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The Travelers by Regina Porter
The cast of characters and locations at the start of Regina Porter’s The Travelers is a tiny bit daunting as they promise to cover a far wider scope than your usual family saga. The Travelers explores the lives of characters who are either related, sometimes distantly, or connected in less obvious ways. Porter’s switches between…
1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 20th century, 4 STARS, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Berlin, Brittany, CHILDHOOD, class, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), f/f side, family, FAMILY SAGA, female authors, FRANCE, friendships, georgia, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, interconnected stories, intergenerational, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, MARRIAGE, MEMORY, new hampshire, NEW YORK, published in 2019, queer, RACE, rape, read in 2020, Regina Porter, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, tennessee, terrific prose, The Travelers, travel, unrequited love, Vietnam, vietnam war, violence against women, war, war related ptsd, WWII -
Red Pill by Hari Kunzru
Once again, I am in the minority as I did not find Red Pill to be a particularly artful or clever novel. To be clear, I do think that Hari Kunzru can write very well indeed, however, his narrative struck me as all flash and no substance. I was amused by the first quarter of…
1980s, 1st pov, 2 STARS, academia, Adult, ALIENATION, Berlin, books about writers, books i hate, british indian author, Contemporary, east and west germany, endless monologues, existentialism, feverish, FRANCE, Germany, Hari Kunzru, illness, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, midlife crisis, morality, mumblecore, navel gazing, obsession, philosophical, politics, published in 2020, read in 2020, Red Pill, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, story within a story, surreal, travel, unnamed narrator, unreliable narrators -
Travellers by Helon Habila
“Are you traveling in Europe?” he asked. I caught the odd phrasing. Of course I was traveling in Europe, but I understood he meant something else; he wanted to know the nature of my relationship to Europe, if I was passing through or if I had a more permanent and legal claim to Europe. A…
4 STARS, Adult, beautiful prose, Berlin, Black & Black heritage authors, bulgaria, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), england, family, Germany, GRIEF, Helon Habila, homelessness, interconnected stories, Italy, lgbtq+ side, LITERARY FICTION, literary references, male authors, MARRIAGE, migration/immigration, Nigeria, Nigerian author, philosophical, Poverty, published in 2019, read in 2020, refugees, social issues, tragedy, trans side characters, trauma, Travellers, unnamed narrator, zambia -
An Honest Man by Ben Fergusson — book review
In Ben Fergusson’s An Honest Man our narrator Ralf revisits a particularly significant year in his life. The year is 1989 and Ralf is eighteen and lives with his family in West Berlin. Growing up in a bilingual household (his mother is English), Ralf has always felt like a bit of an outsider. In a…
1980s, 1st pov, 3.5 STARS, Adult, affairs, An Honest Man, Ben Fergusson, Berlin, Booklr, British author, coming of age, drama, east and west germany, family, fathers & sons, gay, German, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, m/m, male authors, mental health, mothers & sons, MYSTERY, political intrigue, psychological, published in 2019, queer, read in 2020, ROMANCE, spies, SUSPENSE -
Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach — book review
“A year or so after my mother died, I received an unexpected inheritance.” In Confession with Blue Horses Sophie Hardach captures the fraught atmosphere between East and West Germany. When Ella, a rather aimless thirty-something year old, comes across some of her mother’s diaries, she’s drawn back to her birth city, Berlin, where, assisted by…
1980s, 20th century, 3.25 stars, Adult, Berlin, CHILDHOOD, cold war, Confession with Blue Horses, drama, east and west germany, england, family, female authors, German, German British Author, Germany, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, MEMORY, mothers & daughters, museums, MYSTERY, politics, published in 2019, read in 2020, siblings, Sophie Hardach -
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy — book review
For readers in want of an incisive and creative account of life in East Germany, I strongly recommend picking up something by Christa Wolf. I think that from now on I might stick to Deborah Levy‘s non-fiction. While I’m glad to see that many of my friends and other readers were able to enjoy this…
1980s, 1st pov, 3 STARS, bad love, Berlin, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, booker longlist 2019, British author, cheating, cold war, Deborah Levy, east and west germany, england, existentialism, female authors, feverish, Germany, historians, Hyped new releases, illness, introspective, Jewish, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, LONDON, mental health, paranoia, published in 2019, READ IN 2019, SEXUALITY, stylised prose, surreal, The Man Who Saw Everything, why the hype -
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
‘All I could feel was a terrible hollowness in my heart. A door had opened, promising the sublime, but then it had slammed shut, robbing my life of all hope and meaning. I felt as bereft as if I’d woken from the sweetest of dreams to face the pain of truth.’ Madonna in a Fur…
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