Evelyn Freeling > Recent Status Updates

It's giving Heart of Darkness meets Lolita so far. It's interesting, but not necessarily enjoyable.

Some really difficult material in this. Sticking it out because it's still compelling.

"Here we knew it had been raining only because the trees---so incessantly thirsty I thought of them as stands of throats, greedily swallowing every drop they could---sweated water..."

Meow this sentence has me drooling

There's some really subtle stuff going on that I'm digging a lot, the protagonist discussing his time in a science lab and breezily narrating his killing of mice, describing it in horrific detail as if it was nothing, now on the Ivu'ivu island being kept awake at night imagining the indigenous people there murdering little monkeys they eat as a delicacy with horror. Very nice.

It's an odd book so far, I'm curious about where it's going to go based on how the protagonist is initially introduced, I'm enjoying the interesting structure of it and the way it allows for commentary within the narrative via the footnotes. Very nerdy, so very appealing for me.

The misogyny in this is making it such a struggle. I'm sure if I tried, I could find a way to justify the misogyny as a thematic character trait that says something deeper than just the author is a misogynist but I'm tired of making excuses for men. I'm going to finish since I'm so close and it's kind of a staple in Japanese Lit historically speaking, but I'll be shocked if it turns around for me somehow.

I think I'm too tired to read it currently bc nothing is capturing me and I'm dozing off. Will try again tomorrow.

Ahhhh he's already published a second novel, will be reading it this year. I hope it's as good as this because the way he uses language is so gorgeous, it could be studied if language is what you're interested in as a writer.

The language is so lush and beautiful, poetry without becoming overwrought. It's one of those novels where you get to glimpse into what it is like to be another human being entirely different from yourself. It feels so deeply personal that I can't imagine what another novel by Vuong would be like. I'm curious if he will publish another novel in the future and what it would be like.