Reading Wednesday

[sabotabby]

 Will adherence to routine in all things, including blogging, reduce my anxiety? Let's find out.

Just finished: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. You know, I was along for the ride for this right up until the ending. Which, weirdly fascinates me. The author is so highly skilled that I doubt anything he writes isn't extremely intentional. But the ending was a combination of "exactly what I'd predict" and "so incredibly vague that it seemed designed to be dissected in literature courses/YouTube video essays." Anyone else read this? Or is it just me.

Anyway, I still enjoyed it quite a lot, but I expected more of a gut-punch.

Currently reading: Crystal Mind by K.A. Excell. I'm reading this on an ARC exchange. I'm very much not the readership for it, but it's doing an interesting job of doing what it's doing. It's about a kid who's been sent to a mysterious fighting school after beating up her abusive ex so badly he's been paralyzed, where she trains in martial arts and...sociology? YA is not my thing but the main character is very well-drawn and engaging—she's autistic with an auditory processing disorder and the author absolutely immerses us into her means of navigating the world. I can absolutely see it working for a particular type of kid who doesn't see themselves represented in YA genre fiction.

Comments

[naraht]

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. You know, I was along for the ride for this right up until the ending. Which, weirdly fascinates me. The author is so highly skilled that I doubt anything he writes isn't extremely intentional. But the ending was a combination of "exactly what I'd predict" and "so incredibly vague that it seemed designed to be dissected in literature courses/YouTube video essays." Anyone else read this? Or is it just me.

I read it when it first came out, after very much loving Never Let Me Go. I found it similar in themes but much less successful, partly because he really doesn't dive into the android thing in the way that an SF genre writer would. I confess I can't remember the ending in particular, which tells you something, but I vaguely have the sense that I found it both predictable and very Ishiguro.

[sabotabby]

he really doesn't dive into the android thing in the way that an SF genre writer would

This is a good point. I guess I probably enjoy more literary speculative fiction/magic realism than I do commercial genre stuff, and am thus more forgiving, but there is generally this one specific blindspot where the metaphor doesn't quite work as worldbuilding.

[naraht]

It's funny, I almost always land on the literary side of things, but with this I definitely found myself thinking "huh, you're really coming at this from scratch, aren't you?"

[sabotabby]

When it annoys me *cough*Atwood*cough* it really annoys me. Versus magic realism, which is its own tradition with its own set of rules and tropes.

[moonblossom]

I am reading a YA book too... Chronicles of Kerrigan.

[sabotabby]

Any good?

[moonblossom]

Like almost a girl Harry Potter... but yeah, very good. :) I recommend it.