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A review by girlglitch
History Keeps Me Awake at Night by Christy Edwall
4.0
When you pick up a book titled History Keeps Me Awake At Night, you know right from the outset that this is going to be some unapologetically literary fiction.
The story riffs off art criticism (particularly Berger's Ways of Seeing), playing with the idea of perspective. It's a bold debut, unafraid of dense symbolism, stark metaphors and the odd bit of deliberately aimless posturing. Sometimes it could have benefitted from a bit more narrative grounding. The characters are a little too transparent (more figurative than fully-realised human beings), and several of the scenes lack subtlety. It needs just a little bit more real to balance out the cerebral.
Caustic and complex, History Keeps Me Awake At Night is an ambitious literary debut that's almost too smart for its own good.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
The story riffs off art criticism (particularly Berger's Ways of Seeing), playing with the idea of perspective. It's a bold debut, unafraid of dense symbolism, stark metaphors and the odd bit of deliberately aimless posturing. Sometimes it could have benefitted from a bit more narrative grounding. The characters are a little too transparent (more figurative than fully-realised human beings), and several of the scenes lack subtlety. It needs just a little bit more real to balance out the cerebral.
Caustic and complex, History Keeps Me Awake At Night is an ambitious literary debut that's almost too smart for its own good.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*