Shahir Saleheen > Recent Status Updates

Very interesting and devastating description of life for those living in the Auschwitz prison camp

Getting back into the rhythm of reading, and I decided to restart No Country For Old Men. In true McCarthy fashion, the novel follows a man who’s on the run after finding money in the desert from a group of drug-runners. The shifts in the perspectives from Moss, Chigurh, and Bell continue to build tension in how this conflict will be resolved.

Starting this audiobook as part of a book club I have recently joined, along with my brother Joseph. Very interesting premise and start to the novel introducing this cyborg

A lot of very depressing stories with some solid chosen family themes

Honestly, I found it pretty interesting in the beginning, but slowly began to see some of the strangeness in the writing of the dialogue and the flower descriptions of everything. It picks up strongly after chapter 4.

Read the sample of this novel and I’m hooked. Hope I can find this books somewhere near me

this monologue about the damp bra haruki murakami what the actual fuck

Holy shit Midori is extremely manic pixie dream girl coded, Murakami is fucking terrible at writing women

Insanely heavy, filled to the brim with tragedy. A great story that explores the Black American identity and masculinity

Finally got a physical copy of the book and it’s incredible to read. I think one of the most difficult parts of transitioning from the audiobook to the paperback was the lack of quotation marks, made further more complicated with difficult to follow dialogue lines. it’s still great, and the chapters I read today were insanity. A world completely infected with the senselessness of violence.

James Baldwin is by far one of the greatest writers I have ever read, and he might be my favorite author of all time. His craftsmanship in his prose and expertise in building a world within his story, its engrossing to the highest degree

What the fuck is wrong with Haruki Murakami

Over my time reading this book, I’ve really enjoyed learning more about the historical contexts of the Intifada and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, as we follow Kan’an’s clandestine life in hiding.

The imagery of the landscapes in this book is pretty great. But this has been one of the most brutal reads I’ve ever had. There are some major themes of Gnosticism which I don’t like think I’ve ever seen in a novel, not quite to this degree.

The parallels to the life Pops lived to what Gio is currently living is pretty unfortunate, and the set up in the story works really well. Also, I think this is the first book I’ve read with a specific unreliable narrator.

Some of the craziest story telling I’ve ever experienced in any form of media. The detail McCarthy implements into this story is incredible. I love how Christianity, or rather the chilling events in this godless area, is written.

I enjoy reading about Camus’s desire to question the purpose of what the appropriate response to the monotony of life is for a person

Currently listening to an audio book of this novel, and I am blown away. This book’s first two chapters opens into a world of senseless, unadulterated violence and savagery of the will of man. In this harsh world, there exist pockets of humanity that follow the kid’s journey as they explore the West and Mexico. The imagery and detail in the harshness of nature is strong, and the violence becomes desensitizing.

I’m fascinated by how the prose, which was originally written in Arabic, managed to be translated into English, and how the Arabic language managed to retain so much detail and imagery within the limited amount of words that Wisam Rafeedie was able to write

Powerful letter to his nephew.

The Washington Post was not kidding.

Good lord. So far, the dynamic between Connell and Marianne is absolutely crushing. It hurts to see Connell succumb to the perceived social stigma of following the love he really feels and it’s hurts even more for Marianne to open up her feelings for someone she can only love in the dark, only to be let down by the one who claims to love her. It’s a tough situation, I’m invested.

So far, the narrative of how the main character Kan’an adapts to his life isolated from his community is interesting and reflective of Rafeedie’s own life inside the IOF prisons. In a way, he’s imprisoned by his disciplined loyalty to his political party, in a way I hope doesn’t hurt him later in the story

Very interesting discussions about the absurd

Reading into more of these essays, I’m finding this rhythmic style of prose he writes with incredibly enjoyable to read