Dirt

by David Vann

The year is 1985, and twenty-two-year-old Galen lives with his emotionally dependent mother in a secluded old house surrounded by a walnut orchard in a suburb of Sacramento. He doesn't know who his father is, his abusive grandfather is dead, and his grandmother, losing her memory, has been shipped off to a nursing home. Galen and his mother survive on the family's trust fund—old money that his aunt, Helen, and seventeen-year-old cousin, Jennifer, are determined to get their hands on.

Galen, a New Age believer who considers himself an old soul, yearns for transformation: to free himself from the corporeal, to be as weightless as air, to walk on water. But he's powerless to stop the manic binges that overtake him, leading him to fixate on forbidden desires. A prisoner of his body, he is obsessed with thoughts of the boldly flirtatious Jennifer and dreams of shedding himself of the clinging mother whose fears and needs weigh him down.

When the family takes a trip to an old cabin in the Sierras, near South Lake Tahoe, tensions crescendo. Caught in a compromising position, Galen will discover the shocking truth of just how far he will go to attain the transcendence he craves.

An exhilarating portrayal of a legacy of violence and madness, Dirt is an entirely feverish read.

Genres: Fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, The United States Of America, Mental Illness, American

260 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Published in 19 languages, David Vann’s internationally-bestselling books have won 15 prizes, including best foreign novel in France and Spain and, most recently, the $50,000 St. Francis College Literary Prize 2013, and appeared on 70 Best Books of the Year lists in a dozen countries. He has written for the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Outside, Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, The Financial Times, Elle UK, Esquire UK, Esquire Russia, National Geographic Adventure, Writer’s Digest, McSweeney’s, and other magazines and newspapers. A former Guggenheim fellow, National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Wallace Stegner fellow, and John L’Heureux fellow, he is currently a Professor at the University of Warwick in England and Honorary Professor at the University of Franche-Comté in France.

Reviews

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please imagine "perfectly revolting" as a complement. That is this book--one of the bravest journeys down a very dark path of family dysfunction I've ever read, I mean, it's not even close. I don't think it can be topped. Terrifying, literary, lyrical, perfect.

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

DIRT, by David Vann, made me want to take a shower and an antidepressant. And I'm not a depressive. I needed to wash it off and purge it from my system, physically and mentally. For me, it was difficult to get through and to be done with.

It is that bad.

And you know what? I think it was intended to be so. In that respect it was a success.

Why do I think such terrible things about DIRT?

Because its title characterizes it. It is about people who are dirty, filthy, and squalid. Its story is soiled, like someone defecating, and at its end, it's ready to bury the fecal material and you hope it's digger will fall in, too. As a novel, it doesn't have a story arc in the conventional sense. It lacks a valid protagonist and gives voice throughout to a flatulent pro-antagonist, who spouts New Age philosophy and practices. All of its characters are corrupt, contemptible, and turbid, or incompetent.

Yet, as a work of fiction, it is well written and executed --- pun intended.

It's setting --- in a California nut orchard --- makes obvious that its characters are wacko. They certainly live up to it.

Galen is the twenty-two-year-old son of an insecure, manipulative mother, Susie Q. His mother is doing everything possible to prevent Galen from growing up and becoming independent, yet she herself relies on the resources of her institutionalized mother, who has dementia. Other characters include Galen's Aunt Helen, who apparently also is dependent on her mother and hates her sister. She is, also, a loser. And then there is Helen's seventeen-year-old daughter, Jennifer, a seemingly independent, promiscuous spitfire and opportunist. She is the only character, for me, whose soil may be somewhat fertile.

Normally, Galen would be the protagonist, but he's not up to the job in the novel, even though apparently he can get it up. He doesn't have any of the characteristics of a hero. He isn't endowed with courage or strength or celebrated for bold exploits. It's pretty much the opposite: he is a coward who is weak and timid. What twenty-two-year-old man with any moxie sticks around for the kind of squalor his mother dishes out? So instead Galen takes the role as the villain. He does a good job of it.

So a protagonist in DIRT is absent or nebulous --- maybe it's some "principle of philosophy" or "and idea about the contamination of generational family dysfunction and suicide." To tell you the truth, I don't know what it is. But I will say this, the novel makes me think. It has that much going for it.

Read it, but don't let it soil you.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Galen lay down in the hollow between two furrows, curled on his side. Breathing heavily, wet with sweat, the air cool now on his skin. His forehead in the dirt. The world only an illusion. This orchard, the long rows of trees, only a psychic space to hold the illusion of self and memory. His grandfather giving him rides on the old green tractor, the putting sound of the engine. His grandfather’s Panama hat, brown shirt, smell of wine on his breath, Riesling. The feel of the tractor tugging forward, the lurch as the front wheels passed over a furrow. All of that a training to feel the margins of things, the slipping, none of it real. The only problem was how to slip now beyond the edges of the dream. The dirt really felt like dirt.

For an outwardly “normal” person, I do love transgressive fiction (I’ve read plenty of Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk, Ottessa Moshfegh, etc.), and for the most part, details can’t get too perverse for me if they serve a narrative organically. I hadn’t read David Vann before and Dirt definitely fits the bill as transgressive: Disturbing family details, intergenerational abuse and mental illness, an isolated yet suffocating setting oppressed with heat and sweat and dirt. Told from the POV of a highly disturbed main character, I understood Galen’s motivations even if I was appalled by his actions, and I needed to take a brief break between each chapter to mentally brush the muck from my psyche before diving back in, anxious/dreading to learn what happened next. I admired Vann’s writing at both the sentence level and the overall picture and I would definitely pick up this author again (but totally understand that this sort of thing wouldn’t be for everyone.)

He ignored her, plunged the shovel deep into the earth, powered now by a force that was beyond muscle and bone. He was becoming the action itself. He was the dirt, and the shovel, and the movement, but more than that. He was a million miles removed. These hands were not his hands. This breath was not his breath. This mother was not his mother. This Galen was not Galen. He had to let it all go, let the movement happen without attachment.

As someone who has tended to solipsistic thinking myself, it was very intriguing to view the world from the POV of a character who takes this to the extreme: Galen is twenty-two, infantilised by his single mother (who says that the family trust they live off of can’t afford to send Galen to college, so he should just stay with her on the decrepit family farm for now, biding his time and joining her for afternoon tea and evenings chatting on a rug in front of the fireplace), and as he pursues a kind of self-education by reading authors like Herman Hesse and Carlos Castaneda, Galen has convinced himself that he is an old soul on his last incarnation and the people around him are inconsequential; distractions and illusions set as final obstacles on his path to nirvana. Between his isolation (the only people they interact with are extended family; all messed up), his lack of responsibilities (Galen runs naked in the fields by moonlight and then lays abed ’til noon), and perhaps a touch of sociopathy, Galen’s thinking is grandiose and immature and inconsistent; he aspires to asceticism, but succumbs to bursts of gluttony and carnal pleasure. Galen is such a unique character that, as repugnant as he would be to meet, seeing the world through his eyes — and learning the family history that created his present — makes everything that happens understandable and inevitable.

And the setting: A declining walnut farm in California’s Central Valley outside Sacramento, the decrepitude and the drought and the baking heat all inexorably bear down on the characters; this is literally (not literally) a pressure cooker. Early on, Vann writes: Galen could feel the earth leaning closer to the sun, could feel the land shouldering its way forward, pulling the hot sack of melt behind it. And that heat (and the attending sweat and stink and grime) is like a character itself, and I loved what Vann made of it.

The meaning of dirt was this, perhaps. The shovel removing time. The eons it took to form the dirt from rock. The water and air that had to work through millions or even billions of years to free it, and then its travel and settling and waiting, layer upon layer. His life now such a brief flash. Any attachment was absurdity. This was what the dirt taught. If he could remain focused on geologic time, human time could never reach him.

I can concede that Dirt might appeal more to my own narrow tastes than it would to the average reader, but appeal (if that’s even the right word) it did and I’m happy to have discovered a new author.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dirt
by
David Vann

My "in a nutshell" summary...

Galen, his mother, his cousin, his aunt and his forgetful grandmother lead a very dysfunctional life.  Galen is a total mess and everyone else is fantastically weird.  His cousin and aunt are just plain mean.

My thoughts after reading...

Yikes!  Gulp!  What a delicious dysfunctional mess within this amazing book.  Bizarre characters doing the most amazingly shocking things!  Galen is so pathetically weird.  The only thing besides Kahlil Gibran that he thinks about is sex...he does truly love his Hustler magazine plus he is obsessed with his teenaged cousin, Jennifer.  Ick...double ick...but oh so good to read!
This is a family filled with lies...they are mean and horrible to each other and ultimately they destruct.  Galen, especially, is marred, flawed, tortured by his mother, his family's secrets and by the father he never knows.  He is tortured by food, his family and the path that he has been chosen or that he could not avoid.

As I read this...I could not even see a way out...the end the author chose was pretty much foreshadowed.

This is a tough book to read and even more difficult to describe.  It pretty much needs to be experienced.  It didn't make me feel creepy...but I was just so glad not to be them.  

What I loved about this book...

It had an eerie unputdownable quality.  Once I was in it I had to stay until the end...no matter what that was.  The author's words were beautiful and the story brilliantly told. 

What strongly creeped me out about this book...

Galen's eating habits...OMG...crackers in lemonade?  Also all of his purging and eating his food with his hands...ick.
Cousin Jennifer and the aunt...Galen calls them the Mafia...we're hateful.

Final thoughts...

A book I am glad I read just because normally I would not choose a book like this.  It was truly an amazing story.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this one up in a Waterstones sale back in January, purely because I had heard good things about the author from friends here whose opinions I trust. It is quite an impressive piece of writing, but it is very dark and bleak, and I can't say I found it an enjoyable read.

We see the world through the eyes of Galen, a young man who lives a sheltered and limited life with his mother on the remote house she has inherited from her mother, who is now in a home suffering from dementia. Galen is obsessed with new age ideas and Buddhism, but finds his path to enlightenment disrupted by his own dysfunctional family, not just the mother but also his aunt, who wants a fairer share of the inheritance and her 17-year old daughter, who seduces him as part of a power game. In the second half of the book Vann takes Galen's troubled relationship with his mother to its logical extremes.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galen is a 22 year old who is still living with his emotionally dependant mother instead of going off to college or living life. He has no idea who his father is. His grandmother is losing her memory which is leaving his mother and him living on the family trust, old money which his aunt Helen wants. With a keen interest in Buddhism, Galen wishes to free himself from the corporeal but he is trapped by his dysfunctional family and his fleshly desires weigh him down.

Dirt is not an easy book to read, portraying a violently dysfunctional family, with no likeable characters. While Galen tries so hard to live a different lifestyle, it is clear that he has a lot more meditation to do. His constant desire for his boldly flirtatious 17 year old cousin, Jennifer, often leads him into trouble. Giving into his fleshly desires leads to the catalyst of this novel.

Because his grandmother is losing her memory, aunt Helen and her daughter work to try and get as much money out of her as possible. Without a care for anyone but themselves they are both physically and emotionally violent towards Galen and his mother. The grandmother will never remember and they can continue to manipulate her to write more checks for them.

Galen’s mother is so emotionally dependant that, despite having the money, she has constantly told her son they can’t afford to send him to college and she needs his help to run the walnut orchard. Yet there is a part of her that hates her son, even physically scared of him. So when she catches Galen having sex with Jennifer she found her way out. Telling him that he was going to report him to the police for statutory rape, that way she can live her life and pretend she doesn’t have a son.

This is the part that didn’t feel right to me; while the sex scenes between Galen and Jennifer were disturbing and is probably what everyone dislikes about this novel, it’s the conflicting message of his mother that really annoyed me. She came across as dependent of her son and scared to be alone, but when she has the chance to send him to prison she took it. I know he was wrong and he probably should pay for his actions, but to me it felt like she just turned against him and was so full of hate toward her son all of a sudden. Maybe it was seeing Galen with another woman that set her off, knowing that he was no longer hers and he was now a man but I never really felt that came across well enough. It was missing the motivations behind her actions, but this may also be the unreliable first person narrator.

This is dark and disturbing with senses of incest, so this might not be a book for everyone. I really like David Vann and I was physically disturbed by the dysfunctionality of this family. There is a real sense of hopelessness with each character, while the first person narrative didn’t give much opportunity to explore this, it did give an overall picture. Galen is a creepy sociopath and while he tries to better himself, he is always a victim of his own actions. I liked this book but I fully support why people don’t; you really have to be prepared to handle the violence and madness of Dirt.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/...

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Everything shrank in the glare. The roof of the shed maybe a foot or two lower, the boards thinner by half an inch. The fig tree more squat to the ground, not as tall as before. The furrows shallow. Galen didn’t know what that meant, that everything grew as the light faded and shrank again in the day”

Dirt is the second novel by American author, David Vann.
RECIPE FOR FAMILY DISINTEGRATION
1 young man, 22 years old (going on sixteen), the favoured grandchild, a virgin, trying unsuccessfully to transcend his baser instincts to exist on a higher plane (Galen)
1 single mother, product of a dysfunctional childhood, the favoured daughter, in control of the family trust fund and unwilling to let her son go (Suzie Q.)
1 grandmother, descending into dementia, relegated to a care facility
1 aunt, filled with anger and jealousy about her childhood and her violent father, resentful and determined to get her share of the trust for her daughter (Helen)
1 cousin, seventeen years old, promiscuous, flirtatious, very selfish (Jennifer)
1 trust fund, supposedly being reserved to pay for the care facility
1 secluded mountain cabin with very cramped accommodation.

Combine all the ingredients for a few days and allow to simmer. Wait for the inevitable interaction to occur, observe as things come to a head, then return all ingredients to their previous environments. To the young man and his mother, add one ill-considered threat and a shed with a rusty padlock.

Vann’s novels are never comfortable reads. In this one, he includes underage incestuous sex, described in some explicit and rather disturbing sex scenes, family secrets only hinted at, abusive relationships and mental illness. The result has all the mesmerising quality of a train wreck: readers may not want to see what happens, but neither can they look away.

His characters are people driven to extremes, and as such, not a bit likeable, although Galen does show some care for his grandma, who tells him: “Do you know what it’s like not to remember?.......It’s like being no one. You think you’re someone now, but it’s only because you can put your memories together. You put them together and you think that makes something. But take away the memories, or even scramble them out of order, and there’s nothing left”.

Vann’s descriptive prose is often truly evocative: “Everything was pale, washed-out. No depth. A two-dimensional world, a cardboard cutout. The hedge and the walnut trees in the same vertical plane though they were a hundred feet apart” and “Shadows everywhere, and the world could be seen in two ways, the light or the shadows. Shapes born and landed, or the dark spaces around them, hollows that fell back infinitely” and “Galen wanted to leave. He wanted to get away from this table. This table felt extremely dangerous. He understood now that what held his family together was violence. But he was locked here, glued in place, unable to move. He could only watch, and the only movement was his mother’s glass, and his grandmother’s glass and palm moving in its slow circles, and the wavering of the light” are examples.

Vann’s second novel is well-written and compelling: a dark and powerful read.

[Magdalith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jezu, ile emocji. Chyba ich nie chciałam...
Kilkoro czytelników tutaj zakwalifikowało "Brud" do horroru, co mnie rozbawiło, ale w sumie... tak. Rodzina to najgorszy horror.

3.5 Byłoby pełne 4, gdyby autor darował sobie całę tę metafizykę, medytacje i szamanizm bohatera. Ja się przy takich fragmentach wyłączam, bo to absolutnie nie moja bajka i do mnie nie dociera, więc możliwe że nie wszystko, co chciał autor powiedzieć, do mnie trafiło. Ale poza tym - dobre, mocne, przerażające.

[hopeforbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Śmiało mogę powiedzieć, że David Vann to mój ulubiony autor Pauzy. Uwielbiam jego trudną prozę i pogłębione portrety psychologiczne bohaterów. Jego książki są trudne, mocne, bardzo emocjonalne, pełne smutku i rozpaczy.

„Brud” (tł. Dobromiła Jankowska) to moje czwarte spotkanie z twórczością Davida Vanna. Mam mieszane odczucia względem tej książki i nie do końca wiem, co o niej myśleć, a minął już miesiąc od przeczytania.

„Brud” jest książką szaloną i zaskakującą. To mocna lektura, pełna przemocy i szału. Poznajemy w niej historię Galena i jego matki, od której chłopak jest w pewnym stopniu uzależniony. Nigdy nie poznał ojca, nie wyjechał na studia, jest bardzo uduchowiony, dużo medytuje, próbuje rozładować napięcie seksualne…

Mam wrażenie, że „Brud” to najbardziej szalona i pokręcona książka Vanna. Najbardziej nienormalna. (Choć przed lekturą byłam przekonana, że będzie jeszcze mocniejsza i dziwniejsza, chyba Vann na wiele mnie już przygotował xd). Zabrakło mi większego pogłębienia psychiki bohatera, tak abym jeszcze lepiej mogła zrozumieć jego odczucia i zachowania.

Aż ciężko uwierzyć, że książki Vanna są autobiograficzne. Zaskoczyło mnie również zdanie tłumaczki Dobromiły Jankowskiej na Pauzowym Klubie Czytelniczym (są dostępne do odsłuchania również stare spotkania, bardzo polecam!), że „Brud” jest dla Vanna formą żartu. I to faktycznie dużo mówi o jego poczuciu humoru xd

Jeśli jesteście gotowi na jazdę bez trzymanki, to „Brud” wam ją zapewni.

Mój ranking książek Davida Vanna:
1. „Komodo”
2. „Halibut na księżycu”
3. „Legenda o samobójstwie”
4. „Brud”

[Burak Kuscu · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Vann karanlık hikâyelerin, ortamların ve kitapların adamı bu artık belli oldu. Keçi Dağı'nda da konudan son derece irrite olarak, aile bağlarına şaşırarak okumuştum. Bu kitap da aynı. Hatta bir tık daha psikopat.

Bilmiyorum bunları yazacak psikolojiye nasıl giriyor ama hakkaten iyi beceriyor David Vann. Ben bir tık psikolojik sorunlar yaşadığını tahmin ediyorum. Kitapları karanlık edebiyatın çok güzel birer örnekleri.

Adam tam bir pislik çıktı Rıza Baba!

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty disappointing after Vann's amazing debut and second novel. This is, I figured, meant to be a sort of southern gothic, a . . . comedy, I guess, which, maybe that works for some folks, but it didn't work for me. I'm not really sure what or who we're supposed to root for here. There are five total characters, all but one of whom are ridiculously fucked up (the fifth is a seventy-year-old woman with no memory), and who scream at each other throughout the entire novel. Galen, our "protagonist," lusts over his slutty cousin, who eventually seduces him, and after his mother sees them fucking (sees him ejaculating all over her chest, actually (after which he puts it back in and has at it a second time)) she resolves (SPOILER) to send him to jail for rape so that she won't have to deal with him anymore. Except that he (SPOILER) locks her in a shed until she dies, and the novel ends with him burying her.

Galen's motivation is that he seeks transcendence, but he does this through stupid adolescent (well, he's twenty-two) stunts like lying in the sun half-naked with his eyes wide open on top of his mother's walnut-drying racks. Of course this leads not to transcendence but to a wicked sunburn, for which his bitchy aunt (and cousin) laugh at him, and his mom, of course, yells at him. It's just this sort of thing over and over, everyone yelling at each other, just a crazy fucked up family with no sense of hope, no nothing. Lots of sentence frags, like, "The trees sagging in the field." "The house cool in the early evening." The writing wasn't bad, though I thought the dialogue was a bit weak, and wasn't sure the lack of quotation marks was justified, but who cares. Clearly this was a stylistic move for Vann (the entire book, I mean), and it's one that I'm sure some fans will enjoy. I didn't. How are we supposed to take this twenty-two-year-old kid seriously when he constantly refers to "his boner"?

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Vann isn’t afraid to cross over to the dark side, as he’s amply displayed to readers in his two magnificent previous books: Legend of a Suicide and Caribou Island.

In Dirt, he pushes the envelope even further by introducing a nightmarish family: the main character, 22-year-old manic-prone Galen who strives for transcendence, Susie-Q, his passive-aggressive and selfish mother, his kittenish and sexually-tantalizing cousin Jennifer, his greedy aunt Helen, and his dementia-afflicted grandmother.

With family members like these, who needs enemies?

This new novel focuses squarely on the family level of abuse and particularly focuses on the unbalanced and decayed relationship between mother and son. Like his prior characters, tensions simmer and bubble and explode; however, this time, there is a degree of humor to mollify the building tensions. David Vann pokes fun at the transcendental practices and the rigid adherence to philosophical ideals that just cannot exist in the real world.

Of course, the language is beautifully and ruthlessly crafted; I would expect nothing less from this author. But by creating such extraordinarily damaged characters – and by satirizing those characters – there is a certain detachment that I inevitably experienced. Put another way, I found myself more entranced with the writing than the characters themselves, and as a character-based reader, something was missing for me.

It’s intriguing, for example, to watch the action constrict and expand – from transcendental liberation of the world’s constraints to the Sacramento walnut farm and ultimately, to a tiny locked-in shed and the voices within Galen’s head. The land, the stacks of walnut racks, the dirt floor play a part in this novel right along with the key characters. David Vann is, as always, a writer to follow.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's difficult to argue with the resume of this author--impressive would be an understatement. ABC review compares David Vann to Melville, Faulkner, and McCathy. Admittedly, I can see the rationale behind the claim. If you like past works by those authors, it'd be plausible to assume you'll equally enjoy Dirt. The prose are more grounded than Melville and meander like Hemingway (without the purple), but have a similar grit and the southern Gothic edge of McCathy. If you're looking for a punchy fast-paced horror, this is not it. However, if you want to sink into a deeper philosophical examination - choose this read. And, when I mention philosophical, I mean get ready to contemplate dirt (lots of dirt), physical entrapment, as well as mental - the mind and flesh. This is a 'thinking' story. Thematically, Dirt seems to contain endless possibilities. I've been mulling over the concept of the body as a prison verses the shed and also drawing in the setting of the walnut orchard. Then, there is the style and text. Why no quotes used for dialogue? This could make for an entire conversation on its own. Interesting, stylistic, and will get editors arguing for months. I love it! It really is a critical analysis gem and a novel that should be explored in depth, dissected, discussed and placed on the college American Literature must read list. Exciting? That's debatable. Relevant? Absolutely! If you need to stretch your brain and don't want to lug a chunky 700+ book around, this is the perfect modern compromise. I'd recommend it for reading groups and book clubs that like to examine contemporary styles based on classic structures with philosophical examination, layered themes, setting and complex prose.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książki o dysfunkcyjnych relacjach przyciągają mnie swoją grozą i realizmem. Czytając je, mam uczucia, które przypisywałabym voyeurom. Fascynują mnie związki międzyludzkie, ich przyczyny, rozwój, konsekwencje. A Brud to właśnie książka o tym wszystkim. Dwie siostry, których nie łączy ani bliskość ani przyjaźń, lecz tylko pieniądze tracącej pamięć matki. Jedna z nich, wraz z synem Galenem mieszka w ogromnym domu otoczonym sadem, druga z córką Jennifer nie ma dostępu do pieniędzy i ciągle próbuje je wyłudzić, by sfinansować studia dla córki. Gdy rodzina się spotyka podskórnie czuć napięcie. Pozory udaje się zachowywać tylko przez jakiś czas, do pierwszej wzmianki o pieniądzach. Tak samo dzieje się podczas rodzinnego wypadu do domku letniskowego.

Głównymi bohaterami są jednak Galen i jego matka. Chłopak nigdy nie poznał ojca, w zasadzie niczego się o tym ojcu nie dowiadujemy. Jedyny mężczyzna, który pojawia się w książce to nieżyjący już przemocowy dziadek. Matka nie pozwoliła synowi nigdy odciąć pępowiny, pod pretekstem braku pieniędzy nie dopuściła do wyjazdu na studia.

Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....

[Sarah Bookmarked · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 Sterne.

Es war ein Rausch. Drastischer kann sich ein junger Mann wohl kaum von seiner Mutter losreißen.

Charaktere, Sprache und Aufbau gefielen mir bei "Aquarium" einfach besser, aber die Geschichte wird mir dennoch länger in Erinnerung bleiben und ich möchte unbedingt weitere Bücher von David Vann lesen :)

[Chłopaki Czytają · Rating 4 out of 5]

Może nie tak doskonała jak Legenda o samobojstwie, ale i tak świetna. Zbyt krótka.

[Ashlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was painful to read. Based on the reviews, I was prepared for some messed up stuff but got through the book without needing to take a shower. Read Stephen King or The Hunger Games and call your therapist immediately - those are some sick and twisted books. I didn't think the writing was that excellent. Characters were flat. The constant rambling about dirt, moon, meditation, etc. from a flat character just confused me. None of Galen's comments concerning dirt, sun, etc. made any sense whatsoever. I started skipping over those moments halfway through the book. If you must read this book than borrow the book from someone or get a library card. Don't pay money for it.

[Michał Michalski · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5/5

Takie tam meh trochę. Ogromny zawód w porównaniu do "Legendy o samobójstwie" która mnie wytrzepała okrutnie. Ale to nie jest zła książka. Po prostu taka, której można bez poczucia straty nie przeczytać. Ma kilka mocnych momentów, momentów "wow" ale za mało, aby móc stwierdzić, że jest to coś więcej niż "it was ok"

[Anna Carina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐️
Das war Neu! So etwas seltsames, verstörendes hab ich noch nie gelesen.
Das Buch hat so einen gewaltigen Sog auf mich ausgeübt.
Dieses kranke, psychotische Familienkonstrukt ( Mutter, Sohn, Tante, Cousine, Großmutter). Alle Figuren völlig fertig. Diese Unterhaltungen, die so verletzend, aggressiv sind und ständig etwas in der Luft hängen lassen. Die ganze Atmosphäre aufgeladen- ich habe ständig den Atem angehalten, weil einem dauernd das Gefühl vermittelt wurde " gleich passiert was", " gleich kommt was unglaubliches ans Licht".
Dann diese weirden Szenen in denen Galen den transzendentalen Zustand erlangen will, die sich zum Ende hin immer wahnhafter und unmenschlich gestalten.
Diese scheiß Hitze, der Dreck!
David Vann ruft Bilder wach! Das ist zutiefst schockierend.
Für mich hatte das Buch ua. das zentrale Thema Erinnerung: Die Großmutter dement- sich ohne ihre Erinnerung in Auflösung begriffen fühlt und sagt: sei sei nichts. Galen, der in seinem Versuch sich von dieser Welt zu entkoppeln, die nächst höhere Stufe zu erlangen, Erinnerungen als Manipulationsversuch betrachtet, das wesentliche aus dem Blick zu verlieren oder die Erinnerung als etwas selbstverständliches aus einem vorherigen Leben betrachtet -seine Tante die schmerzhafte Erinnerungen an die Oberfläche holen will, die nicht gehört werden werden wollen und Galens Mutter die die schmerzhaften Erinnerungen leugnet und sich im Konstrukt der schönen Erinnerungen einnistet. So viele Arten mit Erinnerungen umzugehen und ihnen verschiedene Bedeutungsebenen zuzuordnen.
Dann gehts um die fehlende Vaterfigur, das manipulative Verhalten von Galens Mutter und den Loslösungsprozess von Galen zur Mutter. Und für Galen gilt das Motto " Und ewig lockt das Weib".
Das Buch hat so viele Metaebenen-Gehirnfeuerwerk!

[Book Princess (Anastasia) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга чимось нагадує фільм «Мати» з Дженніфер Лоуренс, якщо дивилися. Тут так само багато символіки. Якщо сприймати все дослівно, то це просто якась жестяка. Але якщо взяти мікроскоп і прискіпливо вглянутися до дна, можна побачити багато чого цікавого.

У всіх, мабуть, непрості стосунки з батьками, але мені здається, що найсильніший і найпроблемніший зв‘язок - це мама-син, який в романі ключовий. Той момент, коли син відчуває повну прив‘язаність до матері і ненавидить себе і її за це. Він хоче цього позбутися. Чи можливо це взагалі? І чи реальний цей зв‘язок чи це всього ілюзія - як і наше життя?

Дейвід Венн, як завжди, - супер майстерно розповів цю історію. Розумно, глибоко, символічно. Тільки кінець я не зрозуміла.

[Simay Yildiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bu yazının orijinali CAN'la Bir Sene'de yayınlandı.

"Pislik," İngilizcesi ve kitabın orijinal ismi Dirt gibi kullanımına göre farklı şeyleri tasvir etmek için kullanılabilen bir kelime. Kitabın anlatıcısı ve ana karakteri Galen da Samsara ile kafayı bozmuş, 20 küsür yaşında olmasına rağmen pek bir şey görüp geçirmemiş, evire çevire Nirvana'ya erişimine yardım edeceğini düşündüğü kitapları okuyan, ilk baştan da sevimsiz olsa da sonradan iyice "pislik" olan bir karakter. Kitabın en büyük pisliği oydu bence, ama annesi, teyzesi ve memelerini sallayarak istediğini elde etmeye alışmış olan 17 yaşındaki kuzeni de ondan aşağı kalır değil açıkçası.

Kitabı sizin için rezil etmeden, spoiler vermeden söyleyebileceklerim bu kadar aslında. Ancak şunu ekleyebilirim ki en son Ian McEwan'ın Yabancı Kucak isimli romanını okuduğumdan beri böylesine şaşırmamış, böylesine allak bullak olmamıştım. David Vann'ın okuduğum ilk kitabıydı ve bu yazarı okumak istememin nedeni de kendi hayat hikayesiydi aslında...

Vann, 1966 yılında Alaska'da doğmuş. Alaska deli merak ettiğim bir yer olduğundan daha kafadan bir puan aldı benden zaten. Bir de başından tarif etmeye uygun sıfat bulamadığım olaylar geçmiş... Vann'ın üvey annesinin annesi, kocası onu en az on yıldır sevmediğini ve aldattığını itiraf ettikten sonra önce adamı, sonra kendisini vuruyor. Vann'ın babası ise telefonda üvey annesine "seni seviyorum ama sensiz yaşayamam" dedikten sonra tetiği çekip kendini öldürüyor... Üvet anneannesinin intihar notları Vann'daymış. Kadın önce yalnızca kendini öldürecekmiş ama sonra kocasını da öldürmeye karar vermiş. Sonra da babası gitsin kendisini öldürsün... Olaylara bakar mısınız?!

Çocukluğundaki bu olayların travmasını 20 yıl boyunca atlatmaya çalışan Vann, çareyi yazmakta, gerçekle kurguyu bir araya getirerek okurların aklını almakta bulmuş. İyi ki de bulmuş. Pislik, asabımı inanılmaz derecede bozdu. Hatta bir ara isyan edip salonun öbür ucuna fırlattım kitabı ama dayanamayıp gittim aldım aynen geri. Okurken şaşırmak, ağzı açık kalmak isteyenler, hayatın kendisinin ve kurgunun yalnızca çiçekler, böcekler, mutlu sonlar olmadığını hatırlamak için ideal bir kitap. Şu an Caribou Adası'nı da çok merak ediyorum; hem korkuyorum, hem okumak istiyorum.

[Jakub Szestowicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

really 👍 💩

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Dinner tonight was tuna casserole. A jar of mayonnaise, several large cans of tuna, a large bag of potato chips, and squares of American cheese on top. You’ve really gone all out, Galen said. Maybe it’s time to throw away the white trash cookbook.

Are we white trash? I never gone to college, none of us have jobs, and we’re here out in the woods. Next thing you know, I’ll be sleeping with my cousin, Galen said and his aunt punched him in the shoulder hard. She punched him again, looking him right in the eyes, pure hatred, and punched him again.
And then the strangest thing happened.

Everyone looked away. No one said or did anything in response to the fact that his aunt had just punched him. His grandmother was humming to herself, and his mother was eating. And what Galen realized was that this was the first time he’s been punched, but everyone else in this room must’ve been punched many times before. Or in his mother‘s case, maybe she’d only been a witness to it, but a witness many times. Well, I guess this is who we are he said.

This table felt extremely dangerous. He understood now that what held his family together was violence. But he was locked here, the only movement was his mother’s glass moving and it’s slow circles and the wavering of the light.“

Dirt is an apt title, as it feels dirty, dusty, sweaty, exhausting. Galen is a man-child who feels stuck in his current existence and longs to end the circular repetition of his suffering.

Galen reads Siddhartha and wants to reach enlightenment, which leads him to starving himself to near death. His coming-of-age experiences are exciting and sexy as hell, but with his own cousin, and cause him to abandon his own philosophies. He creates an electromagnetic field for healing wounds, that involves him running a gold hook through his penis. Galen is a hot mess.

The first half is amazing solid 5-star novel, but the second half grows repetitive and then putters out. I was mostly disappointed with the strong buildup to the very anticlimactic ending, and the lack of resolution to most of the characters. His mother’s ending is lame, the cousin just disappears from the story, and we never get clarification on his mental state or future legal issues.

At one point, I considered that the family members existed only in his head and each represented a different form of suffering. I had come up with so many wild “What if” scenarios that I was let down by the bland final chapter. Galen just digs. That’s it. But after all, I was promised dirt.

[Jeść treść · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dziwne. Niepokojące, duszne, klaustrofobiczne...trochę pretensjonalne. Niewątpliwie są w "Brudzie" emocje i, jeśli ktoś ich szuka, może poczuć lekkie drżenie (bo wstrząs to chyba zbyt mocne słowo). Jest sporo mocnych bezkompromisowych scen, ale nie brakuje również takich przeciągniętych do granic możliwości i zbudowanych na repetytywności i pustosłowiu. Przypuszczam, że ten zabieg miał wprowadzać klimat obłędu i psychozy, ale w pewnym momencie stało się już tylko przewidywalnym schematem (winna, przyznaję się! omijałam nju ejdżowe akapity).
To lepka, odpychająca powieść o absolutnej dysfunkcji i rodzinie, której spoiwem jest przemoc wyrażona również milczeniem.

Ale niestety - "Legenda o samobójstwie" lepsza.

[Raül De Tena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deberíamos haberlo visto venir cuando David Vann irrumpió en la escena literaria internacional con “Sukkwan Island” (un libro en el que el autor exorcizaba los fantasmas del truculento suicidio de su padre mientras ambos estaban atrapados en una isla a la que habían ido a pasar el invierno para poner a prueba sus propias dotes de superviviencia) y cuando decidió alargar el chicle del éxito gracias a “Caribou Island” (donde volvía a chapotear en truculencia a la hora de abordar la fase final de degeneración de una pareja de elevada edad que decide exiliarse en una isla, de nuevo con funestas consecuencias)… Sí. Deberíamos haberlo visto venir: Vann corre el peligro de convertirse en un nuevo Chuck Palahniuk, un escritor capaz de propinar una sonora colleja a sus lectores recién llegados pero incapaz de conseguir repetir, alargar e incluso aletargar ese mismo efecto por diferentes vías. El autor de “El Club de la Lucha” es el paradigma absoluto de esa tipología de escritores que han paladeado las mieles del éxito con una fórmula y después, por miedo o por incapacidad, han sido incapaces de explorar nuevos horizontes menos estancos.

En el caso de Vann, es innegable el impacto inicial que produce el nivel de confesionalidad de sus dos islas literarias. Pero ya empieza a ser hora de que nos preguntemos: una vez agotada la truculencia de su propio árbol genealógico (puesto que sus anteriores libros tenían un fuerte componente autobiográfico), ¿sabrá el autor hacer florecer su prosa y sus historias más allá de la truculencia? ¿Sabrá evitar la truculencia gratuita? Dicen que, en “Tierra” (publicado en nuestro país por Mondadori), Vann ajusta cuentas con la sombra de una madre que le ha marcado mucho, demasiado, en su vida adulta. El libro narra la historia de Galen, un adolescente que vive con su madre hippy en una casa gigantesca propiedad de su abuela, convenientemente encerrada en un hogar de ancianos. A la ecuación hay que sumar la hermana de la madre (profundamente obsesionada con que su hermana está estafando al resto de la familia al quedarse con la herencia de la madre) y su hija, una bomba de relojería adolescente que traerá a Galen de cabeza (o, más bien, de entrepierna).

De manera similar a los anteriores libros de Vann, “Tierra” se divide en dos mitades plenamente identificables por el punto de inflexión que las separa: la violencia infame que, una vez superada, implica un no retorno absoluto. En este caso, la primera parte se centra en los diferentes tipos de tensión (emocional, sexual) entre Galen, su madre, su tía y su prima mientras todos pasan unos días junto a la abuela. Cualquiera podría pensar que, en este caso, el punto de no retorno es la violenta discusión en la que las dos hermanas parecen partir peras para siempre… Pero la verdadera agresión llegará más tarde, cuando la madre de Galen amenace con denunciarle y encerrarle en prisión y, en su proceso de huída despavorida, se encierre en un galpón del que su propio hijo impedirá salir. A partir de aquí, la fragilidad mental del protagonista acabará por exponerse completamente ante el lector cuando este tome una cruel decisión que él percibe como una vindicación necesaria, una venganza ineludible, pero que quien lee concibe como una monstruosidad absoluta.

Es, sin embargo, una monstruosidad que Vann ya ha preconizado desde el principio de “Tierra“: puede que Galen rehuya el hippisimo de su madre, pero lo cierto es que sus ínfulas de profeta espiritual mesiánico no quedan tan lejos del patrón materno del que pretende huir continuamente. En el momento de empaquetar sus cosas de cara al viaje junto a su abuela, los libros que van a parar a su maleta son precisamente ”Siddharta“, “El Profeta” y “Juan Salvador Gaviota“… acompañados de algunos ejemplares de la revista pornográfica Hustler. No es una elección casual: los dos extremos (el espiritual y el sexual) son los que estiran del alma de Galen en dos direcciones opuestas y que acaban desgarrándole, abandonándole a una deriva moral (y mental) en la que se creerá un iluminado destinado a salvar a la humanidad devolviéndole a la tierra que él mismo venera: ”Galen no sabía qué significaba todo aquello, pero sí que la tierra era su maestro. A cada momento y de forma inesperada, la tierra le mostraba algo. Mejor que ir a la universidad“.

David Vann se muestra realmente sublime a la hora de pintar el retrato de un adolescente francamente antipático y profundamente patético: el lector puede dudar si el autor está haciendo apología de este personaje o si, por el contrario, se posiciona al lado de la ironía… Pero es que la verdadera maestría en “Tierra” es el equilibrio ponderado con el que Vann plasma a su personaje: ni a su lado ni en contra suyo, pero tampoco por encima de su cabeza. Le mira a los ojos y luego nos mira a nosotros. Y, aun así, pese a este acierto, el libro vuelve a incurrir en la truculencia innecesaria y en una dilatación del tiempo narrativo que roza el aburrimiento injustificado… Dos lacras que hacen dudar si Vann ha ingresado en el Club Palahniuk pero que, a la vez, se ven lo suficientemente paliadas por los aciertos de “Tierra” como para obligarnos a pensar que es pronto para extender una membresía de por vida. Esperemos a su próximo libro.

[trestitia ⵊⵊⵊ deamorski · Rating 5 out of 5]

bugün arazi gezisi vardı, millet harita doldururken ben bunu bitirdim.

OĞLUUM, AŞŞIRI GÜZELDİİİ.

neyse. kitabı yeraltı edebiyatından sayabilirsiniz. sağlam bir yeraltı edebiyatı okumayalı bayağı oldu ve iyi geldi. ruhum genişledi. refaha, feraha erdim.

kitap arka kapakta da dediği gibi aileyi sorguluyor. sorgularken de ağzınıza sıçıyor. burada pislik galen olarak görülecektir senin tarafından (çünkü kitap onun etrafında dönüyor ve onu anlatıyor süreçte(yani Galen'nin bir pisliğe dönüşmesini tabi ki görüyorum, ama zaten insanlar pislikten ibaret değil mi, ki kitapta tüm aile üyeleri pislik zaten)), ama burada pislik aile; toplumun o kutsal çekirdeği!

BU KİTAP HERKESİN OKUYABİLECEĞİ BİR KİTAP DEĞİL sevgili goody. niye için bkz: yeraltı edebiyatı diyorum, Jennifer'ın Galen'la olan seks sahneleri dark eroticlere taş çatlatır, Galen'ın annesini öldürdüğü sahneler mob romancelara taç çıkarttırır. bu iki örnek devamı kitapta.

Galen, ah tanrım. tanrım tanrım. kayıp çocuk.
kitap şöyle:
1. Galen'in Samsara'dan -kısacası dünya işlerinden ki buna yemek, seks vb. de dahil, işte bu dünyalık meseleleri ve kendi bedeninden sıyrılıp enkarne olabilmek.
2. Galen, evinin, barakanın ve ceviz ağacının bulunduğu ve komşularının seslerini duyamayacak kadar uzak ve büyük bir arazide, arada da da yayla evindeki kulübeye giden ve izole bir hayat yaşayan bir genç.
3. Galen, sadece kısıtlı parayla alabildiği bir kaç kitap, müzik ve dergiyle kendine ritüeller oluşturarak arayış içerisine girmiş bir bakir. düşün, jennifer onu o kadar aşağılıyor ki sözlü ve davranışla (önce kendini boşalttırıp galen'ın erekte kalması gibi) galen'ın gördüğü tek kız o olunca ve onunla bir de birde yatınca ona aşık olan (zanneden) bir zavallı.
4. Galen'nin babası yok, yani bir rol modeli, dedesini de ananesini döverken hatırlıyor.
5. jennifer bir sürtük ve helen (galenin teyzesi) ise bir adi. annesine bakmadığı ve kadının alzheimerı olduğu için her şeyi söyleyen ve parasını almaya çalışan iki orospu.
6. galenin annesi bir muamma bence. bi ara kitabın başında "acaba galen babasına benzediği için galen'ı kocası yerine mi koyucak lan" diye ensest fikirler çerçevesinde düşündüm. hatta kitabın sonuna kadar düşündüm. hala da düşünüyorum.

şimdi bunları bir araya getirin ve kek yapın, yiyemezsiniz, kek olur ama yenilebilir olmaz, yaşarsınız ama bu bir yaşam değildir. izole bir yaşamdasınız, rol modeliniz yok ve okuduğunuz iki kitaptan öğrendiklerinizi deneyimlemeye çalışıyorsunuz. bir şeyler yapmak istiyorsunuz ama izin verilmiyor çünkü anneniz bencil. ne öğrenirsen onu uygularsınız, kitap boyunca galen çelişiyor zaten, ama galen'ın aslında tek istediği farkedilip değer görmek ve taktir edilmek, bunu kitapta kesinlikle görüyorsunuz (bkz: 181 son ve 182 ilk paragraf). ritüelleri de aslında tamamen bir vakit öldürme, tüm bu monotonluk ve yabanilik içinden uzaklaşmak. istediği limonata ve parmak sandviçler değil! üniversite de değil.
ama elinin altındaki kitaplar buddha öğretileriydi ve inanın buddha öğretileri hafife alınacak gibi değil, tasavvuf gibi.


Galen'ın annesi alın ve babamı koyun, ben de Galen olayım, işte bunun yumuşatılarak sadeleştirilmiş hikayesi benim. tabi ki kendimi buldum!

kitapta bir diğer vurgu da bence ilkellik. yani buddha öğretisinden değil bu, sürekli toprak ve demircilikle ilgili tasvirler vardı ve olağanüstüydü. kitaptaki her tasvir ve aforizma ya da protest laflar olağanüstüydü!

neolitiğe hiç geçmeyecektik, toprağı ilk kim işlediyse lanet olsun!
xoxo
iko

[Paul Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of stories that feature messed up characters in extreme situations. There is not one single normal well-adjusted person in this book, which is hugely entertaining. Until the last third when we are only in the main character’s head, a character who adheres to some kind of new age, philosophical way of living. So that final third lost it one whole star, unfortunately. It was way less interesting and fun than the first half of the book. But I would still read other stories by this author.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s 1985 in sunny California, in the walnut orchards near Sacramento. Galen, who is twenty-two, has the emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old (if that). He aspires to be a mystic, with his starvation diet, meditation, asceticism, and focus on ridding himself of attachments. He lives with his mother, who has plenty of emotional issues; the walnut doesn’t fall too far from the tree. His grandmother has mid-stage dementia and lives in a nursing home. He is sexually obsessed with his seventeen-year-old cousin, Jennifer. There’s no dad in the picture. From an outward appearance, they look like backward hicks.

DIRT is the story of Galen’s quest for transcendence, and the consummately insane journey to get there. The family (including grandma) takes their annual trip to an old cabin in the Sierras, where conflicts over sex, money, rejection, and betrayal consummate in grave consequences. Dirt is Galen’s symbol of purification and release from suffering, or samsara, and the vital ingredient to his enlightenment. The road to hell is unpaved with inverse intentions and twisted desires.

Vann is a first-class prose writer and a unique storyteller. His book, LEGEND OF A SUICIDE: STORIES is a masterpiece, and made the list of my favorite books of all time. Also, I am a lettuce-loving, TM-practicing yogi who doesn’t take myself too seriously, so I was primed to love this irreverent, sardonic story of New Age extremism. Without a doubt, it disturbed and fascinated me in equal measure. However, I couldn’t fully connect with the characters. There’s no need for me to like them—I tend to connect and even sympathize with unlikable characters. But they were so lethally noxious and relentlessly callous that I lost interest in their fate; it became a little toilsome. This may be my own shortcoming, though. Vann is just about the edgiest contemporary storyteller I have ever read. Therefore, I await his next release with eager anticipation.

[Wojciech Szot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Czytałem “Brud” Davida Vanna z wielkim zaciekawieniem, bo każda opowieść o toksycznej rodzinie warta jest uwagi, a tutaj mamy wielki dramat rozgrywający się między matką a synem, który kończy się psychodelicznym uwięzieniem rodzicielki w szopie i wielostronicowym opisem szalejącego wokół tejże szopy syna.

Zatem jest babka i jej dwie córki. Jedna z synem, Galenem, druga z córką - Jennifer. Tworzą dysfunkcyjną rodzinę, która żyje z pieniędzy babki, a te kontroluje matka Galena. Pozostali mężczyźni w tej powieści zniknęli - dziadek umarł, ojciec Galena chyba nawet nie poznał syna. Gdy skłócona rodzina wybiera się na wspólne wakacje, dochodzi do dramatycznych spięć i napięć. Vann z rozkoszą opisuje seksualne inicjacje Galena z Jennifer, a następnie przechodzi do rozróby między matką i synem, która to awantura kończy się właśnie w rozbudowanej do przesady scenie z szopą.

Niestety Vann przesadził z nagromadzeniem filozoficznych rozterek Galena i narratora, którzy niewiele zostawiają dla czytelnika, a co chwilę mu podpowiadają co ma myśleć. Gdy w trakcie kolacji Galen wstaje od stołu, narrator usłużnie podsuwa nam myśl: “Chciał uciec od tego stołu. (...) Rozumiał już, że jego rodzinę łączy w całość przemoc” i tak dalej. Do tego dochodzą metafizyczne odjazdy w rodzaju drzewa, które emanują blaskiem, a bohater próbuje poznać pień drzewa i “zamknąć ten obraz w przestrzeni”. Vannowska metafizyka jest efektowna, ale przy tym kiczowata i mało odkrywcza.

Książka wypełniona przemocą i ludzkim złem, ale pełna podejrzanych bon-motów (“Ludzie są prawdziwi”) i naiwnych filozofii. Rozumiem, że autor chciał oddać psychodelię młodego człowieka, który nienawidzi matki, chce się od niej uwolnić, a jednocześnie widzi, że nie jest w stanie tego dokonać, ale całą przyjemność lektury zabierały mi rozbudowane do granic przyzwoitości ozdobniki i z lekka coelhowskie mądrości co chwila padające z ust bohaterów i narratora. Spore rozczarowanie.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 to 3.5 stars.

A few other reviewers had described this as ugly and/or sordid, but I tend to think of myself as a pretty toughened reader so I didn't pay much attention. I assumed that perhaps Dirt would be a little unsettling, but not too much out of the ordinary. I may have overestimated my fortitude or underestimated the repulsiveness of David Vann's imagination. The book was very well-written and strangely compelling, but in the end I do not know if I really enjoyed it or if I would recommend it. Let me get back to you on that.