![luce [is reading]](https://wishfullyreading.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/9429655-1.jpeg){kind=small}
-
A Carnivore’s Inquiry by Sabina Murray
“This is what exploration had opened up the door to. Not only widespread slaughter, but the necessary accompaniment of gorging.” Unapologetically solipsistic and deeply manipulative, Katherine, the central character of A Carnivore’s Inquiry, makes for an awful human being and a deeply entertaining narrator. A predecessor to Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad’s protagonists, and many…
1st pov, 2000s, 4 STARS, A Carnivore's Inquiry, A Carnivore's Inquiry by Sabina Murray, Adult, affairs, age gap, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ambivalent mood, America, ART/CREATIVITY, books about writers, cannibalism, cheating, class, cold tone, colonialism, Contemporary, dark, dark humor, desire, ennui, female authors, feverish, filipino american author, GOTHIC, history, HORROR, introspective, Italy, LITERARY FICTION, literary references, madness, maine, Mexico, modern gothic, MURDER, MYSTERY, navel gazing, NEW YORK, no plot just vibes, otherness, PRIVILEGE, psychological, Psychological thriller, psychopaths, published in 2004, read in 2023, rich people, road trip, Sabina Murray, satire, self-destructive, serial killers, she is dangerous, she is not feeling good at all, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, SUSPENSE, terrific prose, the female malaise, travel, unreliable narrators, violence, womanhood/femininity -
海のふた [Umi no futa] by Banana Yoshimoto
海のふた (The Sea’s Lid?) is very much a typical Banana Yoshimoto novel. We have the quintessentially Yoshimoto-esque narrator (usually a quiet young woman who is grieving someone or longing for something), a slice-of-life storyline and a small-town setting. This novel takes place during the summer months and Mari has just moved back to her hometown…
1st pov, 2000s, 3.5 STARS, Adult, Banana Yoshimoto, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, coming of age, Contemporary, favourite authors, female authors, female friendships, friendships, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, loneliness, melancholy, My reviews, navel gazing, published in 2004, re-reads, READ IN 2019, reading, sea, SLICE OF LIFE, SMALL TOWN, The Sea’s Lid, TRANSLATED FICTION, Umi No Futa, 海のふた -
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Having heard a lot about the genius of Murakami over the years I was excepting something a bit more out of After Dark, a novel which, at the risk of incurring the wrath of Murakami aficionados, failed to captivate me. Credit where credit’s due, Murakami certainly knows how to create and maintain a certain…
2000s, 3 STARS, Adult, After Dark, books that take place in one day, Contemporary, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), Dreams, feverish, Haruki Murakami, incest-y, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, LITERARY FICTION, MAGICAL REALISM, male authors, men who do not seem to know how to write women, musicians, navel gazing, prostitution, published in 2004, read in 2021, SISTERS, style over character, stylised prose, surreal, TRANSLATED FICTION -
Symptomatic by Danzy Senna
“Every day in this new city I was trying to live in the purity of the present, free from context. Contexts, I knew, were dangerous: Once you put them into the picture, they took over.” As with her latest novel New People, Symptomatic presents its readers with a claustrophobic and disquieting narrative that becomes increasingly…
1990s, 1st pov, 20th century, 4 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, cold tone, colorism, Contemporary, Danzy Senna, dark, domestic thriller, doubles, existentialism, favourite authors, female authors, female doubles, feverish, grotesque, hallucinations, illness, introspective, jealousy, journalism, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, madness, mental health, MYSTERY, NEW YORK, obsession, office, passing, psychological, published in 2004, RACE, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, stalking, surreal, Symptomatic, terrific prose, the body, the female malaise, toxic relationships, unnamed narrator, work culture -
Parade by Hiromi Kawakami
In this short volume readers will be reunited with Tsukiko and Sensei, from Hiromi Kawakami’s Strange Weather in Tokyo. After sharing a meal together, Sensei asks Tsukiko to “tell me a story from long ago”. Tsukiko obliges. When she was a child two tengu started following her around. Other children in her class age were also…
-
The Saint of Incipient Insanities: Book Review
The Saint of Incipient Insanities by Elif Shafak ★★★★✰ 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4 just for kicks) “Lovers are pathetically charming, and exceedingly full of themselves, itself more precisely, for one of the plentiful troubles with loving couples is that the minute two autonomous selves develop themselves into a duo, instead of “two” (as in…
2000s, 3.5 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, BISEXUAL/PANSEXUAL, BOSTON, DEPRESSION, eating disorders, ELIF SHAFAK, existentialism, female authors, friendships, HUMOR, introspective, language, lgbtq+, mental health, philosophical, playful style, published in 2004, READ IN 2019, The Saint of Incipient Insanities, Turkey, turkish author, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE
luce [is reading] 