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katarzyna

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katarzyna is Currently Reading

katarzyna is currently reading

To Paradise

by Hanya Yanagihara (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: 2022, lgbtq, over-500-pages, read-in-english, favorites, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2022

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katarzyna said: " My relationship with this book can be described with a quote from Book I: “his concern had been replaced by confusion, and confusion by bewilderment, and bewilderment by hurt, and hurt by frustration, and frustration by anger, and anger by desperatio My relationship with this book can be described with a quote from Book I: “his concern had been replaced by confusion, and confusion by bewilderment, and bewilderment by hurt, and hurt by frustration, and frustration by anger, and anger by desperation, until he was back at the beginning of the cycle once more”.
I agree with everyone saying it’s not A Little Life: it’s definitely not as traumatizing and shattering. Maybe because of its form – three books, three separate stories, that theoretically are not combined, unless you pay attention to quite small details. Or unless you know and like the concept of postmodern protagonist present in a lot of contemporary fiction, where characters are fluent, you’re not sure where one of them ends and the other begins, they’re significantly different and not different at all. And so were the three main stories of this book, stories that split into thousands of other stories that you don’t care about, but then you cannot put this book down, because you start caring and you become to invested for your own good.
So it’s not A Little Life, but the first book – probably my favourite here – broke my heart. It hits too close to home. I love the way Yanagihara alters the history too show different parts of human nature and how, even though some things are change, humanity remains mostly the same. The second book made me extremely sad. It seems very personal, it touches your soul (both with beautiful description and heart-breaking moments), even though at some point it becomes pretty predictable. And then the third book happens, making me annoyed and anxious through a big part of it – I’m reading Yanagihara’s novel to destroy my life, I don’t want realistic/dystopian vision of the future that once again hits too close to home, I have enough environmental related anxiety and I don’t want to read about any damn virus anymore.
But then.
But then.
She did it again.
At some point you think you know how this story is going to end. You have enough information to put it all together, so you think you’re prepared for it. But then you’re not. Even though your predictions were right. Yanagihara uses those small details to change the way you look at her characters and the story they live in, and once you discover it, the whole thing just changes. And you’re left semi-crying, being mad that she did it AGAIN, being mad that you haven’t seen this coming, but mostly being mad it ended and you don’t know what to do next. How am I suppose to live my life now, Hanya?
So even though it’s not A Little Life, this book doesn’t disappoint. Yanagihara is an incredible writer, I don’t think I know any other contemporary writer who can capture human nature in such a way. The stories are quite subtle, the form experimental, it’s not something you can devour in just a couple of hours. But I’m very glad she wrote it and I read it. This 700 pages are a journey but one worth taking. ...more "

progress:

(page 180 of 720)
"she's doing it again, she's making me feel things, help" — Jan 23, 2022 12:45PM

Jan 29, 2022 06:34AM · see review

katarzyna’s Quotes

“And drunk men take dares like they take breaths.”
― Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man

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“Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.”
― Jeffrey Cranor, It Devours!

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“A story never stands on its own, but exists in the context of the storyteller.”
― Joseph Fink, It Devours!

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“You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

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“- Wziąłem ostatnio, wyobraźcie sobie państwo, udział w konkursie na najbardziej polski wyraz. Wiecie, co zaproponowałem? […] Żółć. Z dwóch powodów. Po pierwsze, składa się ono z samych znaków diakrytycznych charakterystycznych ekskluzywnie dla języka polskiego i w ten sposób zyskuje rangę tyleż oryginalności, co niepowtarzalności. […] – Po drugie, mimo że wyraz ten językowo jest tak dystynktywny, zawiera pewne treści uogólniające, w symboliczny sposób stanowi o naturze wspólnoty, która się nim, przyznajmy, że niezbyt często, posługuje. Oddaje pewien charakterystyczny nad Wisłą stan mentalno-psychiczny. Zgorzknienie, frustrację, drwinę podszytą złą energią i poczuciem własnego niespełnienia, bycie na “nie” i ciągłe nieusatysfakcjonowanie.”
― Zygmunt Miłoszewski, Ziarno prawdy

tags: bitterness, frustration, language, poland, polish, polish-language, truth

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