Welcome to Litsy!

I generally enjoy slow, introspective novels that are about enjoying the prose, but I would have bailed on this one if it wasn't for a book club. There were some beautiful moments, but there's just not enough here for me.

My 125 lb best buddy and I did his favorite things (hiking and swimming) this morning, now it's time for mine 😂

I‘m not sure I would have finished this of I hadn‘t had so much driving to do. I think it‘s just a case of this not being my jam on audio. There were parts I really liked, but I lot was just blah, blah, blah soothing meditation to fill my rides #thebigjubileeread #queensjubileebooklist

Audio driving to get youngest and all his crap, I mean stuff ( this is not all of it )

GORGEOUS weather today!!! I bailed on my pantry‘s second coat of paint and did some audio gardening. This circle in my yard was filled with bugleweed, which was bizarre looking. I‘m not freaked out by weeds, but this one was so unlike the rest of my non lawn lawn that it had to go. I‘ve seeded with some white clover 🤞🏻which I‘m going to put all over my yard once I get some topsoil delivered #thebigjubileereadinglist

Started this to listen to while I finish my pantry #thebigjubileereadinglist

10 Nov-12 Dec 2021
Booker longlist 8
Set in the aftermath of the long Sri Lankan civil war, the narrative follows a young Tamil man named Krishan as he journeys north to the funeral of his grandmother‘s carer, also a Tamil, who lost her sons to the war.
I know little about the Tamil Tigers or about Sri Lanka to be honest. Whilst this novel may prompt me to read the Wikipedia entry, I did not learn a great deal from it. It was long and plodding.

The stuff about memory and trauma was beautifully done.
The endless obsessive relationship stuff: I could quite happily have lived without.

Anyhow, 1 down from my books I want to clear from my "currently reading" shelf.
Two chapters to go in On Seamus Heaney.
Progress!

My fifth audiobook from the Booker longlist, this is all in the head of Krishan, a Tamil from Sri Lanka who experienced the civil war only from a distance. Now he reflects on the Tamil loss, the war‘s horrors and on his own life, with some philosophical touches. Carefully worded, meaningful and readable.

It demands your full attention, so a little challenging on audio. But definitely a pick, and I enjoyed it.

When you didn't see and hold the body of a dead child you couldn't understand that they were gone, she told him, and unlike her the relatives of people who'd gone missing were forced as a result to live their lives in a kind of suspended state, unable to accept that their sons or husbands or brothers were dead, knowing there was a chance they might be alive in some unnamed cell somewhere.

I expected to plod through this. Instead, I found myself following along as if I were listening to a fascinating lecture. After the death of Krishan‘s grandmother‘s previous caretaker, he travels north to the funeral. As he travels by foot, by train, by bus, by foot again, we take part in his ruminations and meditations on a lover, aging, the gaze, the effects of war with a unique perspective that I hadn‘t read before.

Next audiobook, from the Booker longlist. I‘m finding this a little tricky to follow on audio so far.

The cumulative effect of years of being subject to these gazes was that women who lived in the capital had learned to curb the movement of their own eyes to remarkable degrees, restricting their gazes in public spaces to areas where their eyes couldn't be intercepted.... though she herself made a conscious effort not to constrain her vision, Anjum added, to let her eyes move as freely as she wanted...

Thankfully, I am not having a busy workday, so I‘m sneaking some reading in for @TheAromaofBooks and her #BirthdayBash ! Really enjoying this Booker shortlist nominee - beautiful writing and beautiful thoughts.

Well written, but I found the pace too slow.

Solitude in the past...

https://youtu.be/8nfX72ASDMo

Ros‘s channel, Scallydandling about the books: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE-lxdtxTUTWEs0xJn-dH0g

Checked this #booker shortlister out from my local library and was not disappointed. It is a deeply introspective book about post civil war Sri Lanka and the resonating effects of the war on its citizens. The book centers around Krishan, and follows his inner monologue on a trip to the war torn north to attend the funeral for his grandmothers companion, Rani, who had never recovered from the loss of her two sons during the war. Highly recommend.

This is a novel that considers heavy, complex ideas against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. I was especially affected by its exploration of trauma, the way it is measured and compared, internalised, and the way it can be so inextricably tied to a place or a sensory experience. At times, this novel felt meandering and directionless, and at times I wished it had been edited a bit more tightly.

This is going to be a love it or hate it book. It is filled with description, with stories that may or may not relate to the main storyline, and it is gorgeous.
I learned so much about Sri Lanka, an area that I do not see many novels written about. Along with learning about Sri Lanka this book explores relationships and Krishan's innermost thoughts about love hope and what he sees in a war torn county.
Settle in for a journey w/o action

#weeklyforecast last couple of weeks have been slow going on reading so hoping to catch up some this week. I hear Opal&Nev is fantastic on audio so grabbed that from the library to listen along.

https://youtu.be/c-0ne_9DoP0

Books and topics mentioned:

The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart
Barbara Bray (Translation)

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson

My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel
Katherine Silver (Translation)

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels

A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam

Booker shortlist reaction

Company in the Evening by Ursula Orange

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

The present, we assume, is eternally before us, one of the few things in life from which we cannot be parted.

Reading this gorgeous book with a cafe and a macaron for a lovely Friday afternoon.

Very Booker-ish!
I'm happy with minimal plot. I am so here for philosophising about desire, yearning and memory, how they are acted upon by time. But. The juxtaposition of Krishan's romantic infatuation with a charismatic activist, and Rani's civil war trauma and funeral, did not sit well with me. Because I perceive the one as "real" suffering and the other as rather lightweight? (But then who made me the judge of the worth of another's pain?)

#BookQuote

It's a book I have very mixed feelings and thoughts. While the basic story is simple - Krishan is on a train, going north to attend his grandmother's caregiver funeral. When he observes landscape, his thoughts are in the past, he thinks about love, losses, desire, death, politics, war, violence, trauma - the execution is a little more complex. The first person narration is coloured very philosophically and with its long sentences … 👇

I hoped to love this, but I‘m just not getting through it. The writing is beautiful, and there are gorgeous passages - meditations on walking, on aging, for example- but as a whole I wanted the plot to help me between them. This may be that rare occasion where I needed to know more about it before I started.

DNF at 40% after about 2 months 😬. However, it‘s on the Booker list (it is v Bookery) so you may well love it - just not my thing, sadly.

Not one of my favourites on the #bookerlonglist. At the start I found the sentences long and the paragraphs even longer. I stopped noticing that after a while and it picked up for a while in the middle, but then the stream of consciousness style became rather wearing again.

There was quite a lot of Sri Lankan history and custom here, but it was all rather clumsily inserted into the narrative and you could see the joins.

Making my way through the Booker nominees. Of these three, I loved No One is Talking About This for its humor and sharp insights, and A Passage North for its absolutely profound beauty.

A young man‘s reflection on the brutality and trauma of the Sri Lankan civil war as he travels to the funeral of his grandmother‘s carer Rani. Rani suffered terrible losses in the war and for her perhaps death was a result of a desire to die. A slow reflective novel that engages with themes of death desire and memory in the context of a war unknown to many in the west. Readers who like me enjoy Sebald will enjoy this. A potential shortlister

This is the reason I am unwell,she‘d told him,taking out two medium sized photographs from the folder and holding them out for him to see, the first of a boy about fifteen or sixteen , wearing a black suit two sizes too big for him, taken in a studio with a sky blue backdrop , the second of a boy about ten or eleven wearing trousers and a shirt, taken in the same studio with the same blue background.

This is on the longlist for the Booker. And it's kind of what you would expect from that list. It's beautifully written, very reflective, slow paced and sort of dry. Am I selling it? I learned a lot about contemporary Sri Lanka. And the culture. Enough to make me realize that I know nothing.

#BookSpinBingo square 16
@TheAromaofBooks

I received this #ARC after the pub date.
#Hogarth #Netgalley

Bookerlonglist2021#. 1st august and I am starting my annual Booker long list read with this novel. Looks like one of the more challenging books on the list. The story of a young man travelling north to the funeral of his grandmother‘s carer in post civil war Sri Lanka. Initial impressions are that this will be introspective rather than plot driven. And oh what long sentences!

What an incredible opening paragraph. So profound and expressed so simply.