Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Quando le montagne cantano by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

3 reviews

annorabrady's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

I loved the look into the history of Vietnam through the generations. The characters and their stories were fully fleshed such that it reads more like a memoir than a historical fiction. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Police brutality, Abortion

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Rape, Abortion, Alcohol, Colonisation

Minor: Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization

ktrecs's review against another edition

3.5

emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

---

The scope and breadth of this novel is ambitious, and, I think, perhaps its downfall. In trying to show so much of Viet Nam's history, the narrative jumps through time in an inconsistent way, especially in Grandma Dieu Lan's perspective. In being tailored for a unfamiliar audience, the narration includes jarring moments, especially in the first half of the novel, where the prose digresses into unnecessary historical facts and figures, breaking the stride of the novel's plot and undercutting its heart.  In being written for an English-speaking audience, words in Vietnamese are almost always followed by a shoehorned definition, making the narrative voice feel clunky and inauthentic in places, especially in dialogue. At the beginning, especially in audiobook format, these peculiarities made it difficult for me to become immersed in the story and attached to the characters. It was not at all that the information was there; I am extremely grateful for the context and knowledge, just that I felt that the more non-fiction elements were less thematically successful and articulated with less poise and beauty, than the emotional core of the novel.

But by the 50% mark, I was hooked.  I have trouble DNFing books and books like this are exactly why. Had I decided to set this book aside I'd have missed the growth and nuance in the later half. All throughout, the prose is alternatively lush and crushing, evocative and tender. Each scene is built with such precision and care. Each generation of the Tran family is weaved carefully into the structure of the novel, part epistolary, part oral tradition, stories upon stories, realistic and compelling. As Hương ages and time inexorably moves forward, the tale becomes more intimate somehow. The poetic close of the novel drew its themes together perfectly, leaving us with a vision of hope and peace even throughout the dark events laid out in the past. The intimacy of it brings the personal into the political in an unforgettable way. 

Nguyen Phan Que Mai's voice is clear, profound and powerful, and I will certainly look forward to encountering it again. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Abortion

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement