Lately, I feel as if I'm behind on everything. This was my book club's January pick and discussion, which we already had, and only now am I getting around to writing the review on here. *sigh*

 

Anyways, this book was thoroughly enjoyable. No words were minced and the author expects the reader to make the connections, which I absolutely loved. It was a fast read, once I got into the rhythm of the story. Also, a nice blending of reality and mythological fiction. Sometimes it was hard to differentiate the two, but this also made the book great. I was surprised that this is the author's first book, but what a debut. I'm totally excited to see what Tea Obreht will come up with next. 

 

P.S. My parents had the opportunity to visit a few Balkan countries a few years ago in their travels, so I'm going to be sending this book their way, in hopes that they will enjoy it too, and maybe even recognize some of the locations, that I used my imagination on.

---page 55-56

 

This is great advice from the narrator's Grandfather, after they witness together something unbelievable, yet beautiful, in the night.

I enjoyed parts of the story -- like anecdotes, especially the part about the 'deathless man', but I didn't fully appreciate the story as a whole. I guess I didn't quite understand the subtle nuances which tied everything together. While I didn't see the story as being disjointed, I read it along the lines of it being episodic. 2½ stars.

This book was, disappointingly, only okay. I love the premise--a life reconstructed through folktales, through the stories we tell and don't tell?--and, often, liked the stories themselves, but didn't feel that they ever came together grandly as they should have. The content was strong but, aside from a few scenes, the writing never really stunned me. My biggest problem: I felt a kind of hollowness at the center where the character of the grandfather should have been but never emerged despite Obreht's best efforts. And that's not even beginning to touch the disappointment of Natalia, the narrator, who barely existed, she was so flimsy. I almost rated this 2 stars only but then I worried that I was just suffering disappointment and backlash from all of the hype. While it really is a better-than-many first novel, I do feel there was a lot of lost potential in this one. It could have been a really stupendous elegy, a very powerful interweaving of grief & story. Alas! I did not find it so.

I'm trying so hard to enjoy literary fiction. I really am. I just don't understand most of it, including this book.

I understood so little of this book that I'm not even sure how to summarize it. I don't really know what the book is about. I understood the story, but I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of reading it. It is the story of Natalia, a young doctor who lives in a war-torn Balkan country (that is never named for some reason). After her grandfather dies in an obscure village far from his home, she finds comfort in the stories that he told her as a child.

First, the writing is beautiful. The author is extremely talented. The descriptions are vivid and interesting. The three stars are for the writing, and I wish that I could give this book more. The reader gets a good sense of what life is like in this Balkan country, but I didn't feel any connection to the characters.

Like a lot of literary fiction, the plot is pretty much nonexistent. It's slow and meandering and doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. The writing is very dense and description-heavy. There isn't much action or dialogue. I had a hard time staying interested in this book.