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freckled_frog_boi's review
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
A book of short stories that utilize surrealist absurdity to not only reveal the horrors of the Iraq occupation, but the horrors other community members inflict on each other during such times. It’s a dark book with thought-provoking and horrifyingly disgusting and maybe beautiful prose that makes you want to shower afterwards… if that makes any sense at all. A lot of shit and gruesome death and rape and piss and eating human flesh and suicidal thoughts and drunken hallucinations and bombs. And also great love and confusion and care and attempts at healing and maybe even hope.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Murder, Religious bigotry, Excrement, Self harm, Sexual assault, Deportation, War, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Gun violence
m1m1m1m1's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Rape, War, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Murder
pivic's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
lucystvns's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
joth1006's review against another edition
4.0
Som skräddarsydd för Panache-serien. Var inte beredd på inslagen av fantastik, så blev överraskad när det började pratas om blodanalysrobotar. Fett!
dansumption's review
5.0
"I thought the world was just a coded dream and that I was a symbol hunter who needs a hunting net and a laboratory. The books tricked me before the encyclopedia of human insects could trick me. And finally the dream for which I had wrecked my life collapsed. I had now have two wrecks: my life and the dream."
This is a dense, confusing book of stories which veer between fable, magical realism, and horror. So much horror, all the more terrifying for its realism and triviality. They take the reader deep into the mind of a writer who has suffered through the invasion of Iraq and subsequent life as a refugee.
I struggled to penetrate much (most) of the symbolism, but was left feeling that this is a book I need to read and re-read to fully appreciate.
This is a dense, confusing book of stories which veer between fable, magical realism, and horror. So much horror, all the more terrifying for its realism and triviality. They take the reader deep into the mind of a writer who has suffered through the invasion of Iraq and subsequent life as a refugee.
I struggled to penetrate much (most) of the symbolism, but was left feeling that this is a book I need to read and re-read to fully appreciate.
amalelmohtar's review
4.0
This rating reflects effectiveness and skill more than my enjoyment.
It's a harrowing collection of short fictions in which relentlessly dreadful things happen and strip people of their humanity and dignity in plain-spoken matter-of-fact ways. It's agonizing to read. But it was interesting also to feel the undercurrent of Arabic beneath the translation, and even when some of the fantasy devices seemed cliché to me, the feeling of them being spoken in Arabic, in a different context of literary inheritance, kept refreshing them.
These are also stories that undo themselves, that dissolve, that break apart. Very few of them close a short-story circle. Mostly voices yield to voices and agony is layered on agony. Like the traumatic occurrences it presents, it's a book that needs to be recovered from while making the prospect of recovery bleak and chancy at best.
I want to read it in Arabic.
It's a harrowing collection of short fictions in which relentlessly dreadful things happen and strip people of their humanity and dignity in plain-spoken matter-of-fact ways. It's agonizing to read. But it was interesting also to feel the undercurrent of Arabic beneath the translation, and even when some of the fantasy devices seemed cliché to me, the feeling of them being spoken in Arabic, in a different context of literary inheritance, kept refreshing them.
These are also stories that undo themselves, that dissolve, that break apart. Very few of them close a short-story circle. Mostly voices yield to voices and agony is layered on agony. Like the traumatic occurrences it presents, it's a book that needs to be recovered from while making the prospect of recovery bleak and chancy at best.
I want to read it in Arabic.
charlotteyveta's review
3.0
I think for me this is a case of the wrong reading location. I took this away on holiday with me thinking that it was nice and short (and light for luggage!). However, I really needed to be reading this somewhere where I could concentrate properly on it, as it definitely isn't standard holiday reading. There were lots of bits I didn't fully understand, so this deserves a second reading and my rating may well go up. The sense I got of it was mystical, brutal, poetic and prosaic all at once. Each story tells a different perspective of war and its aftereffects with a almost fantastic-seeming Iraq as the backdrop (the setting moves from Iraq to Finland and elsewhere, but as the title suggests, Iraq is the centre point).
In summary, I enjoyed the experience of most of this book. With a second read, and the chance to fully immerse myself in it, I will probably get more from it.
In summary, I enjoyed the experience of most of this book. With a second read, and the chance to fully immerse myself in it, I will probably get more from it.