I really enjoyed your A Flat Place review - one I have been intending to read for a long time. I really loved this line; 'Although it doesn’t make us, the reader, a voyeur into her trauma, it still feels radically vulnerable, and I was really able to feel her relationship to flat places'. It makes me more excited to feel her relationship to flat places - (which in of itself is so poetic. I have been impressed by the concept of the novel from the moment I heard about it) It is such a delicate act of write about trauma and walk that line of balance between sharing some, but not all. I love to hear how masterfully she navigated it!
Also interested in Forest Of Noise (I don't want the/my discussion of Palestinian lit to fall off now the ceasefire has been reached) and enjoyed your God Of The Woods review. For any book that is feverishly popular in the discourse, I always feel like the expectations are never met. I often avoid those books for this exact reason so made me smile that you had a somewhat similar experience.
I very much look forward to your 2024 favourites !!
Yes I really think you’d enjoy A Flat Place—I read it with a few others and we basically all really liked it. A very accomplished memoir. I don’t read a lot of memoir because of that weird voyeuristic vibe I think but this one is just that perfect balance.
Definitely avoid God of the Woods! I do like to read one from time to time just to ‘take the temperature’ of what people are reading and hyping at the moment. That one was truly a disappointment. Occasionally I come across something worthy of it haha!
So refreshing to hear your thoughts on God of the Woods! I felt very very similarly when I read it over the summer– that the constantly changing perspectives dragged, much about side characters felt like padding, the core story (and ultimate reveal/conclusion) seemed half-baked... but now you have me curious about Long Bright River, and I may keep my eyes peeled for a copy. That blurry literary/thriller genre has always felt to me like an especially tough one to do well
Yes it has been a long while since I read Long Bright River but I remember finding it a fairly nuanced approach to quite a familiar crime/mystery story. I wasn’t really expecting much from it at the time so I think that probably contributed to it being a pleasant surprise for me!
I felt similar about god of the woods, I also did audible and I wondered if I was just missing the point and what made it so popular.
Yeah I’d like to blame the audiobook but think the structural/narrative issues were much more endemic!
I really enjoyed your A Flat Place review - one I have been intending to read for a long time. I really loved this line; 'Although it doesn’t make us, the reader, a voyeur into her trauma, it still feels radically vulnerable, and I was really able to feel her relationship to flat places'. It makes me more excited to feel her relationship to flat places - (which in of itself is so poetic. I have been impressed by the concept of the novel from the moment I heard about it) It is such a delicate act of write about trauma and walk that line of balance between sharing some, but not all. I love to hear how masterfully she navigated it!
Also interested in Forest Of Noise (I don't want the/my discussion of Palestinian lit to fall off now the ceasefire has been reached) and enjoyed your God Of The Woods review. For any book that is feverishly popular in the discourse, I always feel like the expectations are never met. I often avoid those books for this exact reason so made me smile that you had a somewhat similar experience.
I very much look forward to your 2024 favourites !!
Yes I really think you’d enjoy A Flat Place—I read it with a few others and we basically all really liked it. A very accomplished memoir. I don’t read a lot of memoir because of that weird voyeuristic vibe I think but this one is just that perfect balance.
Definitely avoid God of the Woods! I do like to read one from time to time just to ‘take the temperature’ of what people are reading and hyping at the moment. That one was truly a disappointment. Occasionally I come across something worthy of it haha!
So refreshing to hear your thoughts on God of the Woods! I felt very very similarly when I read it over the summer– that the constantly changing perspectives dragged, much about side characters felt like padding, the core story (and ultimate reveal/conclusion) seemed half-baked... but now you have me curious about Long Bright River, and I may keep my eyes peeled for a copy. That blurry literary/thriller genre has always felt to me like an especially tough one to do well
Yes it has been a long while since I read Long Bright River but I remember finding it a fairly nuanced approach to quite a familiar crime/mystery story. I wasn’t really expecting much from it at the time so I think that probably contributed to it being a pleasant surprise for me!