I'm such an a-hole. The only thing I can think to say at the beginning of this review is that as much as The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a widely acclaimed literary think piece I just didn't "get it." And that's not really true. I did get it. I got it in about the first 50 pages and then after I got it I thought, okay why is the author making me try to re-get it over and over and over again.Have I become accustomed to smooth plot lines and robust character development? Maybe. Or do I just enjoy using the character and story to draw my own ideas of themes and lessons from the literature? Yes probably that too.Listen ULB has no true structure. The character and the plot serve as devices for Kundera to wax philosophical on the lessons he has learned from his own life. And I really appreciate his point of view and what he has to say, but it's almost like getting stuck talking to someone at a dinner party where by the time you get to dessert, you've heard about their complete philosophy on life and you are just hungry for a new topic. The book only has four characters, Thomas and Theresa, Sabina, and Franz. The plot jumps between and among them and back and forth in time to visit and re-visit points in their lives which tell us more about the author's own philosophies. This is a freshman literature student's dream, all the lessons the author wants you to get from the book are spelled out again and again. You don't have to interpret or internalize anything. It's all write there. That term paper practically writes itself. Listen, I did get it but I just got bored. I feel like I've let my pseudo-intellectual self down but this one was just not for me.
2/5 Stars.
There are very few book that get put on my DNF pile. But if it hadn't been for a work road trip and hours of windshield time, The Last Mrs. Parrish would have found itself discarded on the pile.
Let's begin at the beginning and then we'll get into spoiler territory.
TLMP starts in the mind of Amber Patterson, a woman with a clear agenda to get close to Daphne Parrish, a wealthy socialite in the town of Bishops Harbor, CT. Amber ingratiates herself to Daphne by pretending to have a sister who died of the same terrible disease as Daphne's character. And so the first 60% of the book is Amber moving closer and closer into Daphne's circle, somehow fooling everyone as to who she is and what her motives are. But as the reader, we know that Amber is a con artist intent on only one thing - getting Mr. Parrish in bed and becoming his wife.
So now just hold up here because this is part of the most irritating part of the book. Amber is deceptive and wiley, but she's not entirely all that smart or brilliant. Her plan does seem to be working because Daphne seems especially vulnerable to taking this dull homely girl under her wing. And that's all fine, but the premise that all that would be enough to turn the head of her supposedly faithful and adoring husband was just all a little too much to swallow. It was all a little too perfect a narrative. And the steps that were taken to get to those points were just a little too far outside of plausible.
And so after listening for about 8 hours of story, I was ready to bag Amber and TLMP. And so of course this is where the story turned. And Daphne becomes the narrator. Telling us all about the terrible marriage she has to Mr. Jackson Parrish. You see, he's a sadistic sociopath who is horrible to his wife and children. Through mental and physical abuse, he controls Daphne - who she talks to, where she goes. He threatens her through her children. He even had her committed to a mental institution after the birth of their first daughter so she would know just what the consequences would be if she ever tried to expose him or leave him. Apparently the only thing Daphne couldn't give him was a son. So when the Daphne section started with their meeting and dating I thought, oh no I don't have the stomach for ten years of marriage about this.
And thankfully the authors seemed to be aware. But then it became apparent that Daphne started orchestrating Amber's affair with Jackson and oh, the revenge, I was so here for it because I hated Amber so much. But in the end, I'm a little deflated that the "revenge" I was so hyped for ended up being the domestic abuse and serial rape of Amber by the husband she was so keen for. Not to mention their poor child who has two morally depraved parents. I was kind of thinking it would end in a murder/suicide in which Daphne, as the closest relative would get custody of Amber's son and then everyone innocent will be saved, but no. Or that Amber and Daphne would team up against Jackson, but also no. And the revenge kept coming. In spiral after spiral of take-down by Daphne. It ended up being a little too wrapped up, a little too perfect
So this was a big miss for me. The revenge portion left me feeling icky and the entirely too long front portion of the book wasn't worth the pay off.
2/5 Stars.
Back in 2017 when I read Kraken (that review here) and had a mixed review, other reviewers who felt the same as me said something along the lines of, "good, but not as good as Railsea." So Railsea has been on my to-read list since and I have to agree, it is a much better book than Kraken. Sham am Soorap is a doctor's apprentice on the mole train Medes. Hopelessly hopeless, Sham seems to not be very good at much of anything. But he's a likeable sort and somehow the train crew grows fond of him. In the world of Railsea, train tracks criss-cross the land for as far as anyone knows and in between the land lives subterranean animals of horrifying size and appearance, the largest of which are the Great Southern Moldywarpes. The mole train's purpose is to hunt down, slaughter, and sell the moldywarpes for meat and fur. The captain of the Medes, Captain Naphi, has taken on the hunt for a pale gigantic moldywarpe (her "philosophy" in Railsea speak) and she hunts him from end to end of the Railsea.But you see, there is no end the Railsea. It's unthinkable. That is until the Medes comes upon a wrecked train and Sham finds inside a disk containing photographs of a single line leading into nothing. On the disk are also pictures of children and a home. Sham, an orphan himself, believes those children are owed and explanation of what happened to their parents. The rest of the book takes Sham and his train crew on an exploration of the end of the Railsea, of what the railfolk refer to as "heaven" and the forwards and backwards of history. The language of Railsea, the unapologetic drop into its world and its history without a guide are captivating stuff. The cadence and rhythm were made all the better by narrator Jonathan Cowley who does a spectacular job with all the varied and various characters in this creative re-imagination of Moby Dick.
4.5/5 Stars.
