A review by meganzc
The Strange Case of Rachel K by Rachel Kushner
2.0
According to the New York Times review:
While I found the prose tasty on a line-by-line level, I found the stories dull and hard-to-follow. This may reflect more on me than the author... Still, it doesn't bode well when it takes a full week to read such a slim book.
"The Strange Case of Rachel K" delves into themes of ownership and agency, reinvention of self, the mystery and pull of exoticism, and the inevitable letdown once the exotic turns out to contain the same banal discontent as the familiar. The subtlest, most engaging story in the book, it yields new discoveries with every reading.
But whether the collection would still hold up with a weaker story in its place is difficult to say. The first two stories are steeped in atmospheric but florid language, and rarely feel like anything but the juvenilia they are-
While I found the prose tasty on a line-by-line level, I found the stories dull and hard-to-follow. This may reflect more on me than the author... Still, it doesn't bode well when it takes a full week to read such a slim book.