Review: Never Let Me Go (by Kazuo Ishiguro)

My Rating:  5 stars

I loved Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day (which I only read a couple years ago even though it was written back in 1989) and since then, I've been wanting to read the rest of his books, it's just I hadn't gotten a chance to yet given my endless TBR stack.  So of course, I was delighted when both my book club and one of my classes chose Ishiguro's Never Let Me Goas our next book to read / study, as it gave me an excuse to finally get to another one of his books.  

Going into this one, I actually already knew most of the details of the plot, including the "reveal" about the characters and their school, as this book was talked about so much back when it came out in 2005 (plus there was a much-hyped movie adaptation that was made, which I haven't watched, but heard so much about) that it's kind of hard not to have already encountered the main spoiler, especially reading this book now, nearly 2 decades after it was written.  With that said however, the "spoiler" knowledge in this case did not ruin the book for me — rather it allowed me to focus instead on Ishiguro's beautiful, breathtaking, and elegant writing style as well as admire the masterful way in which he crafted such a poignant and powerful story that was both richly complex and thought-provoking yet also haunting and absorbing.

Given that I'll be spending quite a bit of time discussing and reflecting on this book with others over the next few weeks, I don't plan on saying too much in this review.  One of the things I do want to mention though is the genre-defying aspect of this book, which, in a sense, is one of its unique defining features. Most readers would probably categorize this one under science fiction (specifically of the speculative and dystopian variety), which is certainly appropriate, but only classifying it as such would be a great disservice, as there are also elements of gothic romance, mystery and suspense, as well as contemporary, literary, and historical fiction all interwoven seamlessly (and subtly) into the story.  As I was reading, I was honestly blown away by how perfectly Ishiguro was able to balance all these elements to create an emotionally nuanced story that is both compelling and gripping, while at the same time presenting a quietly contemplative, thoughtful, and reflective commentary on society that's also incredibly timely and prescient.  I mention all this because I know there are probably readers like me out there who aren't keen on reading science fiction and therefore might be hesitant to pick this one up.  If that's you, I would say don't worry because it definitely doesn't read like science fiction: part of the brilliance of this book is in its many subtleties — as it pertains to science (and technology) specifically, Ishiguro integrates this theme into the story in a way where the reader feels its presence looming in the background, but it never breaks forth to overwhelm the story.  

Even though I've only read two of Ishiguro's works (so far), I can already see why he is such a beloved and respected writer.  I'm glad he was finally awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017 — absolutely well-deserved! I read in an interview Ishiguro did that it takes him around 5 years to write each book — since his last book Klara and the Sun (which I also need to get to) came out in 2021, that means we can perhaps expect a new book in 2026 (I hope)?  I definitely need to get going on the rest of his backlist before then! :-)

 

Review: Elsewhere (by Alexis Schaitkin)

My Rating: 3.5 stars



When I first got my hands on this ARC of Alexis Schaitkin's sophomore novel  Elsewhere, I was definitely excited to read it, as I had really enjoyed her debut novel Saint X and couldn't wait to see what she would have for us next.  

Now having finished this, I have to say that it was not what I expected.  The writing was actually beautiful and I loved the magical quality of the prose, which flowed so lyrically and seamlessly throughout the story.  Having said that though, the experience of reading this book was actually quite a struggle for me, mostly because, from beginning to end, I wasn't really sure what I was reading.  The world that the main character Vera inhabited was completely foreign to me and I honestly couldn't relate to her actions (or those of any of the other characters) at all.  Much of the plot didn't make a whole lot of sense to me either, though this has nothing to do with the quality of the work per se, but rather my own inability to comprehend the nuances of the story.  

This book falls heavily into the speculative, dystopian fiction category, which is not a genre that I typically read, so I guess it's not a surprise that I struggled through it.  While I don't regret reading this, I definitely prefer Schaitkin's debut novel over this one — though with that said, I also admire her ability to put out a second novel that is so markedly different from the first one.  The imagery in Elsewhere is vivid and stunning, especially when describing the "world" in the mountains that Vera called home.  

Overall, this was a good book, and well-written too, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. Hopefully Schaitkin's next book will work better for me.

Received ARC from Celadon Books via Celadon Early Reader program.

Review: Cloud Cuckoo Land (by Anthony Doerr)

My Rating: 4 stars

Anthony Doerr's masterpiece All the Light We Cannot See is one of my all-time favorite books.  I read it with my book club several years ago and the beautiful writing as well as the captivating storyline absolutely blew me away.   The reading experience I had with that book remains one of the most memorable for me, even after the dozens of books I've read since then.

Given the above, it should of course come as no surprise that when I heard Anthony Doerr would have a new book out this year (his first since the above-mentioned masterpiece), I absolutely knew I had to get my hands on it.  A few months ago, when I was approved for an ARC of the book, I was ecstatic and couldn't wait to read it, despite the fact that, upon reading the summary, I knew that segments of the story wouldn't interest me (specifically the "science fiction" parts, since that's a genre I don't typically enjoy). The fact that this one would be long (600+ pages) also didn't help things, since I already had a huge list of books that I was hoping to get to this month.  

Well, I finally decided to pick this one up last week and while there were definitely parts of it I enjoyed, I was actually a bit underwhelmed overall, especially in comparisons to All the Light We Cannot See. Of course, the writing was excellent (which was expected), but I felt that there was way too much going on in terms of story arcs, which made this too exhaustive of a read for me.  In addition to the narrative alternating between 5 different characters who each have their own separate but interconnected storylines, the timelines and settings were all different as well, so structure-wise, there was a lot of jumping back and forth, both going forward in time as well as backward, to explain various events that were happening.  On top of that, there was also the ancient story of Aethon (the titular "Cloud Cuckoo Land" story) that was interwoven throughout all 5 threads that, in a sense, connected all 5 story arcs together to form a 6th storyline.  All of these threads going on simultaneously made it hard to keep track of everything but I think most difficult of all was the jarring experience of being plucked from one world and placed into another, then a couple pages later, it happens again, over and over.  It also didn't help that much of the story (in terms of theme) revolved around various aspects of science, technology, ecology, climate, geology, space exploration, etc., which there is nothing wrong with of course, it's just that "science-y" stuff has never interested me, so when there is an overload of it, even in a masterfully written work such as this one, I still found it extremely difficult to engage with the story.

Needless to say, I struggled with how to rate this one, as I did enjoy a large part of this, especially the last third or so when each story arc started to pick up speed and converge, making the connections between some of the threads more apparent.  With that said though, the ending left me with more questions than answers — to be more specific, I actually didn't "get" the ending (despite reading it twice), which doesn't happen often, but is absolutely frustrating when it does.  On a separate note, I did love the way the characters were written, all of them so well-developed with distinctive voices that made them seem so real to me — I think if the story had been structured differently, in a way where I would've been able to engage more with the characters, my reading experience would've been very different.

This was a very ambitious book and I definitely admire what Anthony Doerr tried to do here.  While I'm glad I read this and it was absolutely worth the time spent, I unfortunately didn't love this like I was hoping I would.  In the hands of a more literary reader, I'm sure the reaction would likely be different.  This one didn't blow me away like Doerr's previous work did, but it was still a worthwhile read that I definitely recommend, though with the caveat that, depending on your level of interest in the subject matter, will probably require a certain amount of patience as well as time to read.  

Received ARC from Scribner via NetGalley

Review: Faye, Faraway (by Helen Fisher)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

I don't read much science fiction, as the genre just doesn't interest me and I don't want to waste my time slogging through books that I know I most likely won't enjoy.  Having said that though, I AM open to occasionally trying out books of other genres with sci-fi themes worked into the story (as long as it's not hard-core sci-fi stuff) and there have been plenty of times where I actually had a good reading experience.  This is one of the reasons why I decided to pick up Helen Fisher's debut novel Faye, Faraway – with its premise as a "heartfelt" story about family, relationships, love, and time travel, I thought it would be one of the "exceptions" that I would be able to appreciate.  The summary describes this as an emotionally gripping, contemporary story about a woman named Faye who time travels back to the past to see her mother, who had died 30 years ago when Faye was just 8 years old.  Faye becomes friends with her mother (who doesn't know who she is of course) and the more time she spends with her, the more Faye doesn't want to let her go, even though she knows she must do so in order to return to her beloved husband and 2 daughters.  In the end, faced with an impossible scenario, Faye must choose between a second chance to make things right with her mother in the past or letting go and returning to her happy life with her family in the present.  Based on this premise, I went into this one expecting to be moved and perhaps to even shed a tear or two – but my reaction ended up being the opposite.  Instead of the expected emotional reaction, I ended up feeling super annoyed and frustrated, both with how the story played out, as well as with the characters. 

 

The story is narrated from Faye's first-person perspective, which I feel like is one of the things that didn't work too well in this instance, as it seemed that Faye spent way too much time explaining and justifying (and re-explaining and re-justifying) practically every action she takes, especially as it pertains to her time travel.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I found most of her arguments irrational and nonsensical.  I'm all for flawed characters in stories (as we are only humans after all and are bound to make mistakes and bad decisions), but I also need to see these characters grow in some way as the story progresses, rather than remain one-dimensional from beginning to end.  With Faye, I felt like she didn't change throughout the story – her behavior was childish and immature from the start and it continued to be up until the very end.  I also got annoyed by the fact that Faye would act overly unreasonable and stubborn throughout nearly the entire story – even when others tried to reason with her, she didn't seem to want to listen.  Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I just find it hard to believe that Faye's overwhelming desire to see her dead mother again (even she herself called it an "obsession") could be all-consuming to the point that she was willing to put the life and happiness that she spent over 30 years building,  (not to mention her family's happiness) in jeopardy.  The first time Faye encountered this dilemma (going back versus remaining in the present), I  could understand her struggle with it and even empathize with her, but after repeated conversations with people who would tell her over and over again the dangers of her actions and how it wasn't worth the risks, and even after she acknowledged they were right, but most importantly, she recognized that it was unfair to put her husband and daughters through the ordeal of potentially losing her if she got stuck in the past and couldn't return, she still insisted on going, as she missed her mom too much not to do so.   It was unfathomable to me how she could be so irrational and irresponsible, especially given how much she claimed that she couldn't bear to leave her family.

 

The other part of this whole thing that annoyed me was the fact that Faye felt like she couldn't tell her husband Eddie the truth (about her time traveling) because she knew he would try to stop her (especially since each time she traveled back in time, she would get physically injured) and she wouldn't be able to bear it – so she decides to lie to him, even though she knows full well her husband can see right through her (as she repeats this continuously throughout the story).  Then, when it gets to the point that her husband can't stand it anymore and thinks she's having an affair, she becomes indignant and belligerent, almost as though she is outraged that her husband would think such thoughts – again, her reaction made no sense given that she was the one evading his questions and telling him lies that even she herself didn't find plausible.  And then later, Faye berates the one friend who believed in her — when he tried to persuade her not to take the risk of going back to the past again due to the dangers and what it would do to her family, she insults him and claims that he's jealous and throws his disability (blindness) at him...she even tells herself she knows she's being unfair and he's only trying to help her, but she's so mad at her own helplessness that she lashes out at anyone who tries to "walk her down from the ledge."  Basically, my experience with this book was that each scene as the story progressed got more and more ridiculous, with Faye's behavior more and more reckless and hysterical – needless to say, the more I read, the more frustrated I became.  

 

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to characters in books are immature adults who behave unnecessarily defiantly – meaning they know that certain behaviors and/or actions are not constructive and, upon taking the time to weigh the risks, they understand that the outcome would be more harm than good, yet they proceed with the bad decision anyway, all the while telling themselves the equivalent of "I know I shouldn't but I'm going to do it anyway" (and then of course regret it later when things don't go as planned).  Characters like these frustrate me to no end, especially when their actions and behavior make them come across as stereotypical (which Faye certainly did in this story, at least to me).  Unfortunately, in this instance, it wasn't just the characters, as parts of the plot didn't make sense either, plus certain sections were bogged down by wordiness, with explanations and excessive descriptions of things that didn't seem to have anything to do with advancing the narrative. 

 

Overall, I struggled with this one and while I wouldn't say it was a complete lost cause (I did finish the book after all), I felt that much of the story was a stretch and there really didn't seem to be a point to it.  If I had to sum this one up, I would say that it's basically Faye on infinite loop trying to justify her time traveling with back-and-forth arguments that honestly didn't warrant 300 pages to get across.  I also didn't feel the emotional pull that others seemed to experience with this book, though this was likely due to my annoyance with the main character being so strong that it was hard to feel anything else for her or any of the other characters.  It could also be this was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me given the events of this past week and being inundated with examples of people showing poor judgment and making bad decisions.  As I'm an outlier on this one amongst the many 4 and 5 star reviews, I would definitely recommend checking out those reviews as well for a more balanced perspective.

 

Received ARC from Gallery Books via NetGalley.

 

Review: Light from Other Stars (by Erika Swyler)

My Rating: 4 stars

 

I don’t normally read science fiction and I’m usually not too keen on books about space travel either, so I surprised even myself when I decided to pick up Erika Swyler’s latest work Light from Other Stars.  It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but when I first read the summary, I was drawn to the story and was curious how it would turn out.  While I did end up liking the story as well as the characters a lot, I have to admit that all the science and space stuff went way over my head, to the point that I considered abandoning this more than once and moving on to something requiring less struggle.  I persevered however and I’m so glad I did, as the story was definitely worth it, especially the aspects of family, relationships, love, and humanity that were so deftly explored through the events that unfold around the main character Nedda Papas in both the past timeline (which took place in 1986) and the future, inside the space shuttle Chawla.  Speaking of which, the dual timeline format utilized in this story was unique and unlike many of the other books I’ve read before — two seemingly unrelated narratives that went off on very different tangents, but then converged in a way that surprised me.  

The writing was the other aspect of this novel that stood out — it was incredibly descriptive for sure, but more significantly, there was also a gentleness to it, with the author taking a delicate approach to all the characters while not hiding the flaws that made them human.  These were characters that were realistically drawn, yet at the same time, also didn’t feel real given the things that happen in the story.  Surreal – that’s the word that kept churning about in my mind throughout the entire time I was reading this.  Despite that, as well as the difficult (for me) subject matter, I still felt captivated by the story and the lyrical nature of the prose. 

If this review sounds vague, it’s deliberate, as this is one of those stories that needs to be experienced for yourself.  To be quite honest, I actually don’t think I understood a lot of what I read, since, like I said earlier, I get lost easily when it comes to stories that are heavy on scientific stuff and space travel, but I think what helped the most in this case was focusing on the other elements of the story that were more easily accessible and not thinking too much about the parts I was not able to wrap my head around.  This is my first time reading this author’s works and even though I struggled through this one (largely due to the subject matter), I am still interested in reading more of her works in the future.  This was definitely a different experience for me and while I probably still won’t choose to read a whole lot of science fiction because it’s just not my thing, I don’t mind occasionally reading outside of my comfort zone, especially since finishing a book like this one feels so rewarding!

Received ARC from Bloomsbury Publishing via NetGalley.