Review: Paradise Rot: A Novel, by Jenny Hval, 2018

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paradise Rot: A Novel, by Jenny Hval, 2018

Right off the bat, if bodily fluids, particularly urine, gross you out, this book isn't for you. The author is clearly obsessed with urine and intricately details activities involved in the act of pissing.

The story is a sexual self-discovery of a young Norwegian college girl, Jo, who is studying biology abroad in Britain. There she meets a girl, Carral, slightly older than her, who she becomes obsessed with. She shares an apartment in a converted brewery with Carral and starts a peculiar three-way affair with a studly male neighbor named Pym.

The writing is surreal and exquisitely detailed with the grotesque banalities of human existence: mold, decay, and urine. The prose evokes striking images, from rotting slimy apples to a man exposing himself on a train. 

I rate this book 4.75 out of 5 stars.

#MagicalRealism #LGBTliterature #LGBT

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Review: Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders, 2017

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders, 2017

2017 Booker Prize winner Lincoln in the Bardo is a story about Abraham Lincoln and his 11-year-old son Willie Lincoln. While in the Bardo, a place between life and death, the consciousness of the deceased can still apprehend words and prayers spoken on its behalf, which can help it to navigate through its confusion and move on. Willie, who succumbed to typhoid fever, is visited by the grief-stricken Abraham Lincoln at the crypt. The supernatural characters attempt to maneuver Lincoln in a way to convince Willie to move on from the Bardo.

The book follows an experimental structure and form in how it is told. The author intersperses facts and almost-facts cited from books and news accounts in a type of pastiche dialog that tells the story. It was hard to follow at first, but once I got used to the writing style, I enjoyed the story very much. Well, at least up to halfway through the book. The second half of the book I found hard to follow. There were many ghostly characters introduced, and I often wondered who was "talking" and questioned how what was being discussed fit into the narrative as a whole.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Experimental literature, Magical Realism, Biographical Fiction

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5.

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