Welcome to Litsy!

Set in a rural farm area amongst a devout religious community it is a searing portrait of grief and the many unhealthy ways it manifests in a family when left alone. Other circumstances conspire to make an unbearable situation even worse, culminating in a final action, final sentence that is a punch in the gut. OOoft.

3.5⭐, #FoodandLit, #Netherlands, #LGBTQIA2025 #SurpriseEnding

That was an uncomfortable read. The bleakness and feeling of unease were unrelenting. Some readers love it, but I'm a sensitive soul: it was too much for me and in the end, I just ploughed through as fast as I could to get it over with.
#Netherlands #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Pic of a traditional Dutch farm by Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Oof. One of the more disturbing books I‘ve read. The writing is incredible and I can see how it won the Booker, but wow. It was too much for me. My book 8 for #TenBeforeTheEnd as I‘ve had this copy since it won in 2020 and have put off reading it since then.

Every Xmas at Rdg grp we do a secret santa, my friend told me that she wanted me to get the one she had put in as I'd probably appreciate it. I'm not sure what says about me as my mouth is still on the floor; I will never look on a green soap comfortably again, and a cow udder rub! Disturbing images and ideas, sibling relationships that defy imagination, and a distressing ending. Still not sure what I think and certainly a very unique book.

Playing a bit of catch-up with reviews….

I think I went into this one over-prepared for the grimness, which was a good thing. It didn‘t make it an easier read but I had an idea of what was coming.

Aside from the nasty bits (of which there are a LOT - all of the TWs) this is a study of a grieving family through the eyes of a child.

This book will stay with me for a long time - thank you for gifting it to me @BarbaraBB

"... everything gets stuck. Game over."

^^P137, 10-year-old Jas talking to the toads she is surreptitiously keeping (and slowly killing?) in her room. She wants to watch them mate, she wants companionship and control.

Asking the toads about God, questions and more questions.

“...maybe I‘ll even dare to take off my coat. Even though it will feel uncomfortable for a while, but according to the pastor, discomfort is good. In discomfort we are real.”

Yikes. Discomfort is the least of it. Trauma and cruelty and coming of age. A family in an isolated Dutch dairy farming community spirals deeper into grief after accidental death of brother. 10-year-old Jas speculates on the whys, wrestles with her own feelings of guilt, refuses to remove her coat, suffers from intestinal troubles, is pulled to violence. Dark narrative with some beautiful language, but ultimately just bleak & cruel. Trans. 2020

Wow, that was unpleasant. Winner of the 2020 Booker International Prize, this novel traces in excruciating detail the simultaneously mundane and grotesque happenings on a dairy farm in the Netherlands in the year after the oldest child, 12 year old Matthies, dies in an accident. Relentlessly repulsive and depressing without redemption, and chock full of animal cruelty and incest. Not recommended.

Utterly devastating #12bestof2020 #12booksof2020

Here is a good example of the writing - which I liked

Mixed thoughts and feelings about this one. Hence the So So rating. Well written but disturbing themes. It‘s about grief and I like how it‘s described, the impact on the family and the children. Another unusual thing is the very religious farming community viewed through the eyes of a child.

I did not see that ending coming...
😦

Well that was all kinds of fucked up. A story about pure despair and abandonment and neglect and every form of child abuse and an unreliable narrator. It‘s super gross and very uncomfortable to read but it‘s so well written and engaging. It‘s absolutely not for everyone.

I‘ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. I‘ve finally got my physical holds under control so can dip back into my ebooks.

Finally finished this book. I could barely stomach it, literally it made me feel queasy and nauseous. Not only is it an uncomfortable read it‘s also disgusting and has everything in the world that is triggering and upsetting. The author is talented, because her ability to tell a story in a fresh and believable way, however, I won‘t recommend this book to anybody. when I finished I was so glad to return the book to the library and be off with it

This book is uncomfortable, disturbing and intense. Onr where you want to shake and slap the characters, so they finally wake up. A book that grabs you by the throat and enjoyes seeing you suffering. That these things are happening in the world makes it even more unsettling.

The effects of trauma on a family who ignores what happened. Sometimes uncomfortable, but it makes sense why these uncomfortable moments happen.

Discomfort is right. This is full of trauma, repressed issues and unvoiced needs, all wrapped up into a painfully innocent narrative. There‘s also a good deal of preteen sexuality in there, so in general: stay away if you‘re feeling queasy easily! For the rest of you: this is a unflinchingly honest perspective of loss at an early age, with no tools to cope, support or guidance by your equally lost parents. This one‘s a bummer, promise! #bookspin

I've heard that crisis is an amplifier. Sometimes crisis reveals and amplifies strength; other times, weakness. This novel is a brutal, claustrophobic example of the latter as a family disintegrates in the wake of tragedy. The story envelopes the reader, which is both a testament to the skill of the author and a very unpleasant experience. I just wanted to yell at the adults to pay attention.

This is my #bookspin for September. @TheAromaofBooks

Reading Envy Podcast Episode 199: Awkward Melacholy with Karen.

Karen returns to chat books, and we talk about how we met the Reading Envy Summer Reading challenge, the awkward melancholy of books we are drawn to in dark times, and the translated standalone graphic memoirs that seem to call to each of us.

Listen and subscribe:
https://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy199

This book won the International Booker Prize a day ago or so and at that point I was at the halfway point. It is about Jas, a girl of around 10, trying to make sense of the world around her after the death of her brother. It takes place in the rural Netherlands, where her family runs a farm with cows. ⤵️

Winner!

The Discomfort of Evening just won the #BookerInternational2020 . It may not be what I would have chosen, but it was certainly memorable and beautifully written- congratulations to Marieke Lucas Rijneveld.

In random other news, I started a blog. It‘s very much a work in progress, but my first post is about attempting to read the longlist for the prize this year.

https://bit.ly/2QtAZ0Y

“The 29-year-old Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has become the youngest author ever to win the International Booker prize, taking the award for their “visceral and virtuosic” debut novel, The Discomfort of Evening.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/26/marieke-lucas...

@batsy @JennyM This grim book that you‘re both not in favour of, has won!

She did it, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld just won the #internationalbookerprize2020. Not my favorite but I feel proud of this young Dutch girl for winning such an important prize. “Be relentless”, she said in het speech. Well, she certainly is in her book.

For various reasons - and as I was warned - I found this quite disturbing to read. It‘s full of death and trauma, with some violence and abuse thrown in. A pretty unpleasant read overall and, other than the writing managing to make me feel very depressed, I‘m not sure why it was shortlisted for the Booker International.

Read for #ReadingEurope2020 #Netherlands but should have listened to you Barbara and skipped it!

I wanted to read one translated book per month for #ReadingEurope2020. I‘m a little behind, which makes me sad. However, for this month I‘m excited to start ☝️
Have you read it @BarbaraBB ? I hear it was a bestseller in The Netherlands

This is a nearly impossible book to review. If you‘ve read this book, please share your thoughts! A study of grief in some ways, grotesquely exploitative in others. Deeply conflicting and controversial. I‘ll give it 3/5 stars, but with the potential to have been 5/5 stars for me.

Full review: https://reneereadsbooks.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/book-review-the-discomfort-of-e...

A difficult book to review. Objectively speaking I can appreciate the writing & the stark beauty that occasionally graces the pages; the depth of despair & grief revolving around the death of a son/brother is profound. There were sudden moments or glimmers of mood that evoke this despair that crushed me. But otherwise I was also crushed by the unremitting grimness, the ugliness, the brutality. Longer review in Goodreads https://bit.ly/2yrwcYa

Traumatizing and grim but beautifully written.

Love these articles behind book cover design ... in another lifetime it‘s on my dream job shortlist!

https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/cover-design-the-discomfort-of-evening/?utm_source=...

1/3 done and things are grim and getting grimmer. On the plus side, I have some Dutch music on my phone to listen to as I read. The book keeps mentioning Boudewijn de Groot so that‘s my morning soundtrack.

Oh the drama! I came back from re re heating my coffee to find my book housing a cat spa #EarlGrey

Nowhere to go, nothing urgent needs done. I‘ve sent the kids downstairs to build a blanket fort and all is peaceful upstairs. I feel calm for the first time in weeks. It‘s a start.

I was ten and stopped taking off my coat. #firstlineFridays

A very conservative religious peasant family is affected by the death of a child. Through the eyes of the young Jas we see how each family member deals with this loss. The parents are completely paralyzed by sadness and fail to see how Jas and her siblings are derailing slowly. As @RachelO stated, it was ‘beyond unpleasant‘ to read, but very well written and it kept me reading on.

#bookerinternational2020 #Dutch

#bookerinternational2020

This is such a hard book to review - I appreciated and disliked it in equal measure. 10-year-old Jas, the narrator, has a unique voice which grabbed me from the start. Growing up on a farm in the Netherlands, family life is guided by the conservative 'blackstocking' Reformist church. When her oldest brother dies, the family's grief is swallowed - and all-pervasive. 👇

Very tempted to add a worm sticker to this 😖

Why are so many prize-nominated books so relentlessly grim? There‘s a lot I like about this - the young main character has a unique voice, so many interesting thoughts and asides, the writing is great. But I do feel like I‘m reading the whole thing with my nose screwed up. Again. And I will be very glad to get out the other side of this one. Again!

#bookerinternational2020

#deavondisongemak #mariekelucasrijneveld