Review: The Fishermen – Chigozie Obioma

I’ve spent some time since finishing this book trying to decide what to say about it. I went in to it with high expectations because of Jen’s feelings about it; high expectations can be detrimental to my final feelings but not in this instance. This book lived up to the expectations I had, even surpassed them.

The Fishermen tells the story of four brothers who are growing up in a Nigerian village with the rather unstable political situation of the 1990s in the background. Their father leaves to work in the city and they go down to the river to fish, the river isn’t somewhere they ought to be. One day they meet the local madman – or prophet – who says that the oldest brother will be killed by a fisherman. This book is ultimately a story of how that unravels them.

The writing of this book is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I find it hard to believe that this is a début, quite honestly! There is such a richness to the language he uses and a depth to the characters, it’s astounding. There is so much to think about in this novel; there are so many things that will keep me thinking for days. I’m certain that the more I reflect on this novel, the more I will enjoy it.

As it stands, I’ve given this 4*. It’s probably 4.5*. It may move up to 5*. It’s a beautiful book and one with a lot of things to think about. There’s more to this than meets the eye and I will definitely get my hands on whatever Chigozie puts out next.

Review: Satin Island – Tom McCarthy

This is a book that seems to split its readers in to two camps; the lovers and the haters. I sadly fall in to the latter. Satin Island has been shortlisted for the Man Booker this year and, honestly, it’s books like this that give prize lists a bad name and make them feel out of touch to the average Joe.

Firstly, the positives, the structure of this book is quite interesting and it was under 200 pages. Other than that it’s absolutely exasperating with a detestable main character and absolutely no plot. I can honestly find nothing to discuss about this book regarding the plot as there just wasn’t one. I don’t mind that as long as there are good characters, but the main character was just blah and the peripheral characters were barely there either. This just really frustrated me.

It read like non-fiction in parts, but the worst kind. If I wanted to read an essay on anthropology I’d have found one. Oh and also, there was an excessive use of parentheses which really got on my wick.

I gave this book 1* and I feel that is generous. It was pretentious, it felt self-absorbed and just didn’t give off a good impression. It could have been great, there were a few passages that were just stand up beautiful but, on the whole, I just felt I was banging against a wall constantly while reading it and never quite getting to the greatness. I felt unfulfilled reading this book. I wanted more but at the same time, I wanted far, far less. Essentially, I just wanted a different book entirely and I thank the Gods that this was short.

NB: I was stuck on a bus and only had this to read. I don’t know if I would have finished it had I not been stuck on said bus. Take from that what you will.

Review: A Little Life – Hanya Yanagigara

First off, this review will not do this book justice, for good and coherent reviews scour Goodreads – there are so many incredible reviews of this book I don’t even want to imitate them. This book is beyond words, I have been trying to put my feelings in to words and I just can’t but anyway…

This book has taken me a lot longer to read than I anticipated but, oh what a read it was. I don’t think I’ve been this invested in a book, felt so in touch with the characters, felt so soul destroyed ever. This is just incredible and, in short, it fully deserves all the hype that is surrounding it. As I said, this book took me a long time to read, I couldn’t read much at once and I couldn’t read anything alongside it; it just completely consumed my life for nearly a month.

In short, A Little Life, follows the story of four young men in New York and slowly it focuses down to just the one of them; Jude. While this book is ultimately Jude’s tale, throughout it you get to know JB, Malcolm and Willem to the point you feel that all four of them are people you know personally – none of them felt fictional by the end of this. The depth of character is incredible, their souls are laid bare before you and I think they’re the sort of characters that will just sit with me. I will probably judge every book from now on on this level of characterisation that Yanagihara has put forward and I don’t feel remotely guilty

It is by no means an easy read, it isn’t one for everyone, it is a rollercoaster filled with trauma and harrowing events that absolutely destroyed me. This book really ought to have trigger-warnings galore on it’s front cover because some things were so difficult to read I had to put it down for a little while. But the thing is, I don’t think a book has ever had me openly crying like this did and I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I’ve been punched in the gut while reading a book either. By the end of my month of reading this, I was emotionally exhausted but I think I came out of it a different person, it was just one of those books that really affected and changed me.

It was a powerful, painful and exhausting book to read but so, so utterly worth it. It took me a month to read but I don’t mind that, I have read an incredible book here and it is one that I will reread in the future for certain. In short this book is a 5* read and I’ve run out of adjectives to describe it. I have the entire Man Booker shortlist sat in front of me but, honestly, I think this might just win it because damnit, it’s incredible.