I really appreciate that you share equally your positive and negative responses to all the books you’ve been reading. I am hoping to get to both Cursed Bread and The Birthday Party in the next week or two. I was let down by The Bandit Queens, actually. I felt it was an unsuccessful attempt to combine a work about very serious issues with some comedy that veered into the slapstick and it just did not hold my attention. But I know many readers have loved it. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it made the shortlist. I was quite pleasantly surprised by The Dog of the North. The WP longlist is filled with quite dark books and I really enjoyed McKenzie’s novel. It was a welcome antidote.
Thank you! 😊📚 I can definitely see how sections of The Bandit Queens started to feel a bit slapstick like in a way which might undermine the more serious sides of the book but it didn't for me. And I am really eager to read The Dog of the North as well.
Omg I felt the same way about the Bandit Queens! It was so cheesy! It could have been done much better, for the serious subject matter it was shedding light on!
I totally felt the same way about Bandit Queens and dnf'd really quickly. I also really dnf'd Dog of the North. Although not slapsticky, the characters were too quirky. For me quirky characters need to be endearing and charming. These just seemed too unreal for me to continue with the book. I just felt no connection. I'm not having a great longlist reading experience this year.
Yay for Deep Vellum! (but bummer for the Booker eligibility). They are an amazing indie press I've been wanting to explore more. Thanks as always for the great video update!
Watching your videos are not good for my budget (or controlling my physical TBR) but I do think it is healthy to be excited about new books 😊. I just ordered Solenoid and The Bandit Queens.
I loved The Bandit Queens so much! I think the thing with Cursed Bread is that it had so so much potential that I was excited to read and just felt very let down by it. Maybe it’s a blurb thing 🤷♀️ The Birthday Party sounds really good!! Great to hear your thoughts on all these as always 😊
I just thought of something. Do you think we will get saturated by all of stories? Like will there come a time where no more original story or writing style can be created?
Cursed Bread is BRILLIANTLY written. It took my breath away! The style reminds me of poetry. Every line carries weight and meaning and if one reads it too fast, the novel becomes gauzy and confusing. This novel is intense. It left me confused, but satisfied. A brilliant work of art.
Thank you for reviewing Solenoid I hope I can also pick up a copy at Foyle’s. Your review is the deciding factor for me to read what sounds like an unforgettable life changing read!
What a month! I'm also still trying to wrap my head around Solenoid some four or five months later, so it was great to hear your thoughts. Agreed regarding the sentence-level writing. It's absolutely sublime. It is strange that there's still no UK publisher for it. Shame about the Condé - her I, Tituba is one of my favorites. I still want to give Gospel a read at some point though. I also finished The Birthday Party last night and you're absolutely right! It was such an enjoyable reading experience. I just loved the looping and winding sentences as it mapped onto our characters' interiorities so perfectly.
Thank you! I might write to some people I've been in touch with before at Fitzcarraldo to ask whether they've considered bringing out Solenoid or if there's some issue with the rights. I hope to read I, Tituba at some point. I'm so glad you agree about The Birthday Party. I've heard from some readers that this style of long sentences felt exhausting which I can understand but, yes, as you say, how it maps the characters' internal lives felt so powerful and moving to me - especially as it dipped into the twisted group mentality of the brothers. And I guess it also just depends on if you enjoy that style of writing and world building.
I also read Solenoid and Deep Vellum is a wonderful press. I enjoyed your description of the book and found it spot on. I would add it seemed to have a very Eastern European feel to it in that I really couldn’t wrap my head around when the novel was taking place. I also finished The Absolute by Daniel Guebel translated by Jessica Sequeira another interesting read and the other positive book was The Circle by Dave Eggers.
Yes, I think that's true about the Eastern European feel. I believe Cartarescu was partly trying to describe some of the absurdities of living under an oppressive and ineffectual Communist regime - especially in the section describing how students were required to source and contribute a quota of materials. I thought The Circle was really interesting and enjoyable but turned a bit too much into a self-conscious thriller.
Very interesting to hear your critiques of Ghost Town. I havent read it, but I have read other books that feel mysogonistic in the way that you described, overly sexualising the women and undersexualising the men. I have the Bandit Queens on my tbr shelf! Great to hear its entertaining!
I didn't love The Bandit Queens. I thought it was a little too silly. I feel bad that I feel that way. I wanted to love it but I did give it 3.5 stars, and I loved the hard subject matter it tackled. BTW I just ordered Solenoid based on your recommendation and I am SO EXCITED 😊
This month's tbr contains more current fiction than I normally read, including Histoires de la nuit, the Shards, and Demon Copperhead. At least some of that is your influence, Eric, so in advance thanks. I'll let you know how I liked them all, though probably they'll all get good grades from me.
So you are so deep in the literature world, is there a way to find out if they are translating The cook of Castamar at all? One should think with the success of the Netflix series they would make haste with translating to english- a big market. As for your video, thanks, i always enjoy yourreviews. That side note about the baby was funny.
