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A review by carolinetew
Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
3.0
3.5/5
Okay yes, this may be true literary mastery but also what is the point of it’s so damn boring. On a prose and narrative structure level, the author imposes the stifling feelings of the main characters on the reader. Well done! Except I don’t come to books to feel like I’m drudging through the monotony of a stagnant, unfulfilling life. I wanted more of the haunted elements, or perhaps I wasn’t sophisticated enough to pick up on how haunted those elements were? I loved the part about the wedding in Ladivine’s section, which was where the book shined. Everywhere else felt discombobulated and isolated. The characters didn’t feel like they even knew one another despite being family, which I guess is the point. But it felt too exaggerated: what daughter changes her name and never mentions in her weekly visits to her mother that she’s married with a child? What grandfather has never met/spoken to his son in law or grandkids without some serious economic or geographic barrier? I think I wanted something more impactful for the amount of work this novel took to read.
Okay yes, this may be true literary mastery but also what is the point of it’s so damn boring. On a prose and narrative structure level, the author imposes the stifling feelings of the main characters on the reader. Well done! Except I don’t come to books to feel like I’m drudging through the monotony of a stagnant, unfulfilling life. I wanted more of the haunted elements, or perhaps I wasn’t sophisticated enough to pick up on how haunted those elements were? I loved the part about the wedding in Ladivine’s section, which was where the book shined. Everywhere else felt discombobulated and isolated. The characters didn’t feel like they even knew one another despite being family, which I guess is the point. But it felt too exaggerated: what daughter changes her name and never mentions in her weekly visits to her mother that she’s married with a child? What grandfather has never met/spoken to his son in law or grandkids without some serious economic or geographic barrier? I think I wanted something more impactful for the amount of work this novel took to read.