Reviews

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam

nathwani's review

emotional informative 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? No

3.5

tosha's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

jaclyncrupi's review against another edition

5.0

My final read from the Booker list and I finished it just in time. I read this last partly because it took me a while to get my hands on it and partly because I kept hearing about what a slow read it is. But I didn’t find it slow, I thought it was meandering and glorious. I actually would have been thrilled if it won. It’s amazing to me how in just two books Arudpragasam has announced himself as a major literary voice. Both books are about love and the Sri Lankan civil war. In this book he centres the guilt felt by a young Tamil man who considers himself unaffected by the war. But of course he feels the effects of what happened even though he wasn’t there. Wars permeate. The sinuous sentences are a joy to untangle and follow and the writing is lush. The prose never rests much like the book’s protagonist. Paragraphs are long and full of detail. A young man wracked with guilt, haunted by a past relationship, traumatised by war and surrounded by strong women goes on a journey to attend a funeral – of course I am going to love this book.

ele_anorhurt's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

A book about desire and yearning. It reflects on the motives that keep us reaching foreward. 

sarrna's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

alir777's review against another edition

emotional informative 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? No

4.5

hananas's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

phantasmagorical's review against another edition

4.0

Very beautiful book focusing on the developments of a man’s relationships in the wake of the Sri Lankan civil war. It did a wonderful job of interweaving stories and histories into a compelling narrative about loss and yearning.

Though the pacing was unexpected, the current events of the book only taking place over a few days, it still worked very well! I tended to get a little lost at times with the long tangents in-between plot details, but I thought they were well wrapped up by the end.

Worth the read for a calm and beautiful look into how people weave into our memories!

thebookishtales's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

2.5

montreux's review against another edition

I like what another review said, that a bulk of the book occurred in Krishan’s head rather than out of it. It was for this reason that I found myself being bored.