wrengaia's reviews
1045 reviews

I often think that criticism of Yanagihara - oft directed at the earlier ‘A Little Life’, fails to understand that Yangihara is doing something new, and truly exciting, with the novel form. As with ‘A Little Life’, those who come to ‘To Paradise’ expecting a narrative of ‘emotional’ or ‘historical’ realism or believability - a narrative with a clear and meaningful end - will be sorely disappointed. Yanagihara rejects this desire for emotional or narrative realism and has instead bent the novel toward parable, arranging its affect on the carefully-strung emotions of the reader such that it does so much more than merely ‘tell a story’ and instead seems to draw something (imperceptible, and beyond summary) out of its audience to leave them inexorably transformed by its conclusion. The premise of ‘To Paradise’ is almost impossible to satisfactorily convey, and any summary would sound more like a collection of half finished plot ideas, rather than anything close to being compelling or powerful as a finished novel. And yet ‘To Paradise’ is, undoubtedly, compelling, and powerful, in myriad ways. At its core, it could be said to be a novel profoundly interested in the often unbalanced, seemingly always precarious, relationship with the individual and all that is outside it. As Yanagihara’s various characters navigate through their plots, we are presented with complex webs of relationality that come ultimately to transcend the confines of historically bound narrative and instead to form a complex interweaving throughout the narrative as a whole. As one character may lean on another to affirm their sense of self - no matter how slight the other’s own claim to truth may be - each part of this brilliant novel leans on every other such that they form a beautiful constellation of meaning. Without one another they would cease to illuminate as brilliantly as they do, hence also why this is a novel of a necessarily immense length, whose brilliance builds exponentially until you are left clutching at the last hundred pages, hungry for a conclusion Yanagihara refuses to give. This is an immense novel with so much to give, and also a perfect understanding of a sort of recalcitrance which is the foundation of its brilliant architecture.

Overall, superb; a magnificently well-written novel. Its brilliance is simultaneously that of the micro aspects of narrative - a carefully balanced scene, the momentary rush of emotion, and of a broader and impressively balanced narrative time. Perhaps the thing I loved most about it was the pace at which we come to know and inhabit its two central figures, Ifemelu and Obinze. Rather than straightforwardly telling us their story and then their present, or even taking a straightforwardly episodic approach to narrative, Adichie weaves masterfully between past and present, one figure and the other, such that their becoming known to us becomes something symphonic. It has an immense scale, and manages between its macroscopic interests and intense emotional and individual attention with an unusual deftness. Unfortunately, though, I found that its achievements are limited largely to its first four hundred pages. In the last section of the book its balance fell apart. Adichie feels as though she is suddenly rushing towards an end whose simplicity feels a reduction of all that the book has been to this point; even ending on a more uncertain note would have afforded the conclusion more profundity, I think.

Genuinely interesting; much better than I was anticipating & a reminder of how *good* sci fi can be

beautiful - shepherd’s fiction is sharp and brilliant, and her poetry is delicate and illuminating. i skimmed the essayistic section a little - but i am ever in awe of nan shepherd’s ability to write so well.


*diss reading

Really interesting & well-written - definitely brief in areas but what can you expect from a 400 page biography of Nietzsche?! Nicely balanced between being an ‘intellectual’ biography (i.e explaining his philosophies) and a historical account. Would have liked a little more focus on Elisabeth’s control of his estate during his latter ‘mad’ years and posthumously, but perhaps that is another book entirely…