David Szalay

Flesh

the minimal prose is really effective but i can't shake the feeling that this novel could've been so much more

szalay writes about masculinity and trauma-based passivity in such a sparse yet engrossing way. minimalist prose can be such a hit or miss for me but here, it adds so much depth to istván's character (and perhaps the geopolitical commentary on what this presumptuous american thinks is the uk barreling toward brexit and hungary wrestling with its post-soviet identity?). the whitespace is haunting.

alice

lowkey kmsed 100 times reading this book bc why can’t anything go well for him for more than a day. 

it was an easy read though i really enjoyed it 

nina 

lowkey kmsed 100 times reading this book bc why can’t anything go well for him for more than a day. 

it was an easy read though i really enjoyed it 

I swear bro spoke like 4 words and got an AP like wtf haven’t read a book with a male protagonist in a while though it was lowk a snooze fest

Angeleeka

Just read Western Lane by Chetna Mario. It’s not the same but really it is. Sparse language and cold narrative. This reminded me a lot of G. when it started but then the jumping around got blander and blander. Maybe I’m a sucker for the beginning and how messed up it was (maybe I’d like This Little Life, god help me). It was fine, put me on the Booker committee.

Eli Alvah Huckabee

Very austere, but reads very well. I sort of expected it to suddenly explode, surprise, but it just carried on in it’s start and stop sort of way. 

Krzysztof Tokarski

It was OK 

Very austere, but reads very well. I sort of expected it to suddenly explode, surprise, but it just carried on in it’s start and stop sort of way. 

mara henderson

Pared back style, sharp dialogue, compelling. A touching story following a man’s vicissitudes from Communist Hungary to present-day London.