a tale of two brothers and their grief

a tale of two brothers, stricken with grief and trying to find their way in a new normal. a study of relationships and of love. the characters and emotions fill this book, thought provoking.

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2 people found this helpful

the wonder of flawed lives

I was pleasantly surprised by the book, my first Sally Rooney work. I liked watching the development of the characters and the conflicts and misunderstandings. The dialog was complex yet needed by the characters to dig the various holes they needed to isolate themselves.
it had the bizarreness we often see with friends,family and neighbours who often seem to burrow deep away from the light of their love for others.

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Tangled webs

This is a long slow meditation on grief, life, relationships and how they intersect with society’s norms. There were times when I wanted to bang together the heads of those young men and say’for goodness’ sake communicate will you?’ But that’s what the novel is about - learning to communicate. Amongst other things. It’s beautifully read and is definitely worth persevering - another brilliant work by Sally Rooney

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Solid novel good read but not quite great

I’ve been enjoying this book. Another strong showing for Irish literature. Sally Rooney does well to explore themes around relationships. It is generally well written but the author lacks an ability to change pace in her narrative. It is also a fairly standard attempt by a female to write through the eyes of male characters which doesn’t quite work. Whilst Sally’s charaterization is well devloped she hasnt full captured the male psyche. With a bit more work this good book could have achieved a great deal more.

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Very slow story. Boring reading

I usually love Sally R but it took me nearly 2 months to go through this audiobook. I believe that the monotone reading was very hard to overcome.

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Doesn’t translate well to audiobook

Great narrator, but forgot that Rooney’s characters stumble towards self-expression which means that there are LOTS of three word sentences. All the time. Like this. Which is unbelievably irritating to listen to.

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intelligent prose

the story floored me really, I found the story so compelling, the little snapshot of time following a bereavement. it was such a beautiful story and the narrator was an excellent choice.

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2 people found this helpful

Easily one of my favorite books ever!

Sally Rooney's writing in this book is levels up ahead of the writing in some of her previous books (Normal People, Conversations with Friends). The amount of complex emotions showcased in this book and their depth was simply stunning in execution. I found myself pausing the audiobook to write down quotes from the book constantly. Some examples of great quotes in this book:

"It is better to feel hopeful and optimistic about one's life on earth while engaged in a never-ending struggle to pay rent than to feel despondent and depressed while engaged in the same non-optional struggle anyway."

"The difference between truth and lying is complicated. You think you're fitting language onto the world in a certain way like a child fitting the right-shaped toy into the right-shaped slot but you realize that it's a false picture. Language doesn't fit onto reality like a toy fitting into a slot."

"The person that's gone has no reality except in our thoughts and once they're gone from our thoughts then they're actually gone."

"That he's come to love her such an absurd thing, like a staged fight where it turns out the knives are real."

Both Peter and Ivan's POVs are very interesting, seeing the way they each cope with grief after losing their father and how each perceives the other was very interesting.

I enjoyed Peter's POV much more, it felt more meaningful. It was however much tougher to get into than Ivan's POV. The writing style for the two POVs is quite different and Peter's style of narration was trickier to follow at first but as the story unfolds I found myself wishing the Ivan chapters would go faster so I could go back to seeing Peter's POV. All in all an amazing book!

Also, the audiobook performance is so good! I could tell instantly if it was a Peter chapter or an Ivan chapter from the first 2 words.

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1 person found this helpful

Forensic exploration of grief

It took me a little longer to get into this, compared to previous Sally Rooney books, but I was drawn in so deep I felt I was living it.
The writing is so focused and detailed and yet so effortless and natural that each nuance, every thought and emotion is perfectly realised.
Sad and beautiful, I didn’t want it to end.

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Beautiful, complex, enjoyable

Loved every minute of this interesting, thoughtful and entertaining book! Narration was great. Highly recommend this audio book

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