Are We Not Entertained? discussion
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AWNE April Pick: The Road
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Oh what a great pick! I don't know if this is the right time to read it but I'm definitely interested! It would depend on my mood. Btw I'm just finishing Station Eleven. XD
Indie wrote: "Here's the thread for The Road guys.. and for a change, I've actually already started it here at the beginning of the month.And well, it's um, DEFINITELY a literary novel. No one would confuse th..."
I have this on my shelf and really want to read it. The depressive nature of the novel it's what has kept me away. I'm glad you are enjoying it. When I was reading Station Eleven I thought the same, I haven't read it but I have heard it's much more dark than any other dystopian out there. A novel without light.
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I've read and watched a lot of dystopian fiction in my day but one thing I will give the road credit for it, I've never experienced such a bleak and despressive atmosphere in any novel/movie/tv show.
There's a number of passages that make me think about the world at large and "the human condition" (As literary fiction tends to do) but what I really appreciate is how different it feels. To me this is kind've how I would expect the end of the world to actually feel like. Every decision is life or death.. something as generally overlooked as getting your feet wet or ruining your shoes. The attention to the small details is where it really punches you in the gut.
Most dystopians would have big shoot outs with raiders or finding stashes of food/ammo from abandoned buildings. Not in this one.
I'm only 1/3 the way through so I'd imagine some of this stuff will come up eventually but it's a great... but REALLY depressing slow burn so far.
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How are you all finding it/have you started yet?? :)
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Oh yeah for sure. It's like it's a lack of structure but it perfectly mimics the atmosphere of the story. Like kind've like how it's post apocalyptic and pretty much civilization is gone and collapse.. so too has the rigid structure of the prose itself - proper punctuation, quotation marks, the apostrophes seemed to be used at random times and omitted at others :P
heh very depressing.
And well, it's um, DEFINITELY a literary novel. No one would confuse this writing style with genre fic. No chapter breaks, no quotation marks, strange spacing... this is something I dislike about literary works.. but I'm starting to get used to it so it's getting more comfortable.
Initial reaction.. I think this is the book Emily St. John Mandel was trying to write. A Literary dystopia. A gritty, heavy atmosphere from the start. It's not a fast, easily consumable read, but I am actually enjoying it so far.. only about 50 pages in though, so we'll see what happens from here.