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lightreadsAll the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
2/5. Historical about two teenagers – one blind French girl, one German underaged soldier – who intersect briefly in 1944.
So for background, my father-in-law is a darling man who knows I'm a reader and, because he is a darling man, likes to buy me books from Audible. He, however, is not a reader. What he does read is The New Yorker. You can see where this is going.
Sigh. It's not just that World War II stories are easy to find; it's more that good World War II stories have been told and told and told. This one – about radios and cursed diamonds and children sent to war – is aggressively well-written, I'll give it that. But it's also one of those war stories that is supposed to elevate the suffering of the commonplace or whatever, and instead just ends up 95% suffering porn.
The other 5% being a lot of lit fiction symbolism bullshit where a diamond is supposed to metaphorically speak to the sweep of human history or whatever, and it's all just so meaningful, and you can totally see the author daydreaming about the landscape shots in the movie after its optioned for seven figures.
That's lit fiction for you. Set out with the goal of illuminating the suffering of the commonplace, but totally fail to resist trying to make it about OMG the humanity, and in the process lose authenticity and grip on real people, so in the end it's just suffering-suffering-suffering-thematic moment-suffering-suffering.
I swear one day I'm just going to decide that I will henceforth never again read a book subtitled "A Novel," and my life will be instantly improved.
2/5. Historical about two teenagers – one blind French girl, one German underaged soldier – who intersect briefly in 1944.
So for background, my father-in-law is a darling man who knows I'm a reader and, because he is a darling man, likes to buy me books from Audible. He, however, is not a reader. What he does read is The New Yorker. You can see where this is going.
Sigh. It's not just that World War II stories are easy to find; it's more that good World War II stories have been told and told and told. This one – about radios and cursed diamonds and children sent to war – is aggressively well-written, I'll give it that. But it's also one of those war stories that is supposed to elevate the suffering of the commonplace or whatever, and instead just ends up 95% suffering porn.
The other 5% being a lot of lit fiction symbolism bullshit where a diamond is supposed to metaphorically speak to the sweep of human history or whatever, and it's all just so meaningful, and you can totally see the author daydreaming about the landscape shots in the movie after its optioned for seven figures.
That's lit fiction for you. Set out with the goal of illuminating the suffering of the commonplace, but totally fail to resist trying to make it about OMG the humanity, and in the process lose authenticity and grip on real people, so in the end it's just suffering-suffering-suffering-thematic moment-suffering-suffering.
I swear one day I'm just going to decide that I will henceforth never again read a book subtitled "A Novel," and my life will be instantly improved.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-21 01:22 am (UTC)I'm going to take your word over theirs.
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Date: 2015-04-21 02:55 am (UTC)Oh damn, that breaks my streak of avoiding Pulitzers.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-22 12:09 am (UTC)Also, to a non-reader, this book and Code Name Verity might seem equivalent.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-22 01:11 am (UTC)It's true, he tries very hard. We basically give each other well-intentioned gifts that totally misfire much of the time. I buy him a lot of TV shows since that's his thing, and I'm sure most are totally bizarre choices to him. Thus are the misfortunes of expressing affection through consumerism....
no subject
Date: 2015-04-22 07:08 pm (UTC)My in-laws do/did this too.
At Christmas-time, I often find myself wondering, "What did I do to make them think I'm the sort of person who would like this??"