The Leavers in Around the World in 80 Books

May 17, 2018 Nadine in NY Jones rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, literary-schmiterary, nyc, oh-unlikeable-you, did-not-finish, audio, scum-lit

He had never known how exhausting it was to be conspicuous.

There is a certain type of literary fiction that describes things in the most unpleasant way possible. He doesn't just ride a bus, he rides a bus that smells like dirty diapers. They don't just have dinner, they have dinner at an old Formica table with fake wood grain and peeling corners. It's not just a muffin, it's a soggy muffin with blueberries that look like pigeon poop. It's scum-lit. Everyone is awful, thinking awful things, a

He had never known how exhausting it was to be conspicuous.

There is a certain type of literary fiction that describes things in the most unpleasant way possible. He doesn't just ride a bus, he rides a bus that smells like dirty diapers. They don't just have dinner, they have dinner at an old Formica table with fake wood grain and peeling corners. It's not just a muffin, it's a soggy muffin with blueberries that look like pigeon poop. It's scum-lit. Everyone is awful, thinking awful things, and the world around them is equally awful. I don't know why. Is it uncool, in their minds, to write about appealing people and things? Do they just never see things in a positive light?

This is one of those books. I literally physically recoiled at times while listening. Other examples are Fates and Furies and Gold Fame Citrus, so if you liked those, you should definitely read this, too.

I really didn't like Deming/Daniel. He's like a professional fuck-up, dedicated to seeing the worst side of things and making the worst decisions possible. I don't mean to single him out, I didn't really like anyone in this book. I'm sure there are people just like this in the world, but I don't have any interest in spending time with them.

As someone who lives four hours northwest of NYC (not five hours, as the fictional Ridgeborough is described, but pretty close), I found the description of the small, stale hickville town to be unrelateable. These writers must go up to Rye or White Plains or Sleepy Hollow, imagine what the rest of the state is like, and then miss the mark entirely. Has Lisa Ko spent any time in an actual small NY college town five hours northwest of NYC? (Close approximation: Keuka Park, NY, which according to Google is 4 hours and 59 min from the Bronx. Alternate possibilities: Geneseo or Alfred. But "Keuka" sounds pretty close to the made up college, Carlo, where the Wilkinsons teach; or maybe "Carlo" is a stand-in for Alfred University..)

I wasn't crazy about the reading style of Emily Woo Zeller either. She emphasized each word and spoke with a shaking intensity, as if constantly on the verge of tears. I guess that's consistent with the tone Ko maintained, but it didn't work for me.

I got as far as I could, but when another audiobook I wanted became available from the library, I bailed.

This is an important story, and it is reasonably well-written (although she hits the reader over the head a bit too hard with her Very Important Message, and the doppelgänger metaphor), but it's very much not for me. ...more

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Nov 02, 2017 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

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Dec 28, 2018 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: asian, audio

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Jun 09, 2023 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: to-read-own

Ooh, this one was a heartbreaker and beautifully written. So many challenging themes, adoption, belonging, loss, and social justice. Great on #audio, highly recommend!

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Dec 19, 2016 Sam marked it as to-read

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Shelves: netgalley, to-read-2019

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Sep 17, 2017 Polly-Alida is currently reading it

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Shelves: e-book, l, fiction, author-k, c-red, pc-300-399, pub-algonquin-books-of-chapel-hill, tbr-2017

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Shelves: cover-orange, title-the-xxx, coming-of-age, l3, literary-fiction, two-word-title, year-2017, l2, added-060118-083118, literary-fiction-unread

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