dsprinkles.bsky.social
He/him queer(?)
Portland Winterhawks & Vegas Golden Knights
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Currently Reading: Our Wives Under the Sea, by Julia Armfield
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Not sure why the book cover is flagging as an nsfw image? Maybe I fat fingered the button when I was typing the description lol
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The larger and longer review on Goodreads will be out soonish, I have a lot more to say on there, specifically about contrast in cultural experiences which I havent touched on here at all. I’ll attach the link below when it’s up.
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Perhaps this book won’t have that effect on everyone but it certainly did with me.
Another thing that I ran into was trouble trying to wrap my head around what I wanted to say about this piece. Even now i’m not entirely happy about the thoughts i’ve just shared, but i’ll live with it.
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I found that when this story was at its lowest point, and when it and the characters were made to accept it and live with it, I was inspired in a way. When the book made us wait and earn Pabbi’s story, I was inspired. I found myself asking “am I being patient enough in my life?”
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Orri finds himself in a relationship with a girl named Mihan that he meets online. Their relationship struggles at some points, but flourishes too. The characters must have the patience to learn and grow, and we the readers must have the patience in our own lives too. Patience to forgive, to hope.
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But these characters persist through. One of my favorite characters Rúna does not let her alchoholic deadbeat father be the thing that characterizes her. She is her own person. When we first meet her things look pretty bleak but eventually life lets up for a bit, and the sun shines through.
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That, is the center of this novel.
Patience and persistence.
The occasionally monotonous farmwork frequently seen in this book are hard and back breaking without much of a reward for completing them. Much like life, the climate and environment seems to want nothing more than to wear down the farm.
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The Icelandic country side and its beauties and difficulties directly mirror life itself. Things go wrong frequently and usually without warning. The highs are highs and the lows can be very low. But despite it all, most of our main cast push through it.
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This novel is set in the beautiful and unforgiving Icelandic countryside, and follows Orri, who went off to college in Reykjavik before coming home to his family’s farm during a break.
This is a calm, patient, and wonderful piece on life and its ups and downs.
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Here’s the full review!
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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And thats the end of this mostly spoiler free tangent. I’ll be posting a longer one with more details and thoughts on Goodreads tomorrow. I’ll link it here when I do.
Cheers!
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Anyway, all of this is to say that I think this book deserves the attention and praise that it got, even though I have my own conflicting thoughts on it. I really loved the picture it paints of the House in the first half, and the mystery of the second.
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I found that the brief moments we get with her experiencing the house were really interesting, and I really enjoyed them. I just wanted more!!
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SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Specifically the character that springs to mind is 16. I REALLY wish we got more time with her to explore her relationship with the house since she doesnt have the same attachment to it as Piranesi or The Other do…
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Some of the characters are really strong. Piranesi himself for one is an unreliable narrator who we can tell is unaware of the full scope and context of the life he knows. My only wish is that the other characters get the same strength in characterization.
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In the beginning, and got to the main story quicker. Although that leaves me conflicted because I did enjoy the slow characterization in the first half.
I think this piece deserves the recognition it gets, even if it wasn’t necessarily my favorite.
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To see if I could decipher more of the story from the new information we recieve which was great fun. I think the problem is, is that most people were tricked into feeling like the whole of this book was this exciting, when it really wasnt. I would’ve preferred if we spent less time building…
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After adjusting however, it becomes very very easy to say that this is the highlight of the book. I finished the second half of this book in one night, rather than the couple of days it took me for the first half. I found myself frequently putting the book down just briefly…
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All the sudden, in the second half, the pacd picks up a lot. Things happen quickly and frequently. Theres lots of exposition in the form of long records or journal entries. After adjusting to it, it is fascinating and makes the book hard to put down, but initially it felt rather shocking.
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Throughout the book so far I was obviously really curious about the story behind Piranesi because obviously not all is as it seems. But it takes what feels like a really long time to finally start to unravel the story, and when you finally get there. Its a bit jarring?
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However it does drag on a bit by the end. Piranesi spends a lot of time describing the statues and the halls and the happenings in minute details. Which is very fun! Don’t get me wrong! However, the really interesting part of this piece is the mystery aspect.
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The first half of this book (~100 pages) starts very interesting, developing the relationship between Piranesi, The House, and The Other. This section of the piece takes a very surrealist vibe because a lot of time is spent on the House itself, which is a bit like that in nature.
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Im a bit late to this one but i’ve been meaning to read it for a while now. So, did it live ip to expectations?
Meh?
I definitely didn’t not enjoy this one, and I wouldn’t even say I was bored. My problem is in the first half
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That coat in the first pic would fix my life I think although $2k might be a bit too much for my price point
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Gladiator
Gladiator 2
Gladiator With a Vengeance
A Good Day to Gladiator
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It’s been a journey to teach myself that DNFing was okay. Before if I was 50% or more of the way through a book I would finish it. For better or worse
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Here’s the full review on Goodreads!
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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I’ll tack on my full review here tomorrow once its up!!
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All of this is to say that if you like a story that is very profound, with impactful characters in a deteriorating world with complicated relationships with one another, this is the book for you. It has a strong and hauntingly beautiful end.
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More over, it’s been a long while since I’ve read something that made me feel this much. So much dread, anxiety, and on occasion even hope. Armfield’s damp and waterlogged city is wonderfully crafted. You can really feel the rain soak into your own bones while reading it…
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Julia Armfield’s Private Rites is a masterclass in writing haunting fiction. A queer lead story set in the end times in a flooded world, that is loosely inspired by King Lear is an awesome premise, and is executed perfectly…