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A review by luluwoohoo
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar
☀️☀️🌥️
▪️A stirring concept that failed to find it's feet - a lack of clear genre, style and intention let it down
▪️The tone of this story was a bit all over the place, shifting between harrowing moments and clearly intended comedy without skill, and the continued level of gratuitous violence didn't leave me with the satisfaction I think it was supposed to. As a knock off noir mystery the pacing was good but ultimately didn't deliver anything else of substance beyond that level of parody
▪️The structure of this novel isn't especially bad or unusual, but the lack of consistency in the diary entries made for difficult reading - many entries weren't in proper form and ruined the illusion. Also the chapter lengths were too long and chapter breaks not often in logical places so it didn't flow as nicely as it probably could have done. Yes, it's meant to be a dream, but even acknowledging that it felt strangely disorientated
▪️Wolf/Hitler as a main character didn't grab me particularly, and the bizarre back-and-forth of him playing victim and aggressor did little to help his character arc
▪️For a book I picked up randomly off a shelf with no more information beyond the cover and blurb description I was still disappointed by this novel. It had incredible potential but unfortunately it felt like three books condensed into one lacklustre one.
"'It is the nature of the world that evil exists,' Wolf said. 'It is not money that is evil but the means to which it is put to use...a small lever to move small people...but give me a large enough lever and I would move the very world."
"There is only now, no past, no future, there is only Auschwitz, an island floating on the Polish ground. The dead rise in black ash into the sky, day and night the ovens burn, day and night the trains come laden. And Shomer's mind retreats into itself, the way it has when he was still a man."
☀️☀️🌥️
▪️A stirring concept that failed to find it's feet - a lack of clear genre, style and intention let it down
▪️The tone of this story was a bit all over the place, shifting between harrowing moments and clearly intended comedy without skill, and the continued level of gratuitous violence didn't leave me with the satisfaction I think it was supposed to. As a knock off noir mystery the pacing was good but ultimately didn't deliver anything else of substance beyond that level of parody
▪️The structure of this novel isn't especially bad or unusual, but the lack of consistency in the diary entries made for difficult reading - many entries weren't in proper form and ruined the illusion. Also the chapter lengths were too long and chapter breaks not often in logical places so it didn't flow as nicely as it probably could have done. Yes, it's meant to be a dream, but even acknowledging that it felt strangely disorientated
▪️Wolf/Hitler as a main character didn't grab me particularly, and the bizarre back-and-forth of him playing victim and aggressor did little to help his character arc
▪️For a book I picked up randomly off a shelf with no more information beyond the cover and blurb description I was still disappointed by this novel. It had incredible potential but unfortunately it felt like three books condensed into one lacklustre one.
"'It is the nature of the world that evil exists,' Wolf said. 'It is not money that is evil but the means to which it is put to use...a small lever to move small people...but give me a large enough lever and I would move the very world."
"There is only now, no past, no future, there is only Auschwitz, an island floating on the Polish ground. The dead rise in black ash into the sky, day and night the ovens burn, day and night the trains come laden. And Shomer's mind retreats into itself, the way it has when he was still a man."