A review by gorecki
Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
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.