Tag: salvador-plascencia • BookLikes

review 2014-02-08 06:43

The People of Paper - Salvador Plascencia

It's early in the year, but Salvador Plascencia's The People of Paper has definitely made it on to my top reads of 2014.

This book is amazing! Though not especially plot driven, The People of Paper kept me thoroughly engaged. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and the novel is dispersed with beautiful, surreal images and concepts.

On a basic level, this is a novel about sadness and the ways that people cope with it. Now, I know that this sounds depressing and kind of boring, but it really isn't! The surrealism adds a ton of beautiful insight into the material. Also, the writing and unique use of format really propels the novel forward.

The People of Paper also has a really well done metafictive element. I usually don't like metafiction very much because, on average, I find it more distracting than insightful, but I absolutely loved how it was done in this novel! I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to go into detail, but believe me: it's awesome.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves well-written and engaging prose, surrealism, or metafiction. It's so good. So good!

Happy Reading!

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text 2014-02-01 15:20

February TBR!

Benefits of Being a Nerd

This month I have to focus almost entirely on school-related reading, but I'm actually really excited for most of it!

For my experimental contemporary lit class, I'm going to be reading Eunoia by Christian Bok, People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. And, for my travel writing course, I will be reading Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines. I will be posting reviews for each of these toward the end of the month.

I'm also going to reread John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. It just has to happen. I'm unreasonably excited for the movie coming out this summer, and would love to re-experience the book beforehand.

I'm still making my way through The Return of the King, but with all the heavy, analytical reading that I have to do this month, I think that it's wisest to put it on pause.

What are you planning to read this month?

books christian bok eunoia house of leaves john green mark z. danielewski people of paper reading salvador plascencia tbr the fault in our stars the return of the king tifios

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review 2013-09-06 00:00

The People of Paper

pedestrienne

I'm struggling w/ my intense negative reaction to The People of Paper - I think Plascencia accomplished what he set out to do, so the issue is just that it's not my thing. But I also want to call it lazy. But I don't think that's entirely fair. Maybe I identify with Liz too much. I will say that for most of the book I didn't care and was unimpressed by the imagery. I'm pretty sure that most female characters did not pass the Bechdel test.

I am looking forward to discussing it in book club, though!

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review 2011-09-08 00:00

Composition No. 1

Raging Biblioholism

Hard to say exactly what this book is about - or why it's something to be read, other than that it is an object of immense beauty and danger.I read the whole thing in one go after having waited for quite some time, under the influence of Tylenol and a low-grade fever. I do believe this only helped add to the ethereal nature of the book and, hey, I'll take it. This won't be for everyone, certainly - but even if you don't like the book, you have to admire Visual Editions' beautiful work on the creation of the piece itself. More ramblings about the strange creation over at Raging Biblioholism: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-ha

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review 2011-05-17 00:00

The People of Paper

Ana V.

Well, I would say it was a wonderful book! If it just hadn't been so hard to read it..! In my edition of the book, some parts are written on the side, some chapters are blank, and I understood that this is how the author wanted it to be, but it made reading it a bit harder. The story was great, and I really love how the author writes, it gives you a feeling of a different reality when you read it, because it seems so serious! Anyways, great book!