As if, just when you thought you understood a situation or relationship, here's the blind spot that you didn't even notice until it was put in front of you. This novel is super recursive, with Kundera returning to events over and over with perspective shifts and new bits of information. "Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is because we yearn to be loved." Lines like this, and the unique way with which Kundera talks about his characters, are what I admire most about The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.Maybe it'll be a 5-star rec for me when I'm older and ~wiser~. I found myself re-reading a lot, and I often still didn't really understand what was going on- although, in hindsight, that's the purpose of the novel.
The only reason why I'd dock it a star is because it's sometimes confusing to follow. What does it mean to feel like anti-Asian racism is second-class racism? How do media representation and external rhetoric regarding your ethnicity impact your self-perception? Yu handles these questions with seemingly effortless skill and ingenuity. Written somewhat like a manuscript, Interior Chinatown investigates the blurry lines between an Asian man's experience as a background character in Hollywood and in America as an actor and as a citizen. Yu's newest novel, which won the National Book Award, is so, so inventive in its self-interrogation. I would still recommend this to readers interested in dystopia and gender politics, especially in regards to bodies and sexual reproduction. Although this book didn't live up to the insane hype surrounding it for me, it's hard for any artwork to achieve that. I just wished there was more explicit world-building and a more fleshed-out plot, as it did not leave the disturbing impression on me that was promised by its back cover's reviews. The Handmaid's Tale is thick with beautiful language and an intense probing of the psyche when thrown into a not-so-far-away dystopia.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.10/10 for accessibility and concept, but not my cup of tea as a reader. However, although the messages in the story are really important, they're just told a bit too explicitly for my taste without the level of execution needed to make me believe them. It focuses on a single question: If someone loses the will to live, can they get it back by experiencing other lives? I really appreciate how Haig tries to address this by literally sending his protagonist through many lives. This book is somehow both a hit and a miss for me. Overall, a very blunt, strange, and immersive investigation on what it means to be a social creature and a "useful member of society" from the perspective of a tenured convenience store woman. The nuanced way Sayaka investigates the many ways capitalism infiltrates the psyche is also so cool. This is a true testament to the lengths people take to conform- and the consequences for those who don't. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata.I will be thinking about this memoir for the rest of my life. What does it mean for a body to be both a shield against the world and an easy target for harm? This is not the main question of Gay's memoir but one of many she unravels. It eloquently squashes the idea that obesity is a lifestyle choice with incredible nuance, speaking to her own emotional landscape and life with a nakedness we are all lucky to witness. Hunger unveils so many privileges people who aren't obese take for granted. A sharp memoir about Roxane Gay's experience with her own body and with a world that refuses to carve out space for bodies like hers. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay.The clever use of dual perspectives, combined with a fast-paced, intricate plot, creates a bombshell of a novel.
This wonderful YA debut follows two girls, Claire Wang and Dani De La Cruz, whose incredibly different lives will clash in increasingly consequential ways as they navigate the destructive power dynamics of gender, age, wealth, and race at their elite high school. I cried every time I sat down to read this intimate conversation between Chanel and her audience. The vulnerability, wisdom, empathy, mental acuity, and humor with which Miller tells her story, reclaims her voice, and challenges the criminal justice system and rape culture is unparalleled. A stunning memoir on trauma and triumph by Chanel Miller, the survivor of the Stanford sexual assault case.