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theuneditedbookreview's review against another edition
4.0
Highly popular in Portugal, there is important background to this book that audiences reading in translation may miss.
Shelf Life follows Daniel as he talks in his own head to his imprisoned brother, Almodôvar. Having experienced job loss and separation from his family, Daniel's hardly-flinching optimism and hope comes in conflict with the muck and mire of life.
While most of the events in the book are more or less loose happenings unified only by Daniel's voice, a ot takes shape in the second d half of the book. Prompted by his friend Xavier (who it seems is depressed, though Daniel--most annoyingly--will not accept), Daniel and his kids set off with Xavier to help a paraplegic woman say final good-bye to her comatose brother.
Daniel's obstinate hope and desire to be "happy" meet their match in the woman's resolve that her brother is gone and she need not hope for his recovery to be happy. Good-bye is enough.
The story was interesting enough, but Daniel is frequently unbearable. His attitide, his unforgiving demeanor compound with his confidence in a universe that simply "works" make him a semi-tolerable pain in the arse. How, perhaps Daniel is a stand in for the final collapse of our hopeful, Western modernism into... whatever we're in now.
Shelf Life follows Daniel as he talks in his own head to his imprisoned brother, Almodôvar. Having experienced job loss and separation from his family, Daniel's hardly-flinching optimism and hope comes in conflict with the muck and mire of life.
While most of the events in the book are more or less loose happenings unified only by Daniel's voice, a ot takes shape in the second d half of the book. Prompted by his friend Xavier (who it seems is depressed, though Daniel--most annoyingly--will not accept), Daniel and his kids set off with Xavier to help a paraplegic woman say final good-bye to her comatose brother.
Daniel's obstinate hope and desire to be "happy" meet their match in the woman's resolve that her brother is gone and she need not hope for his recovery to be happy. Good-bye is enough.
The story was interesting enough, but Daniel is frequently unbearable. His attitide, his unforgiving demeanor compound with his confidence in a universe that simply "works" make him a semi-tolerable pain in the arse. How, perhaps Daniel is a stand in for the final collapse of our hopeful, Western modernism into... whatever we're in now.
karend's review against another edition
3.0
This has some similarities with A Small Revolution, with the narrator addressing a person who is not there and the overall dark tone. Ending was not what I was hoping for.
2.5 rounded up to 3
2.5 rounded up to 3
stepheniedaniel's review against another edition
2.0
This book started off pretty dry n pathetic. It wasn't very interesting to me at the beginning but because of the title, I continued reading. The translation was pretty basic, so there was no real literary value in the book. The main character really got on my nerves because not only is the whole book about the countless conversations he had in his head, but a lot of emphasis is given to describe the war he was waging in his head, trying to justify his actions to himself. The essence of the story held some value that anyone who is in the economic cycle could resonate with, but how the writer chose to present the story was a horrible decision. This book irritated me and I would not recommend it to anyone.