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likemontana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
I truly wanted to like this book as it’s been recommended to me several times. I understand what this book is trying to convey and I get the point of her process being integral to the writing, but I feel like it was presented in a way that was hard to engage with in a meaningful way. It reminded me of being in college and being assigned something very high brow and I felt dumb for not getting it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
meghan111's review against another edition
3.0
A novel that will never be written about Ban lying down on the ground in her suburban London neighborhood as a race riot approaches, 1979. Descriptions of performance art about the image of Ban. Ivy and asphalt. The image of brown girls lying at the bottom of the world. I don't quite get it - I sort of got something out of it?
EDIT: Thanks to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for the interlibrary loan! There was a 2014 edition of this book which was eligible for my library's ILL service.
EDIT: Thanks to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for the interlibrary loan! There was a 2014 edition of this book which was eligible for my library's ILL service.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting, particularly the way Kapil moved between autobiography, notes for performance art (? I think), biography, and fiction. A very physical way of description.
Though I feel like the work is too fragmentary to make a really good whole. There are a lot of good sentences about how sexual violence is used in a culture, particularly against women and POC, but the story she's trying to tell of Ban feels secondary to the fragmentation of the book.
Though I feel like the work is too fragmentary to make a really good whole. There are a lot of good sentences about how sexual violence is used in a culture, particularly against women and POC, but the story she's trying to tell of Ban feels secondary to the fragmentation of the book.
lizardluvr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mguinnip's review against another edition
3.5
Ok actually 3.5 maybe 4? I don’t know if I have a concrete rating. I read this for a philosophy class. It has beautiful phrases and a lot of heartbreaking, evocative syntax and movement. The overall structure and anti- made it a little hard to get into for me personally, but after ruminating I really appreciate this piece. It is a lot of everything and nothing working together and the space leaves a lot to consider. Extremely provoking, definitely recommend but it also definitely frustrated me. Don’t know if I can get on board with this as a “novel” but the poetics of it made its form more digestible. I think that is very much the point though, which is why I appreciate it.
brittaini's review against another edition
3.0
I don't really know what to say or think about this one, so I'm coping out with a neutral 3-star rating. I might revisit it someday--I do own it forever, because no libraries had copies.
mrsthrift's review against another edition
3.0
So meta.
Outlines the thing to discuss without really discussing The Thing. Telling the thing through context?
Stream of consciousness at times; other times, like staging notes for performance art.
It's telling that she thanks people like Kate Zambreno.
Her blog is Was Jack Kerouac a Punjabi?
Outlines the thing to discuss without really discussing The Thing. Telling the thing through context?
Stream of consciousness at times; other times, like staging notes for performance art.
It's telling that she thanks people like Kate Zambreno.
Her blog is Was Jack Kerouac a Punjabi?
nomadreader's review against another edition
4.0
ummm...interesting, intense, thought provoking and somewhat baffling
mhall's review against another edition
3.0
A novel that will never be written about Ban lying down on the ground in her suburban London neighborhood as a race riot approaches, 1979. Descriptions of performance art about the image of Ban. Ivy and asphalt. The image of brown girls lying at the bottom of the world. I don't quite get it - I sort of got something out of it?
EDIT: Thanks to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for the interlibrary loan! There was a 2014 edition of this book which was eligible for my library's ILL service.
EDIT: Thanks to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for the interlibrary loan! There was a 2014 edition of this book which was eligible for my library's ILL service.