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A review by whippycleric
Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I enjoyed this short book and the writing reminded me of "The Discomfort of Evening". The structure is quite different being a series of vignettes rather than a novel, but the coming of age story of a young girl in a religious and relatively poor background has strong parallels. Each entry was evocative and unique but with some common threads throughout. I can clearly see why this book could have a profound effect on some people, though for me it's not that impacting. This is for obvious reasons, I don't really relate to the protagonist, a young girl in a religious family growing up in communist Poland in the 1980s, myself being a man from a non religious family raise in capitalist 1990s UK. I'm also not a big fan of vignettes / short story collections as opposed to novels but can see the quality in this collection. It's a good book which I enjoyed reading but isn't really for me.