German and english review

 

Oh man, oh mann. Das Buch war eine Achterbahn der Gefühle, wahrscheinlich hauptsächlich auch wegen dem Hintergrund und der Tragödie um Marina Keegan. Es ist wirklich ein richtig bitteres Vergnügen, weil ich gerne so viel mehr von ihr lesen würde und sehen würde, wie sie sich als Schreiberling entwickelt hätte. Traurig.

 

Die Geschichten und Essays fand ich wirklich alle total spannend und interessant. Nicht alle haben mich gepackt und bewegt aber sie waren alle toll und haben mich echt zum Nachdenken gebracht.

 

Ich mochte den Schreibstil einfach richtig sehr und hab mich ziemlich schnell reingefunden, gleich von der ersten Seite an. Ich habe das Buch zwischen Therapiestunden und während Busfahrten gelesen und bin wirklich super schnell durchgeflogen und da durch, dass es viele unterschiedliche Texte waren, habe ich auch nie den Faden verloren.

 

Den ein oder anderen Text werde ich auf jeden Fall bald wieder lesen.

 

***

 

Oh boy, oh boy. That book was a roller coaster ride through all the emotions, I think mostly because of the background and the tragedy around Merina Keegan. It's so bittersweet, cause I would have loved to read more from her and see her grow as a writer. Sad.

 

The stories and essays were all really exciting and interesting. Not all of them got to me and moved me in the same way, but they were all really great and made me think about a lot of things.

 

I really liked the writing and really got into it, right from the first page. I read this book mostly in between therapy sessions and during the bus rides, and I just flew through the pages. With all the different stories, I always got right back into things.

 

Some of the stories I will totally read again, very soon.

 

I get stuck on the titles of books and this one got me. The cover is great too. I know it's just a picture of the author, but her pose and expression and body language were endearing. It was like she wasn't sure if this was a good idea but needed to say what she needed to see. She had to send it out into the ether and hoped for an echo that she doubted would come. Then I opened the book to discover that she had passed before it's publishing and it was published by her family for her. She had wanted to make it in this business and they really honored that. It's not a spoiler, it's right in the forward, written by one of her teachers at Yale. 

Most of the book is comprised of her short stories, which were rather good. I enjoyed each one for different reasons. I appreciated the way she looked at people, the way the stories were about their interactions more than anything else. They were clearly about the way people moved together or ground against each other. I think I would have enjoyed a novel had she had the opportunity to write one. 

The essays were interesting for the same reason. They were snapshots of life when they were about people, but there were a few that were existential. Her opinion on the sun and the future of the planet were interesting. They certainly put a different spin on things for me. Her essay on having Celiac disease was perfect. It perfect encompassed the difference between dealing with something on your own and dealing with something as a parent. I hope her mother appreciated reading it, that before the end, Keegan was beginning to understand why it affected everything the way it did. I loved her thoughts on being special, on being heard, on sending something out to the ether. 

 

I wish there could be more. Perhaps my appreciation is tainted by knowing there never could be, but I don't think so. It's nice to get a perspective on possibility from someone in their youth and I think I would have wanted to know how she felt about it down the road, but it just isn't possible now. Perhaps someone else will take that torch. Until then, I'll recommend Keegan.

There are some books that even after you have read the last page you hope in vain for 'just one more page'. Sometimes this is because it's an amazing series and all you have to do is go pick up the next installment. At other times, it's a standalone novel but there are many other books which make up that author's body of work to satisfy you indefinitely. However, this is not always the case. 

Write what you know. It’s always the ‘advice’ others give us. Whether you believe it or not, it seems to be a staple of what people recommend you do when approaching creative writing, no matter how knowledgeable they may or may not be.

 

Marina wrote what she knew, and what she lived. Which, as a woman in her early twenties about to graduate, was confusion. She voices the adolescent mind working its way through everything it encounters like no other. I remember feeling precisely what she describes, and she’s captured it so perfectly. The Opposite of Loneliness is a fabulous essay, a moment and emotion in time caught perfectly. She had much talent, and I am sure would have gone on to do many things. The repeated line ‘we are so young’ makes the piece that much more evocative in light of her death.

 

Much of her writing is very similar in the prose sections. I much preferred her essays and the snippets of poetry. She is repeating sentiments and feeling, much as she was probably experiencing in her own mind. Much as you do when you’re a teen. That was her perspective on life, and it’s very well done.

 

This is a good collection, worth reading for the power of raw talent so sadly lost that radiates throughout.

When I read the introduction to this book about what type of person Marina Keegan was, I was expecting this to be a very upbeat and happy-go-lucky read. Wow, was it completely the opposite!
Most of the fiction stories, while really good, was also very morbid and preoccupied with death. My favorite of the bunch was The Emerald City, which was a one sided email conversation over a couple of months of a guy in the Green Zone in Iraq(?)
The non-fiction was a little less to my taste, however I did like the story about her car. We also learn that Marina was terrified by the universe and the infinite possibilities and that the sun would die even if we did solve the climate problems.
This girl was really morbid when it came to her writing. I don't know if she was like that in life as well, but if not, it's kind of sad that the only knowledge those of us who didn't know her have is this book and the stories she wrote.