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casskrug's reviews
306 reviews
Shame by Annie Ernaux
3.0
shame is another thread in the tapestry of themes than run through all of annie ernaux’s books, focusing in on a traumatic event in ernaux’s childhood and the ways in which it affected her life. in particular, she takes an in-depth look at her neighborhood and school as they were when she was 12 years old in 1952, processing her father’s violent outburst against her mother. we see how religion, education, and the small town she lived in influenced her upbringing. the observations and descriptions reminded me in some ways of her book exteriors - snapshots of the outside world.
even though the inciting event for this book is very personal and relationship-based, i found that on the whole this is a zoomed out look at ernaux’s environment rather than a deep dive into her family relationships. for me, ernaux shines the brightest when she’s digging into the personal. so, this wasn’t my favorite but i’m never gonna be mad about an annie ernaux book! the prose is sharp and sparse as always. i finished this in one day and feel like it adds another dimension to the annie ernaux cinematic universe, if you will.
Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik
3.0
this book should just be called babitz. i get it, so much has been said about didion, and babitz has been a relatively underhyped writer in comparison, up until the last decade. but good lord, joan is only brought into this to be dragged down for the sake of making babitz look good. joan is villainized for taking a different, more disciplined approach to her writing and it’s like… i almost question the need to even compare the two. besides being in the same place at the same time, they had such different styles and approaches.
lili anolik so obviously siding with eve made this lose a lot of credibility for me. the reader doesn’t really get a chance to form their own opinions because of this bias. super unbalanced, unlike the title and cover suggest. and what a shame because didion and babitz’s relationship seemed so complex and interesting! i wish anolik had dug further into joan’s perspective so that we could truly see both sides of the story.
even though the book sides with her, i really don’t even think this paints eve in that great of a light either. it feels super gossipy when anolik has people who were loosely involved in the franklin avenue scene talking about eve’s sex life and drug use, and speculating on didion’s marriage and her husband’s sexuality. also really disliked the condescending tone anolik uses throughout the book. the whole “dear reader” thing got old fast. this book should not have taken me as long as it did to finish it.
i liked the chronological weaving together of both writers’ lives and the publication of their works. eve’s letters and anolik’s conversations with eve and her sister were really insightful as primary sources. also love to see eve getting her flowers and being recognized! this style just did not click with me.
thank you to scribner and netgalley for the digital galley!
lili anolik so obviously siding with eve made this lose a lot of credibility for me. the reader doesn’t really get a chance to form their own opinions because of this bias. super unbalanced, unlike the title and cover suggest. and what a shame because didion and babitz’s relationship seemed so complex and interesting! i wish anolik had dug further into joan’s perspective so that we could truly see both sides of the story.
even though the book sides with her, i really don’t even think this paints eve in that great of a light either. it feels super gossipy when anolik has people who were loosely involved in the franklin avenue scene talking about eve’s sex life and drug use, and speculating on didion’s marriage and her husband’s sexuality. also really disliked the condescending tone anolik uses throughout the book. the whole “dear reader” thing got old fast. this book should not have taken me as long as it did to finish it.
i liked the chronological weaving together of both writers’ lives and the publication of their works. eve’s letters and anolik’s conversations with eve and her sister were really insightful as primary sources. also love to see eve getting her flowers and being recognized! this style just did not click with me.
thank you to scribner and netgalley for the digital galley!
A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enríquez
4.0
me? enjoying a short story collection? that’s horror? it’s more likely than you think! thank you to hogarth for sending me this!
typically i struggle with short stories because their brevity makes it hard for me to get invested. i don’t dislike horror but it’s not a genre i read often. mariana enriquez combined the two to create a book that really worked for me. the stories are long enough, and enriquez creates enough suspense, for me to get invested. but they’re not so long and drawn out that it gets tiring. she really found a sweet spot with this book.
i also appreciate that enriquez is not being freaky for the sake of being freaky - she’s being freaky with intention, if you will. these stories connect the scary, supernatural elements to real life horrors such as rape, addiction, and poverty. i liked that it felt like there was a point to each story, a statement being made.
these stories were unsettling and perfect for this time of year. this was a great change of pace for me in content and form, while still being literary and well-written.
my favorites: different colors made of tears, face of disgrace, the suffering woman, the refrigerator cemetery
typically i struggle with short stories because their brevity makes it hard for me to get invested. i don’t dislike horror but it’s not a genre i read often. mariana enriquez combined the two to create a book that really worked for me. the stories are long enough, and enriquez creates enough suspense, for me to get invested. but they’re not so long and drawn out that it gets tiring. she really found a sweet spot with this book.
i also appreciate that enriquez is not being freaky for the sake of being freaky - she’s being freaky with intention, if you will. these stories connect the scary, supernatural elements to real life horrors such as rape, addiction, and poverty. i liked that it felt like there was a point to each story, a statement being made.
these stories were unsettling and perfect for this time of year. this was a great change of pace for me in content and form, while still being literary and well-written.
my favorites: different colors made of tears, face of disgrace, the suffering woman, the refrigerator cemetery
Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language by Roxane Gay
4.0
such an interesting exploration into the nuances of writing about trauma. i love hearing writers talk about their process, and gay’s look back at how her writing evolved until she was able to directly write about her trauma was very reflective. really harrowing to hear about how she’s been re-traumatized by the publishing industry and the media’s horrible treatment of her based on her race and size.
i haven’t read any of roxane gay’s other work, and this seems like an insightful overview of one of the threads that runs through her writing. she’s always been on my radar but i feel especially inclined to read more of her work now that i’ve read this. super impressed by her perspective and ability to connect the personal with broader issues in the world. a quick and engaging read that i would recommend to anyone that’s a fan of memoirs, especially!
i haven’t read any of roxane gay’s other work, and this seems like an insightful overview of one of the threads that runs through her writing. she’s always been on my radar but i feel especially inclined to read more of her work now that i’ve read this. super impressed by her perspective and ability to connect the personal with broader issues in the world. a quick and engaging read that i would recommend to anyone that’s a fan of memoirs, especially!
Dream Work by Mary Oliver
4.0
my favorites: wild geese, the journey, one or two things
i’m very very new to reading poetry collections but i feel like this was a nice place to start! lots of nature imagery and some really hard-hitting lines about learning to live in the world. i don’t think i have many intelligent thoughts about the poems but i enjoyed my experience of them!
i’m very very new to reading poetry collections but i feel like this was a nice place to start! lots of nature imagery and some really hard-hitting lines about learning to live in the world. i don’t think i have many intelligent thoughts about the poems but i enjoyed my experience of them!
Set My Heart on Fire by Izumi Suzuki
3.0
i’ve been intrigued by izumi suzuki’s work for a little while, but i held off on reading her until now because i’m not a huge short story person. so i was excited to see that her debut novel was finally translated into english! i found this book to be fine - the writing was sharp, it was a quick read, and i found the later parts of the story to be pretty compelling.
set my heart on fire follows izumi, a girl in her 20s drifting through the japanese music scene in the 1970s. she goes through life in a drug-induced daze, hopping from lover to lover and eventually marrying a musician. the beginning of the book fell flat for me - it was repetitive and i had a difficult time keeping track of all of the musicians izumi was involved with. however, once she gets married, the story takes a more troubling turn, and that was when i found myself getting more invested. the darkness between izumi and her husband was reminiscent of the relationship at the center of vigdis hjorth’s if only, but the brevity of set my heart on fire kept it from feeling too bloated.
the writing style was straightforward and sharp, which i always appreciate. this was a quick read that i was able to finish in one day. i think it might be better read over a few days due to the subject matter. i’m not sure if i’ll read suzuki’s short stories after reading this, but i’m glad to have given her a try.
thank you to netgalley and verso for the copy of this!
set my heart on fire follows izumi, a girl in her 20s drifting through the japanese music scene in the 1970s. she goes through life in a drug-induced daze, hopping from lover to lover and eventually marrying a musician. the beginning of the book fell flat for me - it was repetitive and i had a difficult time keeping track of all of the musicians izumi was involved with. however, once she gets married, the story takes a more troubling turn, and that was when i found myself getting more invested. the darkness between izumi and her husband was reminiscent of the relationship at the center of vigdis hjorth’s if only, but the brevity of set my heart on fire kept it from feeling too bloated.
the writing style was straightforward and sharp, which i always appreciate. this was a quick read that i was able to finish in one day. i think it might be better read over a few days due to the subject matter. i’m not sure if i’ll read suzuki’s short stories after reading this, but i’m glad to have given her a try.
thank you to netgalley and verso for the copy of this!
Saving Agnes by Rachel Cusk
3.0
probably my least favorite rachel cusk novel so far 🥲 but i’m glad i finally read her debut, as it’s so interesting to see how much her writing has changed since this book was published. the writing here feels too effortful and too embellished - it’s in extremely stark contrast to the sparse prose of this year’s parade. saving agnes felt like a struggle for me to get through because of the flowery prose, and i don’t remember having that issue with her other early works. just a bit too overwritten for my personal taste as a reader.
as far as the story goes… this novel fits right in with the contemporary Depressed Woman Moving subgenre that is so prevalent today. agnes is living in a rundown home with two friends, she’s stuck on a past relationship while waiting for her current fling to call her, she’s working a job that she doesn’t feel much passion for. there’s a lot of reminiscing about her childhood with her family, and grappling with religion. overall you get the sense that agnes has spent her entire life wishing to be someone else. some of her situation was relatable but ultimately the story fell flat for me.
checked this one off the list, onto my last 3 cusks!!!
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
4.0
burnt sugar has been on my tbr for a LONG time - it was one of the very first books i added on goodreads. so much time has passed since it first entered my radar that when i received a copy of it for christmas last year, i kept putting it off, worrying that it wouldn’t appeal to me anymore.
however, i was so pleasantly surprised by this book‘s honesty and complexity! it is one of the most intense explorations of a fraught mother-daughter relationship that i have ever read. our narrator, antara, is observing the decline of her mother’s memory. she takes us through her and her mother’s shared history, illustrating the way that their lives are intertwined. they’ve survived so much together, bringing them close, but there is also a deep, bitter jealousy that runs through their relationship. the past complicates antara’s feelings about how her mother should be cared for in the present, whether or not she should move in with antara and her husband. this mother and daughter duo bring out the worst in each other and they don’t hold those feelings back.
the to-the-point writing style really worked for me, and i found the writing on the progression of memory loss to be harrowing and poignant. there is a sense of unreliability as antara wonders whether her mother is purposely forgetting in order to rewrite the past, ehich added an extra later of intrigue. the narrative voice was easy to get lost in, with the straightforwardness moving things along. i was keen to uncover more raw, honest recollections of this family’s past. it’s not necessarily an enjoyable read, and isn’t a happy story, but it does a great job of accomplishing its deep dive into memory and motherhood.
a lot of reviews i’ve seen have disliked the gross elements of the story. there are mentions of bodily functions and some unsavory thoughts from the narrator, but i don’t think this was any more offensive than, say, ottessa moshfegh’s writing. doshi doesn’t linger on those moments or over exaggerate them.
happy to have finally checked this one off my list, and looking forward to future novels from avni doshi!
however, i was so pleasantly surprised by this book‘s honesty and complexity! it is one of the most intense explorations of a fraught mother-daughter relationship that i have ever read. our narrator, antara, is observing the decline of her mother’s memory. she takes us through her and her mother’s shared history, illustrating the way that their lives are intertwined. they’ve survived so much together, bringing them close, but there is also a deep, bitter jealousy that runs through their relationship. the past complicates antara’s feelings about how her mother should be cared for in the present, whether or not she should move in with antara and her husband. this mother and daughter duo bring out the worst in each other and they don’t hold those feelings back.
the to-the-point writing style really worked for me, and i found the writing on the progression of memory loss to be harrowing and poignant. there is a sense of unreliability as antara wonders whether her mother is purposely forgetting in order to rewrite the past, ehich added an extra later of intrigue. the narrative voice was easy to get lost in, with the straightforwardness moving things along. i was keen to uncover more raw, honest recollections of this family’s past. it’s not necessarily an enjoyable read, and isn’t a happy story, but it does a great job of accomplishing its deep dive into memory and motherhood.
a lot of reviews i’ve seen have disliked the gross elements of the story. there are mentions of bodily functions and some unsavory thoughts from the narrator, but i don’t think this was any more offensive than, say, ottessa moshfegh’s writing. doshi doesn’t linger on those moments or over exaggerate them.
happy to have finally checked this one off my list, and looking forward to future novels from avni doshi!
Billy and Girl by Deborah Levy
3.0
this was a straaaaange little book. the voice felt different for levy, lots of quirky choices with the tone she was using, which makes sense as the book follows two strange kids on their search to find their mother who has disappeared. there are supermarkets, robberies, kidnappings, and a lot of musings about pain and memory. billy and girl are telling themselves stories in order to cope with the reality of what happened to their family, projecting onto other people and trying to doctor them into who billy and girl are not as a means of survival. the themes of family felt reminiscent of august blue and brought to mind some of levy’s writing about her sense of home. where august blue felt too sparse too me, this almost verged on too colorful and abrasive. i went back and forth between having fun reading it and feeling put off-balance by it.
in the grand scheme of levy’s fiction, i found this not quite as mind-blowingly weird as the man who saw everything, but far more successful in its mysteriousness than august blue.
“Pain is as mysterious as love. A world of feeling and silence. Mood changes and sobbing. Both enter the body, love and pain often the same thing. Both cause profound change and even death. Biographies, symptoms, histories.“
in the grand scheme of levy’s fiction, i found this not quite as mind-blowingly weird as the man who saw everything, but far more successful in its mysteriousness than august blue.
“Pain is as mysterious as love. A world of feeling and silence. Mood changes and sobbing. Both enter the body, love and pain often the same thing. Both cause profound change and even death. Biographies, symptoms, histories.“
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
5.0
sally rooney has done it again, and i have to be honest i wasn’t prepared for the way i got swept up in this book. it’s been 2+ years since i read rooney’s previous novels (all of which i loved), and i was worried that intermezzo wouldn’t be a story that appealed to me, or that i had moved on from rooney’s writing style. quite the opposite - i finished this 450+ page book in 6 days, which is FAST for me when it comes to such a big book.
intermezzo follows two brothers, ivan and peter, in the aftermath of their father’s death. in classic rooney fashion, there are romantic entanglements, heart-wrenching lines about how complicated life and love can be, and explorations of class, power dynamics in relationships, and the ways we move throughout the world. i really loved the portrayal of family relationships and the complicated bond between peter and ivan. there were also a lot of layers to the romantic relationships - rooney captures the nuances of each situation so poignantly.
a departure for rooney here is the difference in writing style between ivan and peter’s points of view. we see her try out a more clipped, fragmented style with peter. it threw me off at first, but as i progressed through the story, i found it to be a really effective way of demonstrating his mental state. ivan’s chapters are more along the lines of rooney’s previous works, and the juxtaposition of the two voices was a great way to characterize and show the differences between the brothers.
this is definitely a more mature novel from rooney, but i don’t think it’ll alienate fans of her previous books. this felt like a complex and truly fleshed out Novel with a capital N to me. it’s the kind of book that you can get truly lost in, and i enjoyed it immensely!
intermezzo follows two brothers, ivan and peter, in the aftermath of their father’s death. in classic rooney fashion, there are romantic entanglements, heart-wrenching lines about how complicated life and love can be, and explorations of class, power dynamics in relationships, and the ways we move throughout the world. i really loved the portrayal of family relationships and the complicated bond between peter and ivan. there were also a lot of layers to the romantic relationships - rooney captures the nuances of each situation so poignantly.
a departure for rooney here is the difference in writing style between ivan and peter’s points of view. we see her try out a more clipped, fragmented style with peter. it threw me off at first, but as i progressed through the story, i found it to be a really effective way of demonstrating his mental state. ivan’s chapters are more along the lines of rooney’s previous works, and the juxtaposition of the two voices was a great way to characterize and show the differences between the brothers.
this is definitely a more mature novel from rooney, but i don’t think it’ll alienate fans of her previous books. this felt like a complex and truly fleshed out Novel with a capital N to me. it’s the kind of book that you can get truly lost in, and i enjoyed it immensely!