A review by saguaros
Awayland by Ramona Ausubel
2.0
2.5 stars. I really enjoyed her previous collection, A Guide to Being Born, and was looking forward to reading this, unfortunately I did not connect as much to this one as the other one. There was something almost... unsettling about some of the stories, in ways I can't quite pinpoint. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind, but it was an uncomfortable sort of unsettling, vague spikes of existential anxiety--perhaps for the recurring themes of dying, of loss, but in a way that didn't quite enchant me, or moved me, or didn't get under my skin.
There is something also about so many impersonal characters (the woman, the man, the daughter, instead of names) that I think is supposed to feel universal but instead just leaves me kind of disconnected and uncaring instead. There was something beautiful in the language, but I couldn't quite let myself be moved by it.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed:
You Can't Find Love Now
Departure Lounge
Club Zeus
The Animal Mummies Wish to Thank the Following
Do No Save the Ferocious, Save the Tender
There is something also about so many impersonal characters (the woman, the man, the daughter, instead of names) that I think is supposed to feel universal but instead just leaves me kind of disconnected and uncaring instead. There was something beautiful in the language, but I couldn't quite let myself be moved by it.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed:
You Can't Find Love Now
Departure Lounge
Club Zeus
The Animal Mummies Wish to Thank the Following
Do No Save the Ferocious, Save the Tender