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A review by hilaryreadsbooks
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
4.0
[Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux for a gifted copy]
In a small, rural town of France, two girls, Agnès and Fabienne, create their own private worlds. Fabienne—willful, unruly, and unsettling to all but Agnès—dreams up games and imaginary experiences that reality can’t hold, and Agnès follows along dutifully and with a strange obsessiveness. Eventually, Fabienne dreams up a new game, writing a book filled with morbid tales, a game that will have startling effects in the real world and send Agnès on a whirlwind adventure based upon deceit and lies.
I loved Li’s different portrayals of exploitation. There’s exploitation of children by adults, both by the public and in private. There’s exploitation of children by children. And there’s also the exploitation of cold, cold reality on childlike dreams—a coming-of-age, you can say, or the most terrible way to realize that magic and happy endings and the complete freedom to stretch out are never real.
Pick up if you’re interested in sharp psychological unravelings, a strong narrative voice, and perhaps Ishiguro’s THE REMAINS OF THE DAY.
In a small, rural town of France, two girls, Agnès and Fabienne, create their own private worlds. Fabienne—willful, unruly, and unsettling to all but Agnès—dreams up games and imaginary experiences that reality can’t hold, and Agnès follows along dutifully and with a strange obsessiveness. Eventually, Fabienne dreams up a new game, writing a book filled with morbid tales, a game that will have startling effects in the real world and send Agnès on a whirlwind adventure based upon deceit and lies.
I loved Li’s different portrayals of exploitation. There’s exploitation of children by adults, both by the public and in private. There’s exploitation of children by children. And there’s also the exploitation of cold, cold reality on childlike dreams—a coming-of-age, you can say, or the most terrible way to realize that magic and happy endings and the complete freedom to stretch out are never real.
Pick up if you’re interested in sharp psychological unravelings, a strong narrative voice, and perhaps Ishiguro’s THE REMAINS OF THE DAY.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Child death and War