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Reproduction
A hilarious, surprising and poignant love story about the way families are invented, told with the savvy of a Zadie Smith and with an inventiveness all Ian Williams' own, Reproduction bangs lives together in a polyglot suburb of Toronto.
Felicia and Edgar meet as their mothers are dying. Felicia, a teen from an island nation, and Edgar, the lazy heir of a wealthy German family, come together only because their mothers share a hospital room. When Felicia's mother dies and Edgar's "Mutter" does not, Felicia drops out of high school and takes a job as Mutter's caregiver. While Felicia and Edgar don't quite understand each other, and Felicia recognizes that Edgar is selfish, arrogant, and often unkind, they form a bond built on grief (and proximity) that results in the birth of a son Felicia calls Armistice. Or Army, for short.
Some years later, Felicia and Army (now 14) are living in the basement of a home owned by Oliver, a divorced man of Portuguese descent who has two kids—the teenaged Heather and the odd little Hendrix. Along with Felicia and Army, they form an unconventional family, except that Army wants to sleep with Heather, and Oliver wants to kill Army. Then Army's fascination with his absent father—and his absent father's money—begins to grow as odd gifts from Edgar begin to show up. And Felicia feels Edgar's unwelcome shadow looming over them. A brutal assault, a mortal disease, a death, and a birth reshuffle this group of people again to form another version of the family.
Reproduction is a profoundly insightful exploration of the bizarre ways people become bonded that insists that family isn't a matter of blood.
Felicia and Edgar meet as their mothers are dying. Felicia, a teen from an island nation, and Edgar, the lazy heir of a wealthy German family, come together only because their mothers share a hospital room. When Felicia's mother dies and Edgar's "Mutter" does not, Felicia drops out of high school and takes a job as Mutter's caregiver. While Felicia and Edgar don't quite understand each other, and Felicia recognizes that Edgar is selfish, arrogant, and often unkind, they form a bond built on grief (and proximity) that results in the birth of a son Felicia calls Armistice. Or Army, for short.
Some years later, Felicia and Army (now 14) are living in the basement of a home owned by Oliver, a divorced man of Portuguese descent who has two kids—the teenaged Heather and the odd little Hendrix. Along with Felicia and Army, they form an unconventional family, except that Army wants to sleep with Heather, and Oliver wants to kill Army. Then Army's fascination with his absent father—and his absent father's money—begins to grow as odd gifts from Edgar begin to show up. And Felicia feels Edgar's unwelcome shadow looming over them. A brutal assault, a mortal disease, a death, and a birth reshuffle this group of people again to form another version of the family.
Reproduction is a profoundly insightful exploration of the bizarre ways people become bonded that insists that family isn't a matter of blood.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published January 22, 2019
191 people are currently reading
4254 people want to read
About the author
Ian Williams
8 books119 followersIan Williams is the author of Personals, shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award; Not Anyone’s Anything, winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best first collection of short fiction in Canada; and You Know Who You Are, a finalist for the ReLit Prize for poetry. He was named as one of ten Canadian writers to watch by CBC.
Williams completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Toronto and works as an English professor.
In 2014-2015, Williams was the Canadian Writer-in-Residence for the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program at the University of Calgary. He has also held residencies or fellowships at the Leighton Artists’ Colony at the Banff Centre, Vermont Studio Center, Cave Canem, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Palazzo Rinaldi in Italy. He was a scholar at the National Humanities Center Summer Institute for Literary Study. His writing has appeared in several North American journals and anthologies.
He is currently working on his first novel.
Williams completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Toronto and works as an English professor.
In 2014-2015, Williams was the Canadian Writer-in-Residence for the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program at the University of Calgary. He has also held residencies or fellowships at the Leighton Artists’ Colony at the Banff Centre, Vermont Studio Center, Cave Canem, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and Palazzo Rinaldi in Italy. He was a scholar at the National Humanities Center Summer Institute for Literary Study. His writing has appeared in several North American journals and anthologies.
He is currently working on his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews
October 1, 2019
This Giller shortlisted book opens with 23 sections, alternating between 19 year old Felicia Shaw from an undisclosed Caribbean island and Edgar Gross, an affluent, middle-aged German, heir to some vague family interest. They meet in a shared hospital room, tending to their respective mothers who are both near death.
The 23 sections represent the number of chromosome pairs found in DNA. From there the novel begins to reproduce. Part 2 jumps ahead a few years and we alternate between 4 voices times 4 to make 16 sections. Part 3 is comprised of 16x16 or 256(!) sections. The book can't keep up with this exponential growth and finally develops cancer. Super- and sub-script words insinuate themselves across the page, telling a familiar yet disjointed story. Explaining it seems altogether too much but I enjoyed the constraints Williams placed on the structure.
Williams has a poet's ear for language. He nails the privileged white guy apologist in the crosshairs of the #MeToo movement; the fast talking, big dreaming, bi-racial tween hustler working from the garage of his landlord's garage in Brampton; to the out-of-step, Portuguese, suburban, divorced dad that can't quite reconcile his long past glories with his present day indignities. Multiculturally, unapologetically Canadian.
Both slyly funny and casually devastating, it pokes at the idea of nature vs nurture, asking if we can ever hope to escape our own histories, and exploring both the family you're born into and the ones you make.
TL;DR - just watch the video review: https://youtu.be/7xQv7F8tiMQ
The 23 sections represent the number of chromosome pairs found in DNA. From there the novel begins to reproduce. Part 2 jumps ahead a few years and we alternate between 4 voices times 4 to make 16 sections. Part 3 is comprised of 16x16 or 256(!) sections. The book can't keep up with this exponential growth and finally develops cancer. Super- and sub-script words insinuate themselves across the page, telling a familiar yet disjointed story. Explaining it seems altogether too much but I enjoyed the constraints Williams placed on the structure.
Williams has a poet's ear for language. He nails the privileged white guy apologist in the crosshairs of the #MeToo movement; the fast talking, big dreaming, bi-racial tween hustler working from the garage of his landlord's garage in Brampton; to the out-of-step, Portuguese, suburban, divorced dad that can't quite reconcile his long past glories with his present day indignities. Multiculturally, unapologetically Canadian.
Both slyly funny and casually devastating, it pokes at the idea of nature vs nurture, asking if we can ever hope to escape our own histories, and exploring both the family you're born into and the ones you make.
TL;DR - just watch the video review: https://youtu.be/7xQv7F8tiMQ
February 3, 2019
This wasn't the kind of book for me at this time, unfortunately. Williams experiments with many different writing styles- there are diary entries (that solidify the strong dislike for Edgar), charts, poems, sections that could be described as rapping, and other disjointed styles of storytelling. I tried to give it breathing space, but a strong dislike of Edgar and his treatment of Felicia -- a love story you can't call this? There was also too great a shift of time to introducing Army. There was perhaps too much weirdness, if that's the right word to use, for me inside.
Like Jennifer (Booktrovert) said to me - I truly am suffering from "The Signature of All Things Effect". I need that knock me out of my chair kind of book again!
Like Jennifer (Booktrovert) said to me - I truly am suffering from "The Signature of All Things Effect". I need that knock me out of my chair kind of book again!
November 24, 2019
At first, Army was 99 percent sure, then 98 percent sure, and now he was down to 96 percent sure that he couldn't be the father. It was biologically impossible from what he understood about reproduction. He would have had to had had, have had to had had, sex.
Ian Williams is an award-winning poet and that fact is totally apparent in his first novel, Reproduction: word choices are precise and often surprising; he plays (repeatedly) with structure; and I constantly had the feeling that something was going over my head. This may have won the 2019 Giller Prize, but I found most of it dull and more concerned with form than content; this one is for the juries. Spoiler-full from here.
If two people travelling in a straight line meet in a hospital room, is that a vertex or an intersection?
In the beginning...we meet Felicia (a nineteen-year-old student, recently arrived from an unnamed Caribbean island, now living with her mother in Brampton, Ontario) and Edgar (a fabulously wealthy but feckless 35-to-45 year old German businessman who has been banished to the Toronto branch of the family business where he can't screw up anything too badly), and the two of them meet when their mothers are put in the same hospital room. Felicia's mother soon dies of her heart condition, Edgar's Mutter grows strong enough to be discharged, and between Felicia's youth and grief and Edgar's laissez-faire attitude towards his mother's care, he convinces the young woman to quit school and move into his enormous house to act as his mother's caretaker. Mutual consolation turns to something like friendship, turns to something like romance, and a maybe-it-was-consensual sexual relationship begins:
Felicia wanted him to press down on her and crush her face into stone so someone would come in and rescue her. Yet, contradictorily, she kept trying not to get hurt, kicking his zipper away from her ankle, where it was grating, trying to breathe under the weight of his body, he did not remove her underwear, or allow her to, she tried, but he slid it aside. And if not her mother, then the boy with the cow eyelashes from the small unrecognized island would intervene, the same half-muscle half-bone feeling of a turkey neck, in her hand, when she, because he had to be helped if she wanted him to kill her, but in her hand, now inside her, he only felt like a low hum, like a fluorescent light buzzing, despite the earnest thrusting of a snowman's carrot, the smell of his armpit and smoke and alcohol, his face buried in the pillow beside her face, was that his lip on her shoulder, was he dribbling, despite what she felt to be an earnest effort by a man ascending the mysterious and simple heights of male pleasure, already oblivious to her name and face, to whom she had died, despite this man so attentive to the pleasure her body offered him that he wouldn't care if a cat or his mother walked in, despite all that, she could only feel a low hum, the vibration of an automobile in park. Intervene.
What was decidedly not consensual was the pregnancy that ensues: In the beginning, Edgar had made it clear that he had had a vasectomy because he never wants children, and when Felicia becomes pregnant he turns it around on her (“I said I wanted a vasectomy, you should have been protecting against this”), and when she refuses to have an abortion, Felicia is kicked out to begin a long, hard life as a single mother to a biracial son.
Fast-forward fourteen years (to the 90's) and Felicia and Army (short for Armistice; Felicia had her Canadian History textbook alongside her bed in the maternity ward) move into the basement apartment of Oliver: a bitterly divorced has-been-wanna-be rockstar who has custody of his two children for the summer – Hendrix (a quirky seven-year-old) and Heather (a hot sixteen-year-old who drives Army crazy). We see that Felicia has worked hard to care for her son (with no support or contact from the millionaire baby-daddy) and has instilled in him good values, a work ethic, and an obsessive curiosity about his father. Heather flirts and makes out with Army but her heart thumps for the long-haired wanna-be rockstar who works the stockroom at the nearby Zellers. It's a summer of playfully exploring her burgeoning sexuality for Heather until the stockboy and his buddies roofie and gangrape her:
The second time, if there was a second time and not a third or fourth, it was like Skinnyboy was angry with her. Only it wasn't Skinnyboy, it was Skinnierboy, was it, then it was Skinnyboy again, then laughter, and smoke and the muttering, all like the beginning of a headache between her legs. She didn't feel anyone dragging her jeans down to her knees. She woke up on a Ferris wheel. But even that she couldn't be sure of, how their faces kept changing, every time they swished hair out of their eyes, and she was awake, but not. How many pills – what pills – had she had? It was just Ecstasy, no? She wanted to be awake when he opened her centrefold. She wanted to set her face in a certain way. Why was he so skinny? The top of her head was counting against the door handle. How many sips was this? She felt like she was upside down. She decided that she was asleep. It was dark. There was no way.
Definitely not consensual, but Heather does blame herself for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when she discovers she is pregnant, Heather's American mother sends her daughter back to live in Brampton with her Dad; to have the baby secretly. When Riot (short for Chariot; Army comes up with the rad name) is born and Heather refuses to give him away as per her mother's plan, Oliver and Felicia decide to officially adopt the baby – even though they are not and never become a couple – and let Heather get back to being a kid.
The narrative jumps twenty or so years to the present and Riot is an artsy moviemaker, studying film at a local college. When he uploads videos of himself self-pleasuring to the cloud and sends links to a girl he likes, it turns into a big tribunal, with the girl's father accusing Riot of non-consensual “digital” penetration. Meanwhile, it comes to Felicia's attention that Edgar is dying of cancer, and although she doesn't want to invite him into their circle, Army insists on taking care of the father he never knew (not least of all because he wants to reinforce himself as the heir apparent to Edgar's fortune), and Riot is inspired to make a “slow” (days-long) film of the man's death.
That is really a bare-bones plot synopsis, but more important would be the shifting formats. The first section is told in rotating POVs between Felicia and Edgar – denoted by an XX or an XY at the beginning of each of the twenty-three sections to indicate which one is narrating; the twenty-three sections meant to mimic the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes on a DNA strand. This is followed by the first of three “Sex Talk” interludes, which read like free verse poetry and each concern boys growing up and learning about their paternity. Part two rotates between four characters, four times, to add up to sixteen sections (marked off by an ever-increasing grid of bullet-points). The third section grows exponentially to 256 subsections, each of which is numbered, titled (often with pop cultural references), and marked with the name of the character whose POV the following few sentences concern. I must admit, the reading was growing tiresome by this point, but the most eye-straining technique was yet to come. As though the format itself is metastasizing, the final section has its sentences invaded by superscript and subscript, usually not referencing anything else in the narrative (and yet I couldn't force myself to ignore them, as much as they annoyed me, in case something important was revealed in them). I can't duplicate the technique, so I took a representative picture (apologies for the quality):
So that's the what and the how, but I have a little more to say about the who in this book. We have a cohort of unlikeable, privileged white men – Edgar is revealed to be an escort-frequenting, incapable of affection, deadbeat millionaire who jet-sets for work even if he doesn't need to; Oliver is a stripclub-(and later, online porn-)client, prone to violence, who has inherited several rental properties and doesn't work a job over the course of the book; Skinnyboy is a rapist who joins the army to avoid Heather's pregnancy (and leaves the story at that point); and Riot is a spoiled man-child who is uncommitted to his education and who believes in his right to making non-commercial art films and allowing others to support him. Felicia is an interesting character – tough-loving and hard-working – but maybe too good to be true. Heather is peripheral – we learn that she successfully hid the childbirth, received a pricey education in Women's Studies, and now has an underpaid administrative job in NYC – and her character isn't really explored. I thought that Army was the most interesting character – I liked his money-making hustle as a fourteen-year-old and ached for him as he was still looking for his first entrepreneurial break as a thirty-six-year-old living in his mother's (rented) basement. And does that just mean that Williams had the best handle on writing a young Black male? There is much about relationships in Reproduction – men and women are bonded together along that double-helix strand of DNA, whether along romantic or familial ties – and the sexual relationships all seem to revolve around the shifting definition of consent (is Army some kind of pervert for not telling Riot's friend, Faye, that he's fifteen years older than her [the same approximate age difference between his own parents] before initiating a sexual relationship with her?) I will add that I thought the book ended on the most appropriate of notes.
After all that, I will reiterate: Reproduction seems more committed to its genre-pushing (and ultimately tiresome) format than any exploration of the humans that people it. In a way I admired this, but I did not enjoy it.
December 31, 2019
Reproduction is much more an exploration of form than narrative. The structure of the book itself reproduces: Part 1 in 23 sections to represent 23 chromosomes; Part 2 told by 4 people in 4 parts = 16; Part 3: 16x16 = 256; Part 4 = the story develops cancer and parts of the previous sections bleed into the text, the past a cancer on the present.
I have to say that I found the format of this book compelling, even if it does inhibit the book from having an overarching connecting narrative. I particularly liked part 3 and how the sections all spoke to each other in unexpected ways. I do think Part 4 is incredibly clever but does not lend itself to a pleasant reading experience. But I think that's the point.
The characters in this story are basically all awful. Felicia feels stuck in this cycle of misery of her own creation; Edgar is rich white man who lacks any emotional maturity; Army remains 14 forever; Oliver could not be more insufferable. At first I found this tiring, but the more I read, the more I came to see these characters as believable, knowable, and therefore (in some ways) redeemed.
This is not a book for everyone, but it is indeed a triumph of form.
I have to say that I found the format of this book compelling, even if it does inhibit the book from having an overarching connecting narrative. I particularly liked part 3 and how the sections all spoke to each other in unexpected ways. I do think Part 4 is incredibly clever but does not lend itself to a pleasant reading experience. But I think that's the point.
The characters in this story are basically all awful. Felicia feels stuck in this cycle of misery of her own creation; Edgar is rich white man who lacks any emotional maturity; Army remains 14 forever; Oliver could not be more insufferable. At first I found this tiring, but the more I read, the more I came to see these characters as believable, knowable, and therefore (in some ways) redeemed.
This is not a book for everyone, but it is indeed a triumph of form.
November 7, 2020
Winner of the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize in Canada, Ian Williams' Reproduction is certainly formally ambitious (see other reviews for details) and, had the author been eligible, would have been an excellent fit for this year's Goldsmiths Prize in the UK.
However for me the story: innovation ratio was too skewed to the former, at 446 pages long, and the story, particularly the latter sections where the focus moved away from Felicia and Edgar to a wider cast (e.g. the girlfriend of the son of the daughter of Felicia's landlord) didn't really hold my interest and wasn't at all resonant (I note several reviews commenting it is a very Canadian story).
That said, this section did resonate:
Tell Heather to hold it in until tomorrow.
She can't just hold it in, Oliver said.
Felicia left as they were bickering.
just until midnight. We're almost there.
The baby's not a fart.
150. TOMORROW, TOMORROW Army
Because tomorrow would be March 14, exactly six months away from Army's birthday, and Army believed that the fourteenth was the Valentine's Day, the sweet centre, of every month.
I was also born just after midnight on 14th March, with my mother always claiming she delayed the birth till then, albeit in my case not because the data was auspicious (although it is Einstein's birthday) but because she didn't want my twin brother and I to be born on different day.
4.5 stars for ambition and innovation, but only 3.5 for me personally as a read.
However for me the story: innovation ratio was too skewed to the former, at 446 pages long, and the story, particularly the latter sections where the focus moved away from Felicia and Edgar to a wider cast (e.g. the girlfriend of the son of the daughter of Felicia's landlord) didn't really hold my interest and wasn't at all resonant (I note several reviews commenting it is a very Canadian story).
That said, this section did resonate:
Tell Heather to hold it in until tomorrow.
She can't just hold it in, Oliver said.
Felicia left as they were bickering.
just until midnight. We're almost there.
The baby's not a fart.
150. TOMORROW, TOMORROW Army
Because tomorrow would be March 14, exactly six months away from Army's birthday, and Army believed that the fourteenth was the Valentine's Day, the sweet centre, of every month.
I was also born just after midnight on 14th March, with my mother always claiming she delayed the birth till then, albeit in my case not because the data was auspicious (although it is Einstein's birthday) but because she didn't want my twin brother and I to be born on different day.
4.5 stars for ambition and innovation, but only 3.5 for me personally as a read.
July 10, 2020
As a reader I come across different categories of books : mediocre reads, books that are ok but I know I won’t read them again, really well written books that are rich thematically and the totally unique read, which appear in my life just once or twice a year.
Reproduction is a Totally Unique Read.
How to describe this book? well it’s about two people : Felicia, who comes from an unnamed island in the Caribbean and Edgar, who is German. These two characters are in the same hospital room as their mothers are dying. I cannot say that the two hit it off and embark on a relationship. It’s more Edgar forces himself into Felicia’s life.
The first part of Reproduction is clearly about a toxic relationship. The more we find out about Edgar, the more we discover that he is a liar, tells half-truths and takes advantage of her in every way possible. Eventually they have a child and Edgar abandons her.
The next part of the book follows Felicia as a single mother trying to take care of her 15 year old child, Army. At this stage of their lives, they share a house with divorced Oliver and his two children Heather and Hendrix. Oliver is also not the best of people, he fat shames and is violent. To complicate matters Army has a crush on Heather, who has a crush with an emo kid, and trying to cope with the fact that he is a mixed race child. At this point Edgar, who is undergoing sexual abuse allegation trials re-enters their life. Heather eventually is pregnant through a drug/rape incident.
The book jumps again and this time Heather’s child Riot is in trouble for using the World Wide Web for unethical practices. Army, now in his mid 30’s is constantly trying to get into college and Edgar is dying of cancer. The book ends with Riot and Army facing a lawyer but for different reasons.
I like it when a book reflects the signs of the times and Reproduction does that as it’s themes are all topical : race, white privilege, abuse,metoo. In my summary I tried to touch upon these points but they go much deeper than that. These topics are in the news and yet Williams gives them a fresh spin. Also the characters are not one dimensional i.e – here’s the bad guy, here’s the good guy. They are all flawed.
Although Reproduction is thematically rich, the book’s style has to be mentioned ; it’s unconventional. The book itself is structured like a cell. As one noticed each section reproduces itself, hence the reason why each section concludes with a birth, however when Edgar has cancer the text starts to reproduce itself too quickly and the reader gets textual interjections in the middle of the story. Besides that there’s a lot of playful moments. One sections consist of over 250 paragraphs, the first section is based on the xx, xy chromosome structure – 23 chapters for each gender. Some sentences are in different shapes. Not to mention the different cadences of Felicia and Army, including song lyrics and slang. Truly original.
Reproduction is a truly one of a kind novel. Not only does it focus on today’s social issues but also adds an element of fun. Like Mendel (who gets a mention) pea experiments, this book is an enlightening puzzle.
Reproduction is a Totally Unique Read.
How to describe this book? well it’s about two people : Felicia, who comes from an unnamed island in the Caribbean and Edgar, who is German. These two characters are in the same hospital room as their mothers are dying. I cannot say that the two hit it off and embark on a relationship. It’s more Edgar forces himself into Felicia’s life.
The first part of Reproduction is clearly about a toxic relationship. The more we find out about Edgar, the more we discover that he is a liar, tells half-truths and takes advantage of her in every way possible. Eventually they have a child and Edgar abandons her.
The next part of the book follows Felicia as a single mother trying to take care of her 15 year old child, Army. At this stage of their lives, they share a house with divorced Oliver and his two children Heather and Hendrix. Oliver is also not the best of people, he fat shames and is violent. To complicate matters Army has a crush on Heather, who has a crush with an emo kid, and trying to cope with the fact that he is a mixed race child. At this point Edgar, who is undergoing sexual abuse allegation trials re-enters their life. Heather eventually is pregnant through a drug/rape incident.
The book jumps again and this time Heather’s child Riot is in trouble for using the World Wide Web for unethical practices. Army, now in his mid 30’s is constantly trying to get into college and Edgar is dying of cancer. The book ends with Riot and Army facing a lawyer but for different reasons.
I like it when a book reflects the signs of the times and Reproduction does that as it’s themes are all topical : race, white privilege, abuse,metoo. In my summary I tried to touch upon these points but they go much deeper than that. These topics are in the news and yet Williams gives them a fresh spin. Also the characters are not one dimensional i.e – here’s the bad guy, here’s the good guy. They are all flawed.
Although Reproduction is thematically rich, the book’s style has to be mentioned ; it’s unconventional. The book itself is structured like a cell. As one noticed each section reproduces itself, hence the reason why each section concludes with a birth, however when Edgar has cancer the text starts to reproduce itself too quickly and the reader gets textual interjections in the middle of the story. Besides that there’s a lot of playful moments. One sections consist of over 250 paragraphs, the first section is based on the xx, xy chromosome structure – 23 chapters for each gender. Some sentences are in different shapes. Not to mention the different cadences of Felicia and Army, including song lyrics and slang. Truly original.
Reproduction is a truly one of a kind novel. Not only does it focus on today’s social issues but also adds an element of fun. Like Mendel (who gets a mention) pea experiments, this book is an enlightening puzzle.
June 30, 2020
Energetic, creative, funny, sad and postmodern in a (mostly) reader-friendly way, Reproduction feels like a breath of fresh air in Canadian literature. This is maybe unfair; I’ve been out of the country for a decade and don’t keep up much, but it was the only book on the Giller longlist that appealed and I was pleased when it went on to win.
It’s a book about being a family that isn’t really a family, about being a woman, being an immigrant, being a teenager, being black, being mixed race, being Canadian, and all of their opposites. Felicia and Edgar – woman and man, black and white, young and middle-aged, poor and rich – meet in a hospital room with their mothers dying in the background. Over the course of the novel they create and disband a very unusual family structure.
It’s called Reproduction and it’s about reproduction, and the form insists on reproducing itself too, with each section breaking off into more and more fragments and points of view, adding more characters, diluting the gene pool. The first section is the DNA sequence. By the last section, the book has cancer and is going off the rails with subscripts from an earlier story interrupting the present day. The structure isn’t 100% successful, but it’s mostly successful.
The best thing here is the humour. The book has a proper funny bone, especially when dealing with the exploits of Felicia and Edgar’s fast-talking hustler son Army, a character who made me immediately feel fonder towards all the similar characters I grew up with in a different Canadian suburb. That the humour is used to elucidate such big themes as racial fetishization, sexual abuse and depression is a real achievement, and I thought it was a pity when things started getting a bit heavy-handed in the last section.
If I have a complaint, it’s the length. At 450 pages, this is 200 pages longer than my ideal novel length, and though mid-sections of dialogue snap by, the last section is dense as well as heavy.
Still, I really enjoyed this playful, wise-cracking, very Canadian piece of writing.
It’s a book about being a family that isn’t really a family, about being a woman, being an immigrant, being a teenager, being black, being mixed race, being Canadian, and all of their opposites. Felicia and Edgar – woman and man, black and white, young and middle-aged, poor and rich – meet in a hospital room with their mothers dying in the background. Over the course of the novel they create and disband a very unusual family structure.
It’s called Reproduction and it’s about reproduction, and the form insists on reproducing itself too, with each section breaking off into more and more fragments and points of view, adding more characters, diluting the gene pool. The first section is the DNA sequence. By the last section, the book has cancer and is going off the rails with subscripts from an earlier story interrupting the present day. The structure isn’t 100% successful, but it’s mostly successful.
The best thing here is the humour. The book has a proper funny bone, especially when dealing with the exploits of Felicia and Edgar’s fast-talking hustler son Army, a character who made me immediately feel fonder towards all the similar characters I grew up with in a different Canadian suburb. That the humour is used to elucidate such big themes as racial fetishization, sexual abuse and depression is a real achievement, and I thought it was a pity when things started getting a bit heavy-handed in the last section.
If I have a complaint, it’s the length. At 450 pages, this is 200 pages longer than my ideal novel length, and though mid-sections of dialogue snap by, the last section is dense as well as heavy.
Still, I really enjoyed this playful, wise-cracking, very Canadian piece of writing.
September 27, 2019
Such a disappointing book. There was an interesting narrative style, but a little way in even that failed to entertain. The downfall for me was in the characters themselves. I admired Felicia initially. Then I felt sorry for her. Then I became annoyed. I wanted better for her, and it was frustrating to want that when you realize she doesn’t want it for her own life. So as a reader you realize you’re settling in for a slow slide to a predictable ending. Egdar? I haven’t felt such a visceral dislike for a character in a book in a long time. He was fundamentally unworthy of any ounce of effort expended trying to reach him, reach out to him or fight being repelled by him. The characterization of the relationships in the rest of book between Army, Heather, Oliver and Hendrix felt wholly transactional. Pointless. Depressing. Disconnected. Dysfunctional. They only achieved authenticity for me in the aftermath of Heather’s situation, and Felicia’s ability to recognize the time she’d wasted not being able to break Egdar’s hold over her.
I feel empty. I’m done now.
I feel empty. I’m done now.
October 30, 2019
This was not the book for me, although I'm glad it's out there. I have some thoughts.
The Style and Structure: this is the kind of book that I think makes some people wrinkle their nose about post-modern literature. Williams is experimental, using short viewpoint chapters, series of conversations between unidentified characters, and longer sections with superscript and subscript additions to the narration to delineate subtext and memory. I thought this was well-executed, and thought the superscript and subscript insertions did what Williams intended; it pulled me out of the narrative the way memory and emotional baggage can distract us from the here and now of conversation and action. See this this review for the very cool mathematics of the structure.
The Plot: Not a lot happens in this book. It's about how families are made and undone, with babies, found family and cohabitation. It's mostly an exploration of how people come and fit together, especially when some people don't have neat puzzle piece edges, but instead have lots of spiky and difficult parts that need to be joined up.
The Characters: Unfortunately, I did not like these people. Not any of them. I certainly sympathized with some of them, especially the two main women characters. But I thought Williams's characterization crossed the line into contemptability a little bit too often, especially with the men. I'm all for flawed characters, and ordinary people characters, but the people who populated the pages of this book just seemed kinda awful, and I didn't really want to hear anymore of their self-justifications or petty cruelties and disregard. Maybe I would have liked it if they were flat-out evil. Instead the characters are mostly just selfish and kinda gross. If they were evil, I would have read on in horrified fascination, but instead, I felt like I was just reading with my nose slightly wrinkled.
I think if I had liked the characters a little bit more, I would have enjoyed this book. But the style and structure was a lot, and to persevere through challenging prose for a set of people that I found faintly repulsive didn't make for a rewarding reading experience. I found myself judging the characters a lot, and most of the men seemed like losers and creeps. If Williams wanted me to see that even losers and creeps have and need families and feel pain and grief, I guess he convinced me, but I didn't like the process much. I do like challenging prose, and I'm glad Williams was so inventive, but reading this book felt like pedaling up a steep hill with the promise of a great view, but just seeing fog when you get to the top.
I'm having a hard time thinking about whether or not I would recommend this. I picked it up because of the Giller shortlist, and I'd probably only recommend it to people doing the same, or people who are curious about how authors can use style and structure to bring mood and tone to a story.
The Style and Structure: this is the kind of book that I think makes some people wrinkle their nose about post-modern literature. Williams is experimental, using short viewpoint chapters, series of conversations between unidentified characters, and longer sections with superscript and subscript additions to the narration to delineate subtext and memory. I thought this was well-executed, and thought the superscript and subscript insertions did what Williams intended; it pulled me out of the narrative the way memory and emotional baggage can distract us from the here and now of conversation and action. See this this review for the very cool mathematics of the structure.
The Plot: Not a lot happens in this book. It's about how families are made and undone, with babies, found family and cohabitation. It's mostly an exploration of how people come and fit together, especially when some people don't have neat puzzle piece edges, but instead have lots of spiky and difficult parts that need to be joined up.
The Characters: Unfortunately, I did not like these people. Not any of them. I certainly sympathized with some of them, especially the two main women characters. But I thought Williams's characterization crossed the line into contemptability a little bit too often, especially with the men. I'm all for flawed characters, and ordinary people characters, but the people who populated the pages of this book just seemed kinda awful, and I didn't really want to hear anymore of their self-justifications or petty cruelties and disregard. Maybe I would have liked it if they were flat-out evil. Instead the characters are mostly just selfish and kinda gross. If they were evil, I would have read on in horrified fascination, but instead, I felt like I was just reading with my nose slightly wrinkled.
I think if I had liked the characters a little bit more, I would have enjoyed this book. But the style and structure was a lot, and to persevere through challenging prose for a set of people that I found faintly repulsive didn't make for a rewarding reading experience. I found myself judging the characters a lot, and most of the men seemed like losers and creeps. If Williams wanted me to see that even losers and creeps have and need families and feel pain and grief, I guess he convinced me, but I didn't like the process much. I do like challenging prose, and I'm glad Williams was so inventive, but reading this book felt like pedaling up a steep hill with the promise of a great view, but just seeing fog when you get to the top.
I'm having a hard time thinking about whether or not I would recommend this. I picked it up because of the Giller shortlist, and I'd probably only recommend it to people doing the same, or people who are curious about how authors can use style and structure to bring mood and tone to a story.
November 17, 2019
This one, I think, would have gotten five stars from me just because of its sheer ambitiousness. I'm not a fan of experimental fiction, and frankly would probably not have requested this from NetGalley if I knew that's what this was. But, surprisingly, it worked for me on just about every level: superb character development, an intriguing premise, mind-blowingly courageous, and filled with humor, insight and multiple levels of emotional resonance. It also didn't hurt that there were subtle treatments of every social issue I am most attentive to: race, class, gender, immigration ... and of course, love. The complicated imperfection of the characters, and the realistic portrayal of their personal and interpersonal journeys over a span of about two decades kept me fully engaged, even through those parts where the author's stylistic flourishes had me scratching my head.
Some people will absolutely hate this book, especially if their preference is straightforward, just-the-facts-ma'am narrative. This book doesn't give you that. Like, at all. It jumps between and over time, uses only the most necessary and sparing punctuation, and doesn't shy away from dialect. It is a challenging book in that way, but still, an amazing accomplishment that reminds me just how limitless the bounds of storytelling can be if you're a writer who is as unafraid as Ian Williams clearly is.
Some people will absolutely hate this book, especially if their preference is straightforward, just-the-facts-ma'am narrative. This book doesn't give you that. Like, at all. It jumps between and over time, uses only the most necessary and sparing punctuation, and doesn't shy away from dialect. It is a challenging book in that way, but still, an amazing accomplishment that reminds me just how limitless the bounds of storytelling can be if you're a writer who is as unafraid as Ian Williams clearly is.
June 18, 2020
As demonstrated by my rating, I strongly disliked this book. The only reason I finished it was because it was a book club book, and I only had it on a one week loan from the library, so I was motivated to read quickly.
I hate artsy fartsy weird writing styles. You can write beautiful prose and still use basic punctuation. I was honestly shocked when I saw the author was a professor, yet apparently he doesn’t know how to use quotation marks, the most basic punctuation in any novel with dialogue? It was supremely annoying and grated on my nerves. Then I saw he was a poet. But I don’t think you have to write poorly to be a poet.
I also do not like books where I dislike all of the characters. I kept waiting for one of them to stand out - I thought Army was my guy at first - but they all turned out to be pretty terrible people with little or nothing to redeem them. If the point of this book was what one character said, that some people shouldn’t reproduce, then I completely agree. None of those characters should pass anything on to the next generation. They were all selfish and weird.
Also where was the lighthearted hilarity the back cover promised? I saw none. It was overall disturbing with flashes of darkness as well.
The best part of the book were the annoying time warp pages that I got to flip through quickly because there wasn’t much writing on them.
I hate artsy fartsy weird writing styles. You can write beautiful prose and still use basic punctuation. I was honestly shocked when I saw the author was a professor, yet apparently he doesn’t know how to use quotation marks, the most basic punctuation in any novel with dialogue? It was supremely annoying and grated on my nerves. Then I saw he was a poet. But I don’t think you have to write poorly to be a poet.
I also do not like books where I dislike all of the characters. I kept waiting for one of them to stand out - I thought Army was my guy at first - but they all turned out to be pretty terrible people with little or nothing to redeem them. If the point of this book was what one character said, that some people shouldn’t reproduce, then I completely agree. None of those characters should pass anything on to the next generation. They were all selfish and weird.
Also where was the lighthearted hilarity the back cover promised? I saw none. It was overall disturbing with flashes of darkness as well.
The best part of the book were the annoying time warp pages that I got to flip through quickly because there wasn’t much writing on them.
October 15, 2019
A story of family, an unconventional family, maybe, but that is what makes it interesting. My library stuck a "people" sticker on it and I agree, it is totally about the characters and their relationships. They are not all likeable characters, one is completely unlikeable, but it's part of the story and real life has unlikeable characters. The author tries out a lot of interesting/unique writing styles and I was mostly on board, but it did feel like he was playing a bit much. I had fun though and will lookup his future work.
October 9, 2019
I'm honestly rather speechless after reading this book and I'm not entirely sure how or where to start unpacking my thoughts.
This book is a merciless deconstruction of a reader's expectations; whether we are talking from a structural standpoint or from that of the characters' story arcs. I'm not entirely sure one can simply read this book once and understand everything that is at stake.
Perhaps the most genius element of the book is hinted at in the title. Reproduction, both in the biological and mechanical sense, is teased out in varying manners throughout. With each moment/item/human that is reproduced, we see elements from its progenitors, while becoming its own unique phenomena within the narrative. This is underscored by Williams' unique use of varied forms, which often inset within each other to hint at the legacy the past carries into the present.
All of this inter-textual play on its own would make for a compelling book and yet, Williams also provides us with a cast of characters who reflect the deep complexities of the human experience, within a story that is difficult not to invest in.
I'm truly in awe of this book.
This book is a merciless deconstruction of a reader's expectations; whether we are talking from a structural standpoint or from that of the characters' story arcs. I'm not entirely sure one can simply read this book once and understand everything that is at stake.
Perhaps the most genius element of the book is hinted at in the title. Reproduction, both in the biological and mechanical sense, is teased out in varying manners throughout. With each moment/item/human that is reproduced, we see elements from its progenitors, while becoming its own unique phenomena within the narrative. This is underscored by Williams' unique use of varied forms, which often inset within each other to hint at the legacy the past carries into the present.
All of this inter-textual play on its own would make for a compelling book and yet, Williams also provides us with a cast of characters who reflect the deep complexities of the human experience, within a story that is difficult not to invest in.
I'm truly in awe of this book.
May 2, 2019
Reproduction is outstanding! As in, I will be out standing around telling everyone to read this book. I work in a library. There's a lot of people to tell.
I LOVE the way Williams writes. I laughed out loud so many times and found myself often surprised. I love the way he constructs this narrative. Stories are told and retold and revised and sort of told and most importantly, not told.
I love these flawed and wounded characters and the truths they embody. I love Army's dry wit and Felicia's stoic approach to everything. Everything.
I did not love Edgar; I really enjoyed not enjoying Edgar, though, I must say.
Mostly, I loved the story and the consistency of the characters. Williams doesn't concern himself with redemption or other tropes that commonly weigh down "family narratives." Every characters is allowed to be. Just to be.
Did I mention I love this book?! No, not clear enough? Reproduction is objectively excellent and subjectively wonderful. I LOVE this book.
I LOVE the way Williams writes. I laughed out loud so many times and found myself often surprised. I love the way he constructs this narrative. Stories are told and retold and revised and sort of told and most importantly, not told.
I love these flawed and wounded characters and the truths they embody. I love Army's dry wit and Felicia's stoic approach to everything. Everything.
I did not love Edgar; I really enjoyed not enjoying Edgar, though, I must say.
Mostly, I loved the story and the consistency of the characters. Williams doesn't concern himself with redemption or other tropes that commonly weigh down "family narratives." Every characters is allowed to be. Just to be.
Did I mention I love this book?! No, not clear enough? Reproduction is objectively excellent and subjectively wonderful. I LOVE this book.
Read
February 13, 2020-dnf, I can’t even rate it.. // yo honestly, this book was painful to read. It was so boring and the storyline was interesting to begin with because the meetcute was wild but it devolved into tediousness that was testing my patience. The characters were ridiculous, Edgar being the most ridiculous. I got about a third of the way twice and had to give it up.
October 18, 2019
I hate to give this such a low star rating but I really didn't like it. I read 6 chapters, skipped ahead and read bits and pieces all the way to the end. Nothing caught my attention and made me think I should read it all.
So, this is one of those stories I don't finish.
So, this is one of those stories I don't finish.
June 14, 2020
3.5 to 4 stars
With an unorthodox structure, a tale of family, through changing perspectives, unravels a story about the many meanings of reproduction.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
-Not everyone should reproduce- Edgar
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
Nothing about how this book is put together is orthodox, there is injection of lyrics from popular songs, past conversations interspersed between current ones, and the talks that explore our MCs reproductory arrivals. Ian Williams uses play on words, slang, and Caribbean-infused language and behaviour to enliven his narrative.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
At first, it seems that the reading will be difficult, as the structure changes for every section, but with each wily sentence consumed, the rhythm is eventually found and ridden. The ever changing perspectives gives the reader the opportunity to engage with the characters through particular lenses, learn their characteristics: the endearing and the repulsive.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
Williams explores the complex and complicated structures that underlie and comprise relationships, whether they are between a parent and child(ren), lovers, friends, or a tenant and a landlord. He also delves into the toxic, entitled, egotistical, misogynistic facets of the men, while also exploring their reflective and at times thoughtful sides while also exploring the ties that bind and the difficulty of disentangling with an influence that does not enrich one's life(Felicia with Edgar).
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
This is a book that invites you to get to know the characters, familiarize yourself with their tone and attitudes, that way you can never be lost in the prose and dialogue. The last part of the book proved a bit of a struggle as by that part I felt a bit over-saturated, but this story was worthwhile.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
With an unorthodox structure, a tale of family, through changing perspectives, unravels a story about the many meanings of reproduction.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
-Not everyone should reproduce- Edgar
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
Nothing about how this book is put together is orthodox, there is injection of lyrics from popular songs, past conversations interspersed between current ones, and the talks that explore our MCs reproductory arrivals. Ian Williams uses play on words, slang, and Caribbean-infused language and behaviour to enliven his narrative.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
At first, it seems that the reading will be difficult, as the structure changes for every section, but with each wily sentence consumed, the rhythm is eventually found and ridden. The ever changing perspectives gives the reader the opportunity to engage with the characters through particular lenses, learn their characteristics: the endearing and the repulsive.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
Williams explores the complex and complicated structures that underlie and comprise relationships, whether they are between a parent and child(ren), lovers, friends, or a tenant and a landlord. He also delves into the toxic, entitled, egotistical, misogynistic facets of the men, while also exploring their reflective and at times thoughtful sides while also exploring the ties that bind and the difficulty of disentangling with an influence that does not enrich one's life(Felicia with Edgar).
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
This is a book that invites you to get to know the characters, familiarize yourself with their tone and attitudes, that way you can never be lost in the prose and dialogue. The last part of the book proved a bit of a struggle as by that part I felt a bit over-saturated, but this story was worthwhile.
🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹
January 16, 2020
An unusual story of family that I found difficult to get through. I really struggled with the style towards the end of the book. I’m sure it’s quite clever (the Giller jury sure seemed to like it), but I just wasn’t interested enough to give it due consideration.
Read
January 10, 2022Trying to figure out how I feel about this
February 1, 2020
Experimentally Structured Family Saga
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (Sept. 2019) of the original hardcover (Jan. 2019)
Reproduction has a genetically/mathematically inspired structure of 4 Parts (which each jumps a generation or so) consisting of 1) 23 pairs of stories, 2) 16 short stories, 3) 256 (i.e. 16 times 16) paragraphs, and 4) an extended disintegration. These are separated by interludes called The Sex Talk which can be read as sequences of short poems and fragments. The 4th Part is likely the most disorienting section as it consists of a through plot line where one character's name begins to gradually deteriorate (from what I at first thought was a transposition typo) into randomly re-ordered letters and at last into a final long wheeze of a single extended vowel. Part 4's through plot is subverted by seemingly randomly inserted fragments of a lowercase subscript plot which covers topics such as high school science lab & Gregor Mendel's genetics discoveries. Although the subscript plot seems independent, it does occasionally chance to comment on the main plot.
I mention all of this structural play right off the top as a possible guide for readers who might be uncertain or hesitant about the experimental prose aspects. None of this was a barrier to understanding this extended family saga which still made you feel for and understand these characters along the way. From matriarch Felicia, absentee patriarch Edgar, striving entrepreneur Armistice (Army), stand-in patriarch Oliver, sister & brother Heather and Hendrix, and budding filmmaker / artist Chariot (Riot), each character has their hate or love, cheer or cringe moments.
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (Sept. 2019) of the original hardcover (Jan. 2019)
Reproduction has a genetically/mathematically inspired structure of 4 Parts (which each jumps a generation or so) consisting of 1) 23 pairs of stories, 2) 16 short stories, 3) 256 (i.e. 16 times 16) paragraphs, and 4) an extended disintegration. These are separated by interludes called The Sex Talk which can be read as sequences of short poems and fragments. The 4th Part is likely the most disorienting section as it consists of a through plot line where one character's name begins to gradually deteriorate (from what I at first thought was a transposition typo) into randomly re-ordered letters and at last into a final long wheeze of a single extended vowel. Part 4's through plot is subverted by seemingly randomly inserted fragments of a lowercase subscript plot which covers topics such as high school science lab & Gregor Mendel's genetics discoveries. Although the subscript plot seems independent, it does occasionally chance to comment on the main plot.
I mention all of this structural play right off the top as a possible guide for readers who might be uncertain or hesitant about the experimental prose aspects. None of this was a barrier to understanding this extended family saga which still made you feel for and understand these characters along the way. From matriarch Felicia, absentee patriarch Edgar, striving entrepreneur Armistice (Army), stand-in patriarch Oliver, sister & brother Heather and Hendrix, and budding filmmaker / artist Chariot (Riot), each character has their hate or love, cheer or cringe moments.
February 21, 2020
What was that? What did I just read?
What a clusterf*ck of styles.
I never could have handed that in in any English/writing class.
I will never trust the Scotiabank Giller Prize judges again.
What a clusterf*ck of styles.
I never could have handed that in in any English/writing class.
I will never trust the Scotiabank Giller Prize judges again.
December 29, 2019
Sadly, I missed attending the Scotiabank Giller Between the Pages event and was not as engaged in the short-listed books. With some downtime this week, I tackled the 446 page novel which intertwined the lives of Felicia and Edgar who met at the hospital as both of their mother's were dying. over 3 decades, these two led separate but blended lives filled with many other interesting characters, challenges, poor choices and struggles. A strong message is that family is not always DNA.
I would have liked to have a better understanding of some of the unique writing/printing techniques including the changing of the letters in Edgar's name towards the end of the book. At times, it was a bit confusing, like listening to dialogue along with the inner banter of the character. I would think that this would be a challenging novel to narrate.
Ultimately, this book leaves a reader thinking... about reproduction, family, relationships and life in general.
I would have liked to have a better understanding of some of the unique writing/printing techniques including the changing of the letters in Edgar's name towards the end of the book. At times, it was a bit confusing, like listening to dialogue along with the inner banter of the character. I would think that this would be a challenging novel to narrate.
Ultimately, this book leaves a reader thinking... about reproduction, family, relationships and life in general.
November 7, 2019
I actually laughed out loud at a few lines from this book! Creative writing at it’s finest.
The last section of the book, was a bit slower for me. The author did such a wonderful job at pegging family drama, and to suggest what is family?
The last section of the book, was a bit slower for me. The author did such a wonderful job at pegging family drama, and to suggest what is family?
December 16, 2019
Felicity and Edgar meet when their mothers are assigned to the same room, in a Toronto hospital that is dealing with being flooded. One mother lives, the other does not. Felicity and Edgar develop a relationship based on a combination of need, compassion, and a willingness to take advantage. This is not a love story.
Years later, Felicity and her son are renting the downstairs portion of a split level home in a diverse neighborhood. Army is determined to make his fortune. His landlord and upstairs neighbor would like him to stop conducting his business in the shared garage. The landlord's son is interested in ant life. The landlord's teenage daughter is bored, but she has her eye on a cute guy working at the mall.
This novel is about families, and how they sometimes form because of nothing more than proximity and need. It's about being an immigrant and a hyphenated Canadian. It's about choices and living with those choices. Ian Williams won the Giller Prize for this novel. It's a lively and modern take on the usual immigrant tale. It also sagged in the final third as Williams played with format and style. Some of his risks paid off (like how a character's name was misspelled in different ways near the end) but others proved more distracting than effective. In the end, I appreciated this novel more than I enjoyed it.
Years later, Felicity and her son are renting the downstairs portion of a split level home in a diverse neighborhood. Army is determined to make his fortune. His landlord and upstairs neighbor would like him to stop conducting his business in the shared garage. The landlord's son is interested in ant life. The landlord's teenage daughter is bored, but she has her eye on a cute guy working at the mall.
This novel is about families, and how they sometimes form because of nothing more than proximity and need. It's about being an immigrant and a hyphenated Canadian. It's about choices and living with those choices. Ian Williams won the Giller Prize for this novel. It's a lively and modern take on the usual immigrant tale. It also sagged in the final third as Williams played with format and style. Some of his risks paid off (like how a character's name was misspelled in different ways near the end) but others proved more distracting than effective. In the end, I appreciated this novel more than I enjoyed it.
January 2, 2020
Truly a fascinating book. A little hard to get into at first and sometimes the experimentation with form really threw me off but honestly I felt so enraptured by the characters. Such a beautiful, raw, real portrayal of human beings and a refreshing perspective on unconventional family structures. I feel as though Williams' experimentation with language, grammar and structure are actually revolutionary and so bold that I would recommend reading it just to have the experience of your world view and literature norms be uprooted in a transformative way.
December 10, 2024
I gave this one a decent go but abandoned after a third (more than 150 pages). As it was a Giller prize winner, I shouldn't be surprised by the experimental writing style or the bizarre 'smart' nuances that Williams brought out.
The whole book is written in groups of 23 chapters to mimic the X and Y chromosomes that a couple passes on to their child - and then divides and divides and divides, carrying their messages along the generations.
But by page 150, I should have cared a little about the characters or their situation.
I didn't - so I returned it to the library.
The whole book is written in groups of 23 chapters to mimic the X and Y chromosomes that a couple passes on to their child - and then divides and divides and divides, carrying their messages along the generations.
But by page 150, I should have cared a little about the characters or their situation.
I didn't - so I returned it to the library.
January 25, 2020
This book was just not for me. I found the style incredibly hard to follow, the characters horrible and one dimensional, and the whole thing was just a struggle to get through.
January 18, 2020
I think this might’ve been a good book but I also think it needed more from me than I felt like giving it. Lots of really interesting stylistic stuff going on in this book, some of it worked more for me than others. There was a section in the middle that had an incredible flow that made it almost impossible to put the book down until the section was completely finished. The middle was definitely the best part of the book for me. I would recommend this book to others not necessarily because I loved it but because I would be interested to see what anyone else feels about it. I think the plot was buried underneath the style a lot of the time but I think that also might have been the point, I feel like I probably missed some details in the thick of it. Worth a reread at some point maybe. Anyways, I found the characters all extremely compelling, and largely likeable despite most of them doing unlikeable stuff. Unfortunately, rooting for characters in serious literary fiction is usually just setting yourself up for disappointment.
April 16, 2021
Reminds me in tone and style of Jeffrey Eugenides’ ‘Middlesex,’ but Williams plays with form and structure in really engaging ways. His characters are compelling and he trusts the reader to put some pieces together on their own.
I’d go higher if he’d used quotation marks. That bugs the hell out of me.
I’d go higher if he’d used quotation marks. That bugs the hell out of me.
July 10, 2020
This is an account of an unconventional family that comes together accidentally. I really liked the first two thirds. The characters were engaging and the story was interesting. But the last part was written experimentally and I felt it really bogged the book down.
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