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shapinglightI managed to finish the two books I was reading that I'd put on hiatus when mum died.
Opinions behind cut.
Both were wonderful in their own way, and I can't see me ever reading either of them again.
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, as I said, is part biography of TH White, part nature book, part grief/depression memoir. It's beautifully written and very interesting. I'm just not sure when is a good time to read it. If you're happy, it will make you sad, if sad, even sadder. Maybe it's worth it for the poetical descriptions of the bleak Cambridgeshire countryside, and all the fascinating facts about goshawks. I suppose it's for everyone to decide for themselves.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is one of the most upsetting novels I've ever read. It tells the story of two half-sisters (they don't know about each other, which is possibly the least cruel thing about their stories) in eighteenth century Gold Coast (now Ghana) and their descendants. One sister is married off to a white slave trader. Her descendants stay in Gold Coast, living through all the turmoil of the colonial period, all of them haunted by the fact of their ancestry, even when knowledge of it has been lost. The other sister is a victim of the American slave trade. The stories of her descendants, as you would expect, make very grim reading, right up to the present day, where finally -in a totally believable way - the two sides of the family are reunited in a kind of absolution.
It was very hard going, but I'm glad I read it. I think it's a very important story, and if you don't come out of it feeling angry, or guilty, or a combination of both, there's something wrong with you.
And now my brain can't take any more. I'm going to read something completely trashy.
Opinions behind cut.
Both were wonderful in their own way, and I can't see me ever reading either of them again.
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, as I said, is part biography of TH White, part nature book, part grief/depression memoir. It's beautifully written and very interesting. I'm just not sure when is a good time to read it. If you're happy, it will make you sad, if sad, even sadder. Maybe it's worth it for the poetical descriptions of the bleak Cambridgeshire countryside, and all the fascinating facts about goshawks. I suppose it's for everyone to decide for themselves.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is one of the most upsetting novels I've ever read. It tells the story of two half-sisters (they don't know about each other, which is possibly the least cruel thing about their stories) in eighteenth century Gold Coast (now Ghana) and their descendants. One sister is married off to a white slave trader. Her descendants stay in Gold Coast, living through all the turmoil of the colonial period, all of them haunted by the fact of their ancestry, even when knowledge of it has been lost. The other sister is a victim of the American slave trade. The stories of her descendants, as you would expect, make very grim reading, right up to the present day, where finally -in a totally believable way - the two sides of the family are reunited in a kind of absolution.
It was very hard going, but I'm glad I read it. I think it's a very important story, and if you don't come out of it feeling angry, or guilty, or a combination of both, there's something wrong with you.
And now my brain can't take any more. I'm going to read something completely trashy.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-08 11:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-09 01:37 pm (UTC)Not at all an easy read though.
I guess, given the subject matter, it shouldn't be.