Ranting and Reading Collective discussion

I loved this messy, stream of conscious style delve into life. The themes of navigating the body, mind and society were hard not to relate to. I loved how honest it felt, in admitting to all the lies made - and the reasons for. Really had me thinking how different the world would be if we could openly talk about things without worrying about how they would be received.

I related more than I should have done probably! There was a lot that made me uncomfortable, but even in those moments, the honest humanity was easy to connect to. The bathroom scene, plotting the suicide attempt was humours as it was tragic.

I loved the stream of consciousness style, at times I felt compelled to read it out loud, which is a huge testimony to the translator as well, I can't imagine how hard it must be to translate such poetic prose! The insight in the end of the book from the translator was really eye opening. I am sort of fascinated to speak to someone who read it in the original Spanish and compare notes!

I am curious to read the other books in the tryptic.

I struggled with this book but I know its me and not the book. The translators note at the end is so helpful in putting context to the writing. I'm not great with poetry and this book really is poetry. I'm not great with really talented art. I'm the sister looking at the Jackson Pollack and not getting it. Bizarrely my breakthrough came when I changed the voice I was reading it in my head. When the voice in my head was this incredibly worldly wise Spanish woman who didn't give a fuck and lived this amazing life of sex and art and experience, I think I just found it too intimidating for little old dull British me. I was watching Bad Sisters on Apple TV at the time and so one night I started reading it in an Irish accent in my head and suddenly I started to hear the humour and the pain in a way I didn't before. It seemed more relatable suddenly.

Essentially this is a really good book. Not what I would choose for my bedtime reading generally, but nonetheless, I can recognise how good the writing (and the translation!) is. And when it ended so abruptly , I genuinely wanting more so clearly I liked it!

I loved this book! Right up my street - first person, introspective, transgressive, poetic. I was going to give it 4 stars as I didn’t love the ending but the translator’s afterword bumped it back up! I don’t know how the translator managed to translate such fantastic poetic prose, amazing.

What really struck me about this book (that I can’t find talked about much) was how similar it is to Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. I happened to read both books at the same time and the similarities throughout were fascinating. Then towards the end of Permafrost, a bell jar is directly mentioned and it brought it all together.