyline are only there to put the characters in situations where we can further read about how they feel about this thing or that or what they think of some thing or other, or read endless passages on unrelated memories. So much so, that on many occasions they would contradict themselves. In its pretentiousness and effort at being deep, the book didn't make sense in many scenes: a married couple talks about why they have a dog - the woman says its for protection, the man says its not, the woman says the man is right, it really isn't, so why then? Why do we have a dog? Indeed, Marie, why did you give them that dog? The man says he had no choice. We have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but it must be something deep. In another scene, they throw a young man from a balcony of a hotel and go to sleep. Then the perpetrator is under such intense pressure when he realises that the victim is still alive that we really should feel sorry for him she not for the poor unfortunate soul who was slammed against the pavement. Also do you think this scene was actually related to anything else that happenef in the book?
No.
The characters' behaviour makes no sense in 90% of the time, a huge part of the book is redundant, we learn what happens in the middle of the book and then in the remaining second half nothing else happens. Nothing. People go about thinking and feeling things, then the end comes without any sort of resolution or closure or fanfare.
I'm sorry for ranting, but this was frustrating. How it got nominated for the Booker International Prize is beyond me.
Ladivine starts as a very good read - uncomfortable and pretentious, but still good in its topic - Malinka is the daughter of a black woman who works as a cleaner. Growing up poor and without a father, being called a princess by her mother who tries to give her everything she needs, Malinka starts feeling ashamed of her mother which leads to her treating her as a slave, calling her her servant when one of her classmates sees her, and running away to another city, changing her name and only visiting her mother on the first Tuesday of every month without telling her anything about herself and her life - not even that she's married or has children. I believe this is the only part Ndiaye had figured out before she set out to write this novel. Probably not even the whole part. After this, it all goes downhill.
The language of the whole book is intolerably pretentious, trying hard to be deep but never achieving it. The whole novel reads like an endless character development exercise - what little traces we have of a storyline are only there to put the characters in situations where we can further read about how they feel about this thing or that or what they think of some thing or other, or read endless passages on unrelated memories. So much so, that on many occasions they would contradict themselves. In its pretentiousness and effort at being deep, the book didn't make sense in many scenes: a married couple talks about why they have a dog - the woman says its for protection, the man says its not, the woman says the man is right, it really isn't, so why then? Why do we have a dog? Indeed, Marie, why did you give them that dog? The man says he had no choice. We have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but it must be something deep. In another scene, they throw a young man from a balcony of a hotel and go to sleep. Then the perpetrator is under such intense pressure when he realises that the victim is still alive that we really should feel sorry for him she not for the poor unfortunate soul who was slammed against the pavement. Also do you think this scene was actually related to anything else that happenef in the book?
No.
The characters' behaviour makes no sense in 90% of the time, a huge part of the book is redundant, we learn what happens in the middle of the book and then in the remaining second half nothing else happens. Nothing. People go about thinking and feeling things, then the end comes without any sort of resolution or closure or fanfare.
I'm sorry for ranting, but this was frustrating. How it got nominated for the Booker International Prize is beyond me.
abbie_'s review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Don't you just love it when you read a book by an author you've never read before and you instantly get the urge to buy everything they've ever written? That is what I'll be doing with Marie NDiaye!
.
Ladivine is a sad, strange, and surreal story of three women. Ladivine is the eldest, a Black woman forging a life for herself and her daughter in France, Malinka, her daughter, and Malinka's daughter, also named Ladivine. I don't want to go any further into their dynamics because honestly it all unfolds so beautifully (albeit slowly) that I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might read it. But NDiaye takes us on a journey with these women, exploring the way trauma can be passed down through generations. I would have liked to hear more from the elder Ladivine if I'm being picky, but Malinka (or Clarisse as she rebrands herself) and the younger Ladivine's sections are enthralling.
.
I read a very interesting review on Goodreads, where someone had received an explanation from the translator Jordan Stump for the unusual style of the novel. (Side note: this is my thousandth plea to all publishers to allow space for a translator's note in every translated book!!) Apparently NDiaye's written French is unique, few write that way and no one speaks that way. As such, Stump occasionally renders sentences in a similarly unidiomatic English to replicate Ndiaye's unusual French. I have to say I LOVED it. You might have to read it more slowly, but eventually her sentences will work their magic on you - or not, in which case, I apologise, ha!
I read a very interesting review on Goodreads, where someone had received an explanation from the translator Jordan Stump for the unusual style of the novel. (Side note: this is my thousandth plea to all publishers to allow space for a translator's note in every translated book!!) Apparently NDiaye's written French is unique, few write that way and no one speaks that way. As such, Stump occasionally renders sentences in a similarly unidiomatic English to replicate Ndiaye's unusual French. I have to say I LOVED it. You might have to read it more slowly, but eventually her sentences will work their magic on you - or not, in which case, I apologise, ha!
.
It starts out as a complex family drama, but as the novel progresses (feeling much longer than its 300 pages but in a good way!) things begin to take a surreal turn. An unease settled over me as I read, as strange coincidences and inexplicable events begin to unfold, as Ladivine the younger and her German husband holiday in some unspecified location. I thought it was genius that NDiaye didn't name the country, as it further lent to the fever dream feeling of it all.
.
It's one of those books that won't be for everyone. It's almost mesmerising in its repetition of certain motifs and phrases, and her writing is quite dense. It's just one you have to take a chance on, because if you love it then you'll really love it. As in 'putting all of NDiaye's backlist on your Christmas list' love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Racism
catdad77a45's review
2.0
My first attempt to read this lasted about 6 pages, before I decided I wasn't in the mood for it - but then I came back to it a week later. Wish I'd trusted my initial instincts, as this was one of those books that I hurried to get through as I wasn't really enjoying it at all. Am rather shocked it got nominated for the International Booker, since to my mind, a book in translation is only successful if you feel reading it that it WAS originally written in English. With this I was almost constantly aware - with its stilted, formal prose (although who knows, that may be how it reads in French also!) that it WAS translated. My main complaint is that it just wasn't very interesting, and was both repetitious and redundant.
tbrov's review
1.0
I didn't get it. I finished it, but it was like a French movie - it was weird and didn't make sense and I don't understand the point. Maybe I'm dumb - or a lazy reader. Dogs and SUVs. And it was so very repetitive.
OK, maybe I got it (somewhat anyway); not being true to who you are, isolation, loving but not acting in accordance with the feeling, hidden selves/motivations. But I feel like I just wasted a week of my time in reading this book.
OK, maybe I got it (somewhat anyway); not being true to who you are, isolation, loving but not acting in accordance with the feeling, hidden selves/motivations. But I feel like I just wasted a week of my time in reading this book.
daneekasghost's review
4.0
Doppelgangers and family drama and just the lightest touch of magical realism. This was an excellent book.