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jaikney's reviews
12 reviews
Knife by Salman Rushdie
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
4.0
It's astounding not just that this book exists, that Rushdie survived, that he would write it, but that it's so funny. It's a refutation of his squalid, vicious, pitiable assassin. It's pithy, holding up the intensity and misery of his near-death against things that are profoundly mundane.
I'd like to give it five stars, but I leave it with the confidence that Rushdie has written even greater books than this. Better keep the powder dry!
I'd like to give it five stars, but I leave it with the confidence that Rushdie has written even greater books than this. Better keep the powder dry!
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There is a point in every book where the ending begins to come into focus. True in the writing, maybe, because the author is the arbiter (mostly). True in the reading, more tangibly, to have so many pages held in the left hand and so few in the right.
This is a book of empty aches. The systems and rituals in which we engage are only theatre; daughters are named for their grandmothers; we are repulsed by our origins and seduced by them all the same. But for all the repetitions, there's something worse: a lack of end. And to impose a cycle on something is arbitrary, cowardly, mean: "Unlike stories, real life, when it has passed, inclines toward obscurity, not clarity."
I think I put off finishing this book for so long because of that impulse, an aversion to confronting a conclusion. It's a good ending, but endings themselves are phony. But, still, things end.
This is a book of empty aches. The systems and rituals in which we engage are only theatre; daughters are named for their grandmothers; we are repulsed by our origins and seduced by them all the same. But for all the repetitions, there's something worse: a lack of end. And to impose a cycle on something is arbitrary, cowardly, mean: "Unlike stories, real life, when it has passed, inclines toward obscurity, not clarity."
I think I put off finishing this book for so long because of that impulse, an aversion to confronting a conclusion. It's a good ending, but endings themselves are phony. But, still, things end.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In considering a book, it's sometimes difficult to cleave the emotion it creates from its quality. Is this a lesser novel than the others, since it's full of despair, intransigence, anger, powerlessness, and makes the reader feel it all? Maybe not. But, still, there's a sense here that everything hard fought-for, everything gained, has been hollowed out.
Incredible, yes, but deeply sad.
Incredible, yes, but deeply sad.
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Where My Brilliant Friend is a flawless examination of how children are shaped into people, and so much of their destinies is calcified by their culture and class, this novel somehow manages to be even greater. Now those children are grown (but not enough) and have agency (but too much and not enough all at once).
How these people throw their lives away! How they, in an attempt to control their fates, end up performing gender, dissolving into stereotypes with vicious and cruel results.
Ferrante shows their lives with wry glamour, sympathy, and horror. It's tempestuous, unyielding, heartbreaking.
How do you go higher than five stars? This does.
How these people throw their lives away! How they, in an attempt to control their fates, end up performing gender, dissolving into stereotypes with vicious and cruel results.
Ferrante shows their lives with wry glamour, sympathy, and horror. It's tempestuous, unyielding, heartbreaking.
How do you go higher than five stars? This does.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This whole novel is animated by one tension: between its remarkable scope, and the fact that the plot is 'simply' about a girl and her friend. In that way it feels old-fashioned, like something written in the mid-20th century. But that's no issue; it's masterful.
Without meaning to criticise its translation, it does feel like there are many layers to the text that aren't easily understood in English. Still, there are easily layers enough.
Plus: a genuine cliffhanger!
Without meaning to criticise its translation, it does feel like there are many layers to the text that aren't easily understood in English. Still, there are easily layers enough.
Plus: a genuine cliffhanger!
A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
More of a historical curiosity than a genuine collection: it brings together Terry Pratchett's work previously published (sometimes pseudonymously) in various newspapers and magazines.
Some of these are, frankly, a bit naff. There are a handful of Christmas stories that are brief and, essentially, a single joke. It doesn't help that these are a good portion of the first half of the collection. It's only in the latter half that we get to more familiar Pratchett territory: magic, and the charming backwardness of provincial bureaucracy.
Particular highlights are The Blackbury Jungle, which sees a small town taken over by plant life, and The Haunted Steamroller, which, well, you'll never guess.
For Pratchett fans, the mere existence of this volume tugs at the heartstrings a little. Through some effort and bonafide detective work, the man's bibliography is now complete. It's finished. And yet it lives forever.
Some of these are, frankly, a bit naff. There are a handful of Christmas stories that are brief and, essentially, a single joke. It doesn't help that these are a good portion of the first half of the collection. It's only in the latter half that we get to more familiar Pratchett territory: magic, and the charming backwardness of provincial bureaucracy.
Particular highlights are The Blackbury Jungle, which sees a small town taken over by plant life, and The Haunted Steamroller, which, well, you'll never guess.
For Pratchett fans, the mere existence of this volume tugs at the heartstrings a little. Through some effort and bonafide detective work, the man's bibliography is now complete. It's finished. And yet it lives forever.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Undoubtedly another string to Ishiguro's bow, hopping genre to contemporary sci-fi.
I found the characters often spoke more as allegories than as people, and the innocence of Klara's perspective sometimes leaked into twee.
It's a pretty novel, but I struggled to connect with it. At times it felt like an extended short story, and its fairytale aspect took me out of the experience.
Perhaps it's not surprising that the perspective of a 'non-person' (i.e. artificial intelligence) struggles to portray real people in as authentic and multiplicitous a way as I'd like. An interesting limitation to consider in ourselves when the time comes for us to understand AI sentience.
I found the characters often spoke more as allegories than as people, and the innocence of Klara's perspective sometimes leaked into twee.
It's a pretty novel, but I struggled to connect with it. At times it felt like an extended short story, and its fairytale aspect took me out of the experience.
Perhaps it's not surprising that the perspective of a 'non-person' (i.e. artificial intelligence) struggles to portray real people in as authentic and multiplicitous a way as I'd like. An interesting limitation to consider in ourselves when the time comes for us to understand AI sentience.