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A review by charliereadsalot
Kanthapura by Raja Rao
1.5
1.5 STARS
CW: death (including of loved ones), violence, blood, rape, mention of prostitution
This book was a chore to read. Purely enjoyment-wise I could not find one good thing to say about this book... I read this for my Postcolonial Studies course and naturally, I can appreciate this for the time it was written in and there is plenty to think about and analyze. The most fascinating aspect for me was definitely the narrative choices and the role of women in the story which I hadn't expected when I started reading.
But, as Goodreads is not the place for me to dive deeper into analyzing texts and I usually rate books based on a combination of a book's legacy and how much I liked it overall, I cannot give this more than 1.5 stars. It took me so long to get through this because the narrative voice is all over the place. Yes I can appreciate the author mentioning that this is a deliberate choice and meant to echo oral storytelling customs in India, but it made this a labor to read because sentences went on and on and the syntax kept repeating.
Nevertheless, as always, I know I'll be able to discuss about this a lot in class. But still, nothing about this book and story endeared it to me. I definitely would have stopped reading this, had it not been for uni. But maybe you'll enjoy it more?!
CW: death (including of loved ones), violence, blood, rape, mention of prostitution
This book was a chore to read. Purely enjoyment-wise I could not find one good thing to say about this book... I read this for my Postcolonial Studies course and naturally, I can appreciate this for the time it was written in and there is plenty to think about and analyze. The most fascinating aspect for me was definitely the narrative choices and the role of women in the story which I hadn't expected when I started reading.
But, as Goodreads is not the place for me to dive deeper into analyzing texts and I usually rate books based on a combination of a book's legacy and how much I liked it overall, I cannot give this more than 1.5 stars. It took me so long to get through this because the narrative voice is all over the place. Yes I can appreciate the author mentioning that this is a deliberate choice and meant to echo oral storytelling customs in India, but it made this a labor to read because sentences went on and on and the syntax kept repeating.
Nevertheless, as always, I know I'll be able to discuss about this a lot in class. But still, nothing about this book and story endeared it to me. I definitely would have stopped reading this, had it not been for uni. But maybe you'll enjoy it more?!