Faces in the Crowd in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 22, 2024 Lisa of Hopewell rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2024

My Interest
This book sounded interesting. I probably found it researching books for Spanish Lit Month hosted by Winston’s Dad. At 150 pages though it was a perfect fit for Novellas in November hosted by

The Story
“I know I need to generate a structure full of holes so that I can always find a place for myself on the page, inhabit it; I have to remember never to put in more than is necessary, never overlay, never furnish or adorn.”

“I knew it wasn’t a good idea to place the least trust in household My Interest
This book sounded interesting. I probably found it researching books for Spanish Lit Month hosted by Winston’s Dad. At 150 pages though it was a perfect fit for Novellas in November hosted by

The Story
“I know I need to generate a structure full of holes so that I can always find a place for myself on the page, inhabit it; I have to remember never to put in more than is necessary, never overlay, never furnish or adorn.”

“I knew it wasn’t a good idea to place the least trust in household objects; as soon as we become accustomed to the silent presence of a thing, it gets broken or disappears. My ties to the people around me were also marked by those two modes of impermanence: breaking up or disappearing.”

A young woman, somewhat overwhelmed by young motherhood, tries to order her life a bit by writing a novel about translating his work. From there the poet becomes a big part of the story and the whole thing becomes a bit other worldly–very appropriate since the Spanish title of the book translates to “the weightless.” That translation makes much more sense to the book than the English title of “Faces in the Crowd,” too.

My Thoughts
I loved the energy of this book! The audio performer was perfect for the rule–effusing the story with her personal enthusiasm for the experience of bringing the work to life. I liked the quirkiness of it all, but began to get annoyed at having to turn off the audio, figure out who/what/where and the try to connect the dots anew when I turned it back on. To me this was more like spoken performance art than an actual book. Therefore, while I enjoyed the experience, I’m not sure what to think of the book. Would I have enjoyed it in print? Would it have made more sense in print? I’m not sure. I did get very tired of some of the “ick” stuff in it–especially the mention of mastr—tion–a topic I do not enjoy reading or listening about. Even these very quick mentions. Nor a couple of other “ick” things no matter how quickly the appear and disappear in the story. I don’t think any of it added anything.

My Verdict
3.0
Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, translated by Christiana MacSweeney

I listened to the audio version of this book. ...more

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Sep 16, 2018 Tanya rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, format-audiobook

This author new to me and the writing style was different than I am accustomed to—I really felt the cultural background differences. I appreciated that aspect and it made it so the cussing didn’t bother me and made sense. I liked how the stories came together as the novel progressed. Not sure I would read more from this author, but I have picked up another of her novels and may give it a go. My three star rating represents that I “liked” this one - didn’t “really like it” and didn’t “love it.” F ...more

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