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lizardluvr's review against another edition
slow-paced
i feel unqualified to rate this book. it was very confusing and i almost didn’t finish it.
socorrobaptista's review against another edition
3.0
Um longo poema em prosa sobre o crescimento de uma cidade, que poderia ser qualquer cidade. Não é bem o tipo de leitura que me cativa, mas há passagens muito interessantes, e o espírito poético é muito forte. Faria um bom contraponto com as teorias que lidam com a questão do espaço urbano na literatura. Interessante.
reader_drinker's review against another edition
4.0
This was one difficult read: a prose poem with no plot or characters; with just a narrator that elucidates the reality and unreality of human life, objects, history, and memory through the semi-focused lens of city planning (with allusions to a Polish city being rebuilt in Communism following the destruction of WW2). The writing demands focus from its readers, as its dense, ambiguous, and steeped with metaphor and symbolism. This book is a showcase of a brilliant author having a vision and going all out to attain it, with little qualms if her readers are unable to follow along. For my reading experience that came with both good and bad: when I was there with her the sentences could be enrapturing, whereas sometimes full pages and paragraphs were impenetrable to me and I was completely lost.
I probably respected this book more than I enjoyed it, but it's certainly an impressive work by a very talented writer so I still found reading it worthwhile. Though I'd be curious to try Tulli's more traditional novels.
I probably respected this book more than I enjoyed it, but it's certainly an impressive work by a very talented writer so I still found reading it worthwhile. Though I'd be curious to try Tulli's more traditional novels.
sookieskipper's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
There are multiple stories out there that depict cities, buildings, and all the structures that make a community a city, but here, Magdalena Tulli, writes about a community that makes a city to operate as a machine and also as a living organism. "its a tree" "and its not a tree", some people say, she writes. And this encompasses the narrative she spins through this tiny novella. Its a short book which takes on a journey into city's dreamscape, and exposes, very cheekily the (hopes) and dreams of the people who inhabit. She writes about those places of perfection - those that exist in those small pockets of time in those fleeting moments where it all seemed perfect. But there was a war, a regime change, a revolution, a new war, a blasted civil reform and so it goes.
its a brilliant book, no doubt, the communism aspect of it isn't always thinly veiled. But for a novella, it can get repetitive and tiny bit exhausting. perhaps that's exactly what the intent was and that's something i couldn't enjoy.
its a brilliant book, no doubt, the communism aspect of it isn't always thinly veiled. But for a novella, it can get repetitive and tiny bit exhausting. perhaps that's exactly what the intent was and that's something i couldn't enjoy.
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