Self

[Grant, Usurper of Book Club]

That was an interesting novel. I'm not quite sure where to start. The book started by talking about poop. I guess I'm feelling kind of serious because that didn't buy to much favour with me. But after that I started enjoying the book a lot more. Reading the description of the book, being the story of someone who changes genders, I wasn't sure what to expect.

Really, though, what the book was about to me was a book about relationships and travel. Which are two topics that I do like. The changing of genders was almost an extension of the travel. Characters and relationships and settings all became intertwined. I've moved a few times myself and I've always found it interesting how much moving can change my routines and the things that I do, the foods that I eat, even if it's a move within the same city. Self explores these ideas, it's not the gender you etc. that determines who you are even though it effects what you do. I'm thinking specifically of the first time as a woman protagonist has sex with a man after changes genders and keeps thinking that what she is doing is a homosexual act.

Then there is the ending of the book which I have a tougher time dealing with/understanding. Maybe the message is that for all we are, we can be reduced back to nothing by others. It feels pessimistic, for all the soul searching and learning, the ending of the book feels like an identity crisis all over again. Which makes me wonder if I got the other parts of the book wrong. But I liked them, so I'd prefer to think I didn't.

[Mikael, Lowly Founder of Book Club]

This is, by a decent margin, my favourite book. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe just because it's one of the few books that I really thought about for years after reading it. It was lent to me by a friend sort of off-handedly and maybe it was because I had so few expectations that I liked it so much but regardless, really good book.

As far as "coming-of-age" stories go, I think this one tops the charts. It's a very "whole" experience I feel and, by the end, you really feel as though the protagonist has grown in a meaningful way. Sure, s/he gets to do a lot of the things they want and meet a lot of interesting people but, and this goes to what you're saying about pessimism, the climax of the book is the REAL coming-of-age. That first encounter with just how terrifying and real certain events in your life can be, especially if you think they can never happen to you and then they suddenly do. That's your first introduction to being an adult and it can come at any point in your life.

Aside from that point, the formal stuff Martel does with the "translation/limited understanding" parts throughout the book pay off in a way that kind of blew my mind. He sets up this two-column filter for the reader a few times in the book then reintroduces it in the most painful and gutting way possible during the climax. It was brilliant in my opinion.

I don't know that I necessarily know exactly what the novel is trying to do or if it accomplishes it but I know that this book strikes home in a way that most do not.