Category: Contemporary

Wait, Blink by Gunnhild Øyehaug

Posted October 15, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 2 Comments

Title: Wait, Blink (Goodreads)
Author: Gunnhild Øyehaug
Translator: Kari Dickson
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018
Pages: 256
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Hardcover

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature 2018

After reading Love by Hanne Ørstavik, it felt rather strange to go to Wait, Blink by Gunnhild Øyehaug. Not because they are both by Norwegian authors but because they both take a small slice of the everyday and explore it. Although that is pretty much the end of the similarities. Wait, Blink reads very differently, it is contemporary look into the life, mainly three woman at different stages of their lives.

Wait, Blink is riddled with pop-culture references, mainly looking at the connection between art and love. While it also feels like Gunnhild Øyehaug is trying to understand this obsession western films have with women in oversized men’s shirts. The novel makes references to film scenes where a women is in an oversized men’s shirt and how it is often a symbol used to represent sex. One of the key example talked about was Sofia Coppola’s 2003 film Lost in Translation starring Scarlett Johansson. Interestingly enough Yngvild Sve Flikke adapted this novel in 2015 and called it Women in Oversized Men’s Shirts (Kvinner i for store herreskjorter).

This novel had a very contemporary feel to it which made it a very quick read. The film as well as other pop-culture references worked for a geek like myself. At the heart of the novel it felt like a poetic look into the lives of three different women. The way they navigated through their own lives and romantic situations were very different. Although I have to disagree with the subtitle of this book; “A Perfect Picture of Inner Life”.

While this is a novel that explores the inner lives of these women, it felt more like a snapshot into their worlds. We have three different women at different stages of their lives but because they are different people, it is hard to get a perfect picture of inner life. This is small glimpses into the lives of three women and while I would love to follow them further (especially Sigrid the young literary student) we only see a fragment and nothing more. From the National Book Award longlist for Translated Literature, Wait, Blink is one of my favourites and I am pleased it is getting some attention.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Posted August 24, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 4 Comments

Title: Convenience Store Woman (Goodreads)
Author: Sayaka Murata
Translator: Ginny Tapley Takemori
Published: Portobello Books, 2016
Pages: 176
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Longlisted for the BTBA 2019

The latest literary sensation seems to be Convenience Store Woman, this book is everywhere but maybe because it is currently WITMonth (Women in Translation Month). This is a dark comedy that explores the life of Keiko, who never felt like she fit in with society. She took a job in a convenience store and now eighteen years later she feels like this is where she belongs. Thanks to the convenience store manual she knows exactly how she is meant to act and behave.

Convenience Store Woman dives into society and starts questioning what we consider social norms. For Keiko she feels comfortable working in a convenience store. However for everyone else, they think something is wrong with her. To them, she should have moved on to a better job, gotten married and had kids. This is a brutal look at how damaging social norms can be as the reader follows Keiko dealing with these outside pressures that society have put on her.

The novel is constantly questioning this idea of what people call ‘normal’ and wants us to consider why it is so important. Keiko seemed like a happy person, she liked the structure and the routine of being a convenience store worker. She may be socially awkward or odd but why would that matter to everyone else in the world? We see the damage social pressure puts on this woman.

I loved this novel because it explored this important social issue so flawlessly. There is constant pressure put on people that is so unnecessary. For example, I have been married for almost nine years now and the question of children is always being asked. What if we do not want children? Or what if we cannot have children? I have witnessed this pressure and how damaging it can be. You are basically saying, ‘this person is not human because they will not conform to my expectations of what makes a person normal’. That whole attitude makes me so angry. People should be able to live their own lives the way that choose to do so.

As you can see, Convenience Store Woman has had an effect on me. It was such a pleasure to read this dark and humorous book but the feeling of anger still runs strong within me. I am pleased to see this novel getting so much attention, and I hope this is another small step towards allowing others to live their own true self.

Unrelated but I need to memorialise this event, when telling my wife that I had finished reading Convenience Store Woman, she thought I said I inconvenienced all women.

Lullaby by Leïla Slimani

Posted August 17, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 2 Comments

Title: Lullaby (Goodreads)
Author: Leïla Slimani
Translator: Sam Taylor
Published: Faber & Faber, 2016
Pages: 224
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

At the beginning of the year Lullaby by Leïla Slimani (The Perfect Nanny in North America) was getting a lot of attention. It tells the story of Myriam, a French-Moroccan lawyer who is anxious to get back to work after giving birth to her second child. Before doing so, they must find the perfect nanny to take care of their children. Louise is a polite and quiet woman who goes above and beyond looking after the two children but is she really the perfect nanny?

Leïla Slimani is a French-Moroccan journalist who lives in Paris with her two young children. My interpretation of this novel is that Leïla Slimani let all her insecurities about leaving her children with a nanny play out on the page. There is a constant feeling of fear and jealousy that it explored inside Myriam’s mind. It is this realism that makes Lullaby a novel worth reading.

Lullaby won the Prix Goncourt in 2016 which is one of France’s most prestigious literary awards. Winners of this prize include Marcel Proust for In Search of Lost Time, Simone de Beauvoir (The Mandarins), and Marguerite Duras with her amazing novel The Lover. With this type of prestige behind the prize, it is not surprising that Leïla Slimani’s Chanson douce was translated so quickly.

The baby is dead. It only took a few seconds.

This is a dark glimpse into the mind of motherhood, something I would pair with Die, My Love. It must have been very therapeutic for Leïla Slimani to write out this novel and explore the feeling of returning to the work force. I do not know if this is autobiographical in any way, I just base my assumption on the similarities of Myriam and Leïla. I understand why North America called this novel The Perfect Nanny but honestly the French title Chanson douce translates to soft song. Sam Taylor is the translator for both, I am just a little wary about the accuracy of the text when the title is vastly different from the original. Lullaby is a quick and thrilling read that will make you feel uncomfortable. This is not for everyone but for fans of dark fiction, it is worth checking out.

La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono

Posted August 10, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 2 Comments

Title: La Bastarda (Goodreads)
Author: Trifonia Melibea Obono
Translator: Lawrence Schimel
Published: Feminist Press, 2018
Pages: 120
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Going into La Bastarda, I did not know what to expect. I picked it up on a whim; a coming of age story about a teenage girl rebelling against the norms of Fang culture sounds too good to pass up. This is the first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English and, let’s be honest, I need to read more books from Africa. One of the reasons I read books in translations is to explore cultures I have never experienced. La Bastarda did give me the opportunity to both learn about Equatorial Guinea and experience what it must be like as a queer person.

There is a lot to say about the Fang culture and I will try to include that along the way but I feel that looking at this novel from a western perspective gives us a lot to talk about. Mainly the fact that tribal culture and our own are very similar. La Bastarda follows an orphaned teen named Okomo who is under the care of her grandmother. Okomo dreams of finding her father but it is forbidden by the elders, particularly her grandfather. It is Fang custom to obey your elders. However with the help of her uncle Marcelo and a group known as the indecency girls, we follow Okomo on her journey of self-discovery.

Okomo is a bastarda, the daughter of no man. Her mother was unwed when she got pregnant. Because Okomo’s biological father did not pay the dowry to marry her mother, he holds no right to be known as a father. Okomo was an outcast, she was looked down on because she was a bastarda but she feels different in another way. According to the Fang customs, once a girl has her period she is old enough for marriage. She has constant pressure to find a husband and bring in a dowry so she can get married and start producing an heir.

There is a great exploration into masculinity within La Bastarda, Okomo wonders what makes someone a man. At first she thought a penis makes someone a man but her grandparents constantly tell her that her uncle is not a man. He is often referred to as a ‘man-woman’ and has to live in the forest away from the tribe. Okomo’s grandfather wants her uncle to do his duty and get his brother’s wife pregnant in order to hide the family’s shame. Fertility plays a great role among the Fang and if you are not fulfilling your role to the tribe you are considered subhuman. To the tribe, Marcelo is a ‘man-woman’ because he is neither married nor producing offspring. His sexuality does not matter. The teenage girls Okomo befriends are known as the indecency (later referred to as ‘woman-man’) because they have not found husbands yet.

There is a lot of sexual violence within La Bastarda, which is very important to discuss. I acknowledge that as a straight white man, that my opinion on this topic is less than ideal but I feel this needs to be discussed. It was not until Okomo was raped by the three women, that we even see Okomo considering herself a lesbian. Not to take anything away from the fact that this is rape, it reads like she only discovers her sexuality by force. Which lead to me thinking just how many people are pushed into self-discovery or are completely unware. I know my own experiences make me ignorant of this journey of discovery, so I have to turn to novels like this.

The forest became a place of freedom for Okomo who quickly fell in love. When their secrets are eventually discovered by the tribe, the punishment was that the girls are forced into marriages, as a form of corrective rape. It is sad to think that the importance of reproduction is considered more important that the wellbeing of a person but it does get you to think about western culture and just how much this is still a problem here as well. Within La Bastarda the only place of freedom is in the forest, which is interesting, considering that African mythology and our own fairy tales depict the forest of a place of evil and witchcraft. In these stories the hero journeys into the forest on a quest, in La Bastarda that quest is one of self-discovery.

Since finishing this short novel I have not been able to stop reflecting on it. La Bastarda has a lot to say, and while it will make you unconformable, it is an important message. While I viewed a lot of this novel in relation to gay and lesbian culture here in the Western world, I cannot begin to imagine the struggle for LGBTQI rights in Africa. I struggle to put into words the feelings I have here, because it is not my journey nor is it a culture I understand. I hope I was able to articulate my thoughts without offending. I believe the importance of equality and I think La Bastarda was able to highlight the struggles people face from another part of the world.

The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa

Posted July 30, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: The Neighborhood (Goodreads)
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
Translator: Edith Grossman
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016
Pages: 256
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I have been reading a lot of authors lately that I have been meaning to try for a long time, which leads me to pick up The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa. The novel follows two wealthy couples that find themselves embroiled in a salacious scandal, starting with a politically motivated blackmail that lead to photos being published in a gossip magazine. While the actions of one man, this scandal affects not only his own wife but also his lawyer and his wife.

Set in 1990s Lima, The Neighborhood explores the not only the effects of one person’s actions but also the seedy underbelly of Peruvian privilege. Most people are aware of my love for political turmoil in my literature, so this was a book I knew I would need to read. However it was not the political elements that ended up interesting me but the personal affects a scandal had on the people around him. While Enrique is navigating through the blackmail and threats of exposure, his wife is in the midst of a passionate love affair with his lawyer’s wife.

This brings me to the major problem with the novel, sex. I am beginning to wonder why male writers even attempt to write sex scenes because they far too often come across as cringe worthy. The lesbian affair was one of the most interesting aspects of the story but whenever Mario Vargas Llosa started writing about sex, the novel becomes unreadable. This is probably some of the worst sex scenes I have read, and I mean they are worse than people like Haruki Murakami and I think he has won the Bad Sex in Fiction award. (Note: Murakami has not won the award but has been nominated numerous times. Also it is interesting to note the ratio of Men to Women who have won the award; 22 to 2).

Mario Vargas Llosa has this great ability to demonstrate just what is going on in at the time politically. I wanted to learn more about the corruption and politics of 1990s Peru. I think he has a unique ability to blend the political landscape into a personal story. Exploring not just the effects of the country but how it personally affects an individual. Judging by the book, I could not tell you what political views has, but if I had to guess, I would say he was in the centre of the spectrum with a slight lean to the left.

There is so much to really enjoy about The Neighborhood, it is just a shame a vital part of the novel lets the entire book down. Rather than Vargas Llosa writing out his lustful fantasies about lesbians, he could have talked more about the world. Alberto Fujimori was the president at the times and there is a lot there that would be worth mentioning. I would rather explore that to descriptions of armpit licking. Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature, “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.” To be fair, this was done to perfection. If there were not any sex scenes I would confidently pick up more Mario Vargas Llosa novels, but at the moment, I am too worried.

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli

Posted July 21, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: Faces in the Crowd (Goodreads)
Author: Valeria Luiselli
Translator: Christina MacSweeney
Published: Coffee House Press, 2011
Pages: 146
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Faces in the Crowd is the story of a young mother living in contemporary Mexico City who is trying to write a novel. She recounts her time living in New York as a translator. Her novel is based on the bohemian life of Mexican poet Gilberto Owen, mainly focusing on his time in Harlem. Valeria Luiselli’s first novel to be published into English, Faces in the Crowd is a spectacular novel dealing with multiple perspectives and a shifting reality.

I have already recorded and released a podcast about this novel, with Lia from Hyde and Seek but I felt that I needed to put in a short review as well. If you are interested, most of my thoughts about this book are better discussed on that episode. Needless to say, I loved this book. Faces in the Crowd is the second Luiselli novel I have read. Having read The Story of My Teeth last year but this one stood out more. This is the novel that turned me into a fan and made me determined to read everything she has written, assuming it has been translated into English.

“…a horizontal novel told vertically”

The different perspectives made for a unique reading experience, one that made me slow down and take my time trying to understand what was going on. This really is a horizontal novel told vertically in the sense that you read down the page but there are so many layers of which you need to keep track. First you have her life as a married woman with a child in modern Mexico. Then you have her time as a translator in New York. The third thread is around Gilberto Owen’s life. However the narrative fractures and reality shifts, and the narrative threads get complicated, leaving the reader to try and decide between reality and fiction, the fiction that this unnamed woman is writing.

I knew I loved this novel from the start because it felt like a real approach to translated literature. “I worked as a reader and translator in a small publishing house dedicated to rescuing ‘foreign gems.’ Nobody bought them, though, because in such an insular culture translation is treated as suspicion. But I liked my work and I believed that for a time I did it well.” This statement happened on page one, and I felt like Valeria Luiselli had captured something real. I often feel that people treat translations as suspicious or something inaccessible.

I treated this novel as a peek into the world of translations and I felt like it captured it well. I think there was so much more going on that helped me fall in love with Faces in the Crowd and I hope that more people pick it up. Like I said earlier, check out the Lost in Translations episode on this book. I do not want to put too many details into my review because I legit want people to listen to the podcast. I have Sidewalks on my shelf, which is also translated by Christina MacSweeney, so I will probably pick that up soon.

August by Romina Paula

Posted July 19, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 2 Comments

Title: August (Goodreads)
Author: Romina Paula
Translator: Jennifer Croft
Published: Feminist Press, 2009
Pages: 224
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Twenty-one- year old Emilia travels home to rural Patagonia to scatter the ashes of her friend Andrea. Her death was a surreal experience from her new home in Buenos Aires. However returning home five years later is a confronting experience. Once back home Emilia finds herself face to face with her adolescence, as she immerses herself with her memories. August is a blend of the grief narrative mixed with a coming of age story.

What really stuck me with this novel is the way Romania Paula was able to capture that feeling of nostalgia, with the raw emotions of her grief. Blending the constant references to music and pop culture helped drive my own feeling of nostalgia. The angst of being home reminded me of my own younger days. Then there is that feeling of grief, a feeling I have not experienced with such intensity but felt real with a raw intensity. The combination of all these elements really brought this novel together perfectly.

It was a profoundly real experience and the combination of Romania Paula’s writing style and the translation by Jennifer Croft really helped to drive the reading experience. I have been impressed with the work being done by Croft, having recently translated Flights by Olga Tokarczuk from the Polish, which won this year’s Man Booker International Prize. It is at a point where I will pick up anything she translates in the future. Both Flights and August have been both great reading experiences for me, yet the styles are completely different.

It is hard to review a book like August. It is one of those books you need to experience. The novel was published by Feminist Press whose mission statement is to “advance women’s rights and amplify feminist perspectives”. My experience with Feminist Press has been a very positive experience and so much of their catalogue sounds great. With more of a focus on reading women in translations, I know that Feminist Press will provide some raw and gritty experiences. I do not want to say more about August, I just hope I have said enough to convince people to read it.

Vernon Subutex, 1 by Virginie Despentes

Posted May 15, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: Vernon Subutex, 1 (Goodreads)
Author: Virginie Despentes
Translator: Frank Wynne
Series: Vernon Subutex #1
Published: MacLehose Press, 2017
Pages: 352
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2018
Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2018

Having read Virginie Despentes previously (Apocalypse Baby) I have to say I was a little worried about reading her Man Booker International Prize shortlisted book. I was worried that Despentes was aiming for to shock, but this novel seems to be a cutting-edge social novel looking directly at the punk sub-culture in France. The book is the first in the trilogy and it focuses on Vernon who is feeling ambivalent about his fast approaching half century. He started working at Revolver, a hip Parisian record store in his twenties but now he is reflecting on his own life. Vernon Subutex, 1 explores the rapidly changing social scene of music and the punk rock lifestyle.

The record store once boasted a legendary status but now, in the 2000s, it is struggling. However, in a throwaway comment, the internet believe that Vernon is in possession of the last filmed recordings of the famous musician Alex Bleach. Beach recently died from a drug overdose and now people from all walks of life are after Vernon and this supposed recording.

I view Vernon Subutex, 1 as the beginning of an epic journey. Often, we read an epic as a story that follows a family through their generations but this is more of a social epic. It follows both Vernon and the music industry as their worlds rapidly change. What drew me to this novel is the music references, there are so many bands and songs referenced in this book that I remember fondly. Before becoming a book nerd, I spent a lot of time listening to music, and the punk scene was one I closely followed. While I still listen to music, I do not have a finger on the pulse anymore. I have borne witness to the changes the internet brought to the music industry. Music stores closing everywhere as the rise of piracy and streaming quickly spread. However, it is important to remember that the revival of vinyl has helped indie record stores survive nowadays.

For me, there was just too much that I could relate to in Vernon Subutex, 1 and I found myself loving the reading experience. While I was never into the drugs and alcohol consumption that is associated with this sub-culture, I could identify with the social disconnect, music obsession and laziness that characterised Vernon. Then Virginie Despentes starts to dive into a darker side of the sub-culture, dealing with violent tendencies, racism and sexual identity. Despentes previously was a sales clerk in a record store and a freelance rock journalist, which plays a big part in helping shape this novel. Although her past careers as a sex worker and pornographic film critic have also influenced the plot. She seems to explore themes of youth marginalisation, the sexual revolution lived by Generation X, music and pornography within Vernon Subutex, 1 and Apocalypse Baby, which leads me to suspect this is common in all her novels.

Virginie Despentes may have found a place with French authors like Emmanuel Carrère and Michel Houellebecq and while I was not blown away by Vernon Subutex, 1, I will be continuing with book two when it is released into English later this year. I feel like there is still more of the story left to explore and I hope that it all comes together in the end. Right now, it feels incomplete and something I would not recommend to anyone, unless they love the music. There is a Spotify playlist which features all the songs and artist mentioned in the trilogy which has lead to discovering some new French bands. If it was not for the Man Booker International Prize longlist, I may have never given Virginie Despentes another chance, but I am glad I have.

The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi

Posted April 4, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 6 Comments

Title: The Stolen Bicycle (Goodreads)
Author: Wu Ming-Yi
Translator: Darryl Sterk
Published: Text, 2015
Pages: 416
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2018

According to the main character Ch’eng, the word someone uses for ‘bicycle’ can tell you a lot about a person. The term ‘jitensha’ (self-turn vehicle) might indicate a Japanese education, while ‘tanche’ (solo vehicle), ‘chaiotache’ (foot-pedalled vehicle) and ‘zixingche’ (self-propelled vehicle) indicate different parts of China. For Ch’eng, he prefers to use the Taiwanese word ‘thihbe’ (iron horse). The Stolen Bicycle is a novel about family history, and the history of the Japanese military in World War II, which was waging the same times. However the book is centred of the iron horses in their lives, especially trying to uncover the mystery of a stolen bicycle.

Wu Ming-Yi is obsessed with bicycles, this whole book is full of the history of the bicycle industry. When he is not talking about the history of bicycles, Taiwan or the Japanese in World War II, he manages to weave in a compelling narrative that explores the bonds of family. The story turns into a meditation of memory, loss and life living in war times. Then it all comes back to bicycles, and that often feels tedious.

Throughout the narrative there are these ‘bicycle notes’ which are used to provide detailed history in regards to bicycles and the war. While I enjoyed the way Wu Ming-Yi used these sections to give the reader context, it was the way the information bleed into to other text that became a problem. Rather than being a meditation of life and family it felt more like an obsession with bicycles. Personally I think if this information remained in the ‘bicycle notes’, it would have been a stronger book.

Wu Ming-Yi is a literary professor and nature writer. He has written two books on butterflies in the past; The Book of Lost Butterflies (2000) and The Way of Butterflies (2003). To me, this feels like he is passionate about topics and it spills into his writing. I think Ming-Yi is a very strong writer and there is a lot to like about this, it just got harder and harder to motivate myself to finish the book. I had to petal through and now I never want to talk about bicycle ever again.

I am of two minds with this book, there is a lot to like about the novel; the writing, the narrative and the style were all great. It was just the constant talking about bicycles that made me want to run over cyclists in my car. If this was half the size, this would have been almost perfect. However, I am stuck in a place of love and hate when thinking about The Stolen Bicycle. I do suspect others will have a better reaction but I never want to see another bicycle in my lifetime.

The Dinner Guest by Gabriela Ybarra

Posted March 29, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 4 Comments

Title: The Dinner Guest (Goodreads)
Author: Gabriela Ybarra
Translator: Natasha Wimmer
Published: Harvill Secker, 2018
Pages: 160
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: eBook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2018

In 1977, three terrorists broke into the home of Gabriela Ybarra’s grandfather, taking him by force. The first half of The Dinner Guest follows her research into what actually happened. This book blurs the lines between true crime and fiction to create a unique narrative. However, The Dinner Guest doesn’t stop there; the book is also centred around Gabriela Ybarra’s mother dying of cancer.

The story goes that in my family there’s an extra dinner guest at every meal. He’s invisible, but always there. He has a plate, glass, knife and fork. Every so often he appears, casts his shadow over the table, and erases one of those present.

The first to vanish was my grandfather.

I have a feeling that the judges of the Man Booker International Prize are focusing on unique narrative styles, particularly when it comes to exploring grief. Of the four books I have read so far from the long list, these have been the similarities. Whether or not we call this a memoir of grief with fictional elements or an autobiographical novel is not something that I choose to debate. However this book evokes too many similarities to War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, with the latter being a much stronger book.

It is almost impossible to talk about this book without looking it as a piece of non-fiction. The fact her grandfather was taken at gun point is wrapped throughout the narrative. The rest of The Dinner Guest is around witnessing her mother’s heath deterioration and her eventual passing. The two tragic events shapes the majority of the book. Evoking many powerful images but ultimately I never felt it really came together.

There is an idea that seemed to stick with me that never played out to my satisfaction. That was the idea of a person viewed differently, not just after their passing. For Gabriela Ybarra, her mother stopped being her mother long before her death. Her identity was stripped away and all that was left was cancer. There is a line in the book that says, “The last time I saw her, she had already stopped existing.” Even after her death, the press suddenly became interested in her.

At first I couldn’t understand why my mother’s death was of interest to the press. Then I was frustrated, because some of the reflections shared had nothing to do with the way I remembered her.

If it was not for the Man Booker International Prize longlist, I may have never have picked up The Dinner Guest. There is some interesting and notable parts within this book but the more I think about it the less I am satisfied. I love trying to read through the longlist to join in on all the conversations but you cannot expect me to like all the picks. I doubt this will make the shortlist, so instead of reading this one, may I recommend War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans which was translated by David McKay.