The plot of the novel is quiet, living more in gestures than arcs.
Emily Yang
Daily Arts Writer
Books
What once seemed like an apt way to shed a humanistic lens on the life of a sex worker in Turkey ends up holding a darker implication of romanticism.
Barry’s creation of empathy for a wholly detestable character does not make for a perfect novel.
Obioma masterfully balances the reader’s empathy and their realization of the fruitlessness of the relating. The story’s similarity to “The Odyssey” and Romeo and Juliet as allows the narrative to be tangible and understood for Western audiences.
In a book drowning in overarching political themes and a muddled plot, spaces like this are gasps of air above the waves. Rushdie can both continue the chaos and also make Quichotte — and his author — human and recognizable to readers.
At certain points it reads like a young adult novel, which certainly isn’t detrimental in and of itself but feels completely out of place in the context of its predecessor.
The novel’s narrative method depicts someone’s life through a pileup of anecdotes, unprocessed experience. This is what all of our lives are first, before but not exclusive of narration.
The personal isn’t political, Zink argues, but the political might just be personal.