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lefa's review against another edition
5.0
I am halfway through this collection and every time I pick it up I feel a sense of dreamy, slow peace settling over me. I'm in love with it. I'm parceling out the remaining stories so I can keep this sensation for as long as possible.
d_joel's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
maree_k's review against another edition
5.0
Not all stories are driven by 'and then what happened?'. Some are about the spaces in between, the small, quiet, but often tense moments just after or leading up to a big event.
This is what the prose pieces in Tarcutta Wake, by Josephine Rowe, do: describe the shades of realisation of the enormity of how, in the in between spaces, we realised that things have irrevocably changed. They are snippets of conversation, the capturing of an emotion, epiphanies of loss or sadness.
Some of the stories are only a couple of paragraphs, the longest is 7 pages. The writing is spare and evocative. This collection is not a page turner, rather it is a slim volume with small gems to be lingered over. It is literary writing, but accessible to anyone with a love of how language can express emotion in all its subtle shades. Highly recommended.
This is what the prose pieces in Tarcutta Wake, by Josephine Rowe, do: describe the shades of realisation of the enormity of how, in the in between spaces, we realised that things have irrevocably changed. They are snippets of conversation, the capturing of an emotion, epiphanies of loss or sadness.
Some of the stories are only a couple of paragraphs, the longest is 7 pages. The writing is spare and evocative. This collection is not a page turner, rather it is a slim volume with small gems to be lingered over. It is literary writing, but accessible to anyone with a love of how language can express emotion in all its subtle shades. Highly recommended.
wtb_michael's review
5.0
100 pages of precise, aching, beauty. A re-read, years later and it cut in even deeper than I remember.
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