Welcome to Litsy!

Final #roll100 read for Jan. really picked itself up for me in the final chapter, but not quite enough to be a pick. Very very weird and disengaged - I would read something else by this author though after the ending!

7th book read from Women‘s Prize for fiction Long List
Unpopular opinion but this time, I really liked this novel. In a peculiar, unique sarcastic tone, the author narrate different topics: (social, political, cultural, etc) through this man who visited his country after 26 years of exile.I think it was so creative. Character has a fragmented thinking process, thinking about what he is thinking/observing/doing. ⬇️

Book on the beach! (Well, next to the beach. And I wasn't stopping.)

Long week, large hot chocolate, new library book

This must be the weirdest book on the #WomensPrize longlist. It reads like a Kafkaesque fever dream. When you finally understand what's going on it hits hard, but the way there feels really long for such a short (just shy of 200 pages) book. The humour and the side eye given to everything from missionaries to news stories would have carried the book if the journey hadn't been so confusing and exhausting to both the reader and the MC.
#WomensPrize

A long serpentine parable that all comes together in the last chapter. You have to have patience with not understanding what is happening. I can admire the writing skills involved, but not a favorite read for me. 2 🌟

I think Binyam was attempting social critique here and I appreciate that instinct, but the execution didn‘t work for me at all. While there were a couple places where I chuckled, the main character is so bumbling it just seemed silly and the critique fell flat. I‘m a bit disappointed this made the #womensprize for fiction list.

Our protagonist gets a call that he need to go home and that‘s what he does. We follow him on the plane ride and his other transportations, and while he travels people he meet will tell him his story, both strangers and extended family.

That ending caught me completely by surprise but at the same time it explains something that happens during the novel.

What have I just read and why? I was willing too dive into the estranging world of Hangman, where an African man after two decennia of exile returns to his homeland. It didn‘t make much sense to me though, the stories told by the people he met upon his return.

My least favorite of the #womenprize longlist so far.

(Photo: hiking with my girlfriends)

This is a case of "I see what you did there, well done, this just isnt for me"

Binyam did a fantastic job creating a fever dream of a book, following an unnamed narrator. It takes a minute to understand the purpose of his journey, but the unfolding is just obvious enough. Unfortunatly for me, I got bored about half in. ?.

That was…. different. 🤔 My least-liked book on the #womensprize long list so far.

An unnamed man returns to unnamed country (in Africa) to find his brother, who may be dying. Along the way he meets many people, who aren‘t named and who he should recognise but doesn‘t, who all want to tell him their stories.

I liked the stories at the start but they became very repetitive and the way of naming characters was frustrating ⬇️

#weeklyforecast
#wpfl24
#womensprize

All the holds coming in at the library, setting up for a busy reading week! I also have All That She Carried from the Nonfiction long list on audio ✔️✔️✔️