Hannah Plake > Recent Status Updates

Wow. Sadly the interesting narrative techniques can’t counterbalance how tired I am of reading this story. Everybody is so crazy, everybody has problems, and the men are some of the most brainless creatures I’ve ever run across in literature.

I hate to admit it - but it's growing on me. The 15 distinct perspectives are undeniably difficult to work through, but it reminds me of a TV show where the viewer is suddenly immersed in a character's reality. Some mental deduction is expected.
The depiction of grief is deeply touching. It strips back the veil of rationality and gets at the complicated and raw ways we process emotion.

By far, the best-written book I’ve ever read. Woolf’s mastery of language (especially descriptive) is insane, and she manages to pull off stream-of-consciousness without being too disorienting. Part 2 “Time Passes” is easily one of the most interesting pieces of narrative form I’ve encountered - narrated almost by Time itself.

Woolf’s writing is some of the most insanely beautiful I have ever encountered, but goodness, the stream of consciousness/modernist structure is making it difficult to keep track of the plot and characters.

Is it objectively good “literature”? Nope. But it is an undeniably enjoyable read, which I appreciate.
This book feels like sitting down to listen to your most unhinged, unfiltered, comfortably crass, dark humor-loving, wildly-gesturing friend. The prose has the easy rhythm of snarky speech and keeps you hooked through random asides and internal ruminations.

Is it objectively good “literature”? Probably not. But it is an undeniably enjoyable read, which is just as important.
This book feels like sitting down to listen to your most unhinged, unfiltered, crass, dark humor-loving, wildly-gesturing friend. The prose has the easy rhythm of snarky speech and keeps you hooked through random asides and internal ruminations.

Extraordinary command of language and a lilting flow that draws you in:
—“One of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savours of anticlimax.”
—“A breeze rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.”

This will probably be one of my favorite books from the year - so enjoyable and witty with the occasional wildly stretched metaphor.

Objectively one of the most weird and disturbing books I’ve ever read, but nonetheless a good book. Fascinating moral contrasts, stereotypes, and dilemmas.