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Sto caricando le informazioni... Maps of Our Spectacular Bodiesdi Maddie Mortimer
Netgalley Reads (100) Sto caricando le informazioni...
Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. I admired this work more than I enjoyed it (though I did enjoy it, just not at a 5 star level). Not even quite sure how to review it without spoiling it, but I've never read anything quite like it before, and I really want to discuss a number of elements that I have questions about. Like I really have a lot of questions that beg discussion. The components I really thought elevated this book was the imagination/originality, the use of language, the very realistic portrayal of the human characters (as opposed to the disembodied voice). If it were a bit shorter, this would be an amazing book club book, and honestly, I think it also has the makings of a book that could be used in so many ways in an English lit class. It says a lot about the human condition. It didn't really tear at my heartstrings in the way I expected in that I wasn't ever crying or even close to that . . .which I expected in a book about death and illness. Honestly though, I think this might be the Booker prize winner. It's not my favorite of the ones I've read so far, but I do think it is the most deserving in many ways. “The only thing worse than death is knowledge of it coming.” Lia has cancer. She has a twelve-year-old daughter, Iris, and husband, Harry. There are three woven storylines. The first is Lia’s present day as she and her family deal with cancer. The second relates Lia’s past tumultuous relationship with her parents and first (overly idealized) boyfriend. The third is the cancer itself, which is given a voice that gets more prevalent as the book progresses. The author was fourteen years old when her mother died of cancer, so this book is based on personal experience. The writing is elegant. Mortimer is clearly talented, and this is a debut, which is impressive. However, I do not think I am the right reader for this book since it falls into the category I call "misery books," which I generally try to avoid. I did not care for the segments narrated by “cancer” – this magical realist element was way over the top and too anthropomorphic for me. I admired this book as an exercise in creative writing. I appreciated the poetic style but cannot think to whom I would recommend it. Certainly not to anyone currently or recently dealing with cancer in self or a loved one, and not to anyone feeling anxious or depressed. Many of my friends have loved this book, so my expectations were, perhaps, too high. I hope the author has experienced personal healing in the process of writing it. 47. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer readers: Lydia Wilson & Tamsin Greig published: 2022 format: 12:20 audible audiobook (448 pages) acquired: September 11 listened: Sep 12-29 rating: 4 genre/style: Contemporary fiction theme: Booker 2022 locations: London about the author: London-based screen writer born in London in 1996. This is her first novel. My third from the Booker 2022 longlist. This one did not make the shortlist. I have developed an odd relationship with the Booker longlist. I'm making my fourth consecutive attempt to follow it, and apparently I'm at the point where I get pleasantly surprised when I actually like a book. I really enjoyed this novel. My worry when I started was that this would be too much like Sophia Ward‘s [Love and Other Thought Experiments], a novel that is basically applied philosophy with an emotional overlay. I didn't mind Ward's novel, but I didn't love it, and I didn't want to read another version of it. And there are major similarities. Like Ward's novel, this is a 1st novel from the English screen world. Ward is an actress, and Mortimer is a screen writer, and both are based in London. Both novels deal with a terminal illness, and personify the illness as its own character. When Lia's cancer opens the novel speaking in 1st person, all these similarities fell into place. What is different here is that I never fully took to Ward's characters, whereas early on I took to Lia here, the Christianity drenched atheist daughter of a minister. Lia is young mother facing uncertainty and terminal illness, and she spends the novel revisiting her past. She's a beautiful character, and I found I simply really enjoyed spending time with her. That disarmed my inner critic, and I was i no hurry for this to end. The novel also has interesting structure, playing with voices. Lia's "voice" is a 3rd person narrative. Her cancer is told in 1st person. As the novel progresses, they interact in interesting ways. And, even though we know the end, I wanted to know everything. Mortimer kept me curious through the end, through to the last word. It's a very interesting ending. This a sad but enjoyable novel. Gently recommended. 2022 https://www.librarything.com/topic/342768#7945087 nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize This lyrical debut novel is at once a passionate coming-of-age story, a meditation on illness and death, and a kaleidoscopic journey through one woman's life--told in part by the malevolent voice of her disease. Lia, her husband Harry, and their beloved daughter, Iris, are a precisely balanced family of three. With Iris struggling to navigate the social tightrope of early adolescence, their tender home is a much-needed refuge. But when a sudden diagnosis threatens to derail each of their lives, the secrets of Lia's past come rushing into the present, and the world around them begins to transform. Deftly guided through time, we discover the people who shaped Lia's youth; from her deeply religious mother to her troubled first love. In turn, each will take their place in the shifting landscape of Lia's body; at the center of which dances a gleeful narrator, learning her life from the inside, growing more emboldened by the day. Pivoting between the domestic and the epic, the comic and the heart-breaking, this astonishing novel unearths the darkness and levity of one woman's life to symphonic effect. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)823.00Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction By TypeClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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The lovely and graceful writing about flawed people grappling with faith and religion did a lot to win me over. For instance this passage, in which Lia's mother Anne - who has come across as rather cold and haughty - emerges from a store after receiving a call while in the check-out line from Lia, informing her of her terminal diagnosis, and thereafter telling the clerk and other shoppers this information in a daze and receiving generous compassion:
Mortimer credits Marilynne Robinson as an influence, I believe; this passage also put me in mind of Tolstoy's short story Where Love Is, God Is.
However the writing had its down aspects for me as well. I could accept the poetry and Max Porter influenced playing with text shape to create spirals and fireworks and other images from time to time, though I tend to think novel text should stay in straight lines in readable fonts. The frequent poetry influenced enjambment, I didn't really care for, ie:
In contrast to reminding me of Tolstoy that reminds me of Rupi Kaur. Not ideal.
The last pages come to the rescue again however, being a dazzling and affecting scene of dying with 0% sentimentality. They definitely bump the novel up to a 3.5. Early in the novel, and in her life, Lia had been asked if she'd ever experienced God. Mortimer writes, "she had hoped very privately all her life for a dazzling numinous moment - because how easy it would be to believe, she thought, when given a sign like that. I don't know, she said, honestly. Either I've had thousands or none."
Now dying, the final pages give the reader this exchange, with her husband and young daughter experiencing her last moments with her:
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