The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden

I liked this book. I learned something. I appreciated that the author was not judgmental. I was not. My review - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I liked it too, Linda. I agree about the author's non-judgmentalness and I liked the simplicity and lack of drama in the writing style. Whilst the subject matter definitely had the potential to be very disturbing (and I admit that my eyes did fill with tears at certain scenes), the author left enough unsaid for it not to become overwhelming and I appreciated that.

I would be very happy if this made the shortlist or even won.

I just finished this one - flew through it. What an engrossing story! The sparse language / style was refreshing and worked very well here. I hadn't considered how that related to what was 'not said', but reading your comment, Viv, I see that was of benefit here. I did feel by the end that I would have liked some of the characters and plot points fleshed out a bit more. But these are minor criticisms, it's a wonderful book and I'd be pleased to see it on the shortlist.

I would echo all these comments.

To be honest I have been a little underwhelmed with the surprise books on the longlist - my favourites so far were pretty well all from the ones I had already read before the longlist, but this is the exception for me.

I would like to see it shortlisted.

Again, I find myself in the minority on this book. I am glad I read it and I did learn something, but I didn’t feel anything but the usual expected sadness at the suffering of the girls in the shrine. None of the characters were developed well so I found it hard to believe that Wasik and Ismae would have done such a thing. Other than the very dramatic subject matter I don’t see what it is that made this an award nominee.
The narrative was so devoid of emotion that it felt like a simple time line of events until the the last few pages where we learn about the emotional turmoil of Serafine, which in light of all Abeo had suffered seemed a bit beside the point.
The only character that will stay with me is the fiery little Juba.

I keep thinking about this book. I wonder why it doesn't inspire any disagreements or passion (or maybe I've just missed it.)

I thought it was very well-written, impactful, interesting. Like seemingly everyone, I learned something. I thought she got the trauma psychology exactly right, and I cared about the characters. So I don't know what exactly held me back from loving it or what it is that makes this book almost muted for so many readers? It seems to be almost universally graded "really good" or the equivalent. Thoughts people who are smarter than me?

Ella, this book was a group read in the "Literary Fiction by People of Color" GR group in Feb. 2019 and inspired a great discussion - the book was much beloved. She also visited the group and answered our questions! I think that thread was called "book discussions > February 2019 'Ask the Author': Bernice McFadden ".

Enjoy!

I make no claims to smartness, but for me the undramatic, unemotional writing meant that I had less of an emotional response to the book than if she had written it as a tearjerker. I am not suggesting that she should have written it differently, as I agree with Jen that the language and style were refreshing.
Perhaps I should increase my rating to five stars, since I liked the aspect which knocked it down to four, but that would put it on a par with "Freshwater" and "Milkman", and it is not.

Nadine wrote this book was a group read in the "Literary Fiction by People of Color" GR group in Feb.
Gosh I'm a moron sometimes. I knew that. I'd apparently just forgotten all about it. I've been a member of that group for ages, but my participation tends to be on the books I decide to read with the group. I'm "leading" the discussion of Washington Black right now. Interestingly, the group is finding tons of interesting things that nobody else has mentioned to me previously about the book. They dive deep over there! I shall settle into that for my evening reading tonight. Thanks for reminding me.

Val wrote: "Perhaps I should increase my rating to five stars, since I liked the aspect which knocked it down to four, but that would put it on a par with "Freshwater" and "Milkman", and it is not. "

I have this discussion with myself all the time. GR needs either more stars or the ability to give half stars. There are so many extremely worthy books, but they aren't "I will love this book with all my soul for the rest of my life" books. That little discussion you just had about "maybe I should bump it up a star" is one I've had about this and other books. It always ends the same way your comment ended though.

(I've gotten more stingy with stars through the years too, and my star system is not a system at all.) I'm just interested in the fact that this book seems to inspire so little discussion both here and elsewhere. (Except LFPC, where I shall go read.)

Thanks to you both!

We can agree on a theoretical four and a half stars for this one then Ella.
I think I too have become more stingy with stars over the years as I have read more wonderful books, but I am not going to go back and revise past ratings, as they would have felt like five star books at the time.