Status Updates From The Waves

Dare I say, jedna z najtrudniejszych książek, które napotkałem w swoim życiu, i zapewne najtrudniejsza tej autorki. Pomimo tego trudu czytania podoba mi się to, jak wszędzie pojawiają się metafory. Co prawda przeraził mnie początek (i prawidłowo), w którym postacie opisywały, co widzą, ale nie każda książka musi być przyjemna. Ważne, żeby przekaz wzbudzał przemyślenia. :)

That kind of felt slightly depressing. Anyway, not as good as I expected unfortunately but still an interesting concept.

There were times when I really got into it but those got rarer. Also Bernard wasn't my favourite character and so I wasn't the biggest fan of him dominating the narrative at the end. I do think the waves between each chapter mirroring the passing of time was quite cool. All the characters thoughts seemed to revolve around their failings and the pointlessness of their existence.

It was either I could really imagine what was happening (usually when the characters came back together) or had no idea. I ended up just listening to the audiobook for the second half just to finish it. I think it was such a cool concept but that distanced me from the book and the characters (a bit like the show Marriage, very clever but hard to connect with).

I liked Rhoda the most as I found a lot of what she said relatable and was so sad when it turned out she killed herself. Also Percival's death had extreme ripple effects through all of the characters (strange how he was so central to all their lives but we never got his perspective). I found that around the middle I was just getting confused and had no idea what was happening.

Strangely though, the fact that is was stream of consciousness didn't feel like it helped me connect to them. Maybe it was because a lot of their thoughts weren't logical and rooted in random descriptions. I don't know, I just felt like I never really got to know them. The girls also seemed to be a bit more background than the boys.

I think the way it is written is so clever and moving through literally every thought of the characters is amazing. I also liked that each character had their own clear cut personality - Bernard was the writer, Louis was always comparing himself to others, Neville was gay, Rhoda was shy, Jinny was a flirt and Susan was grounded and wanted to be in nature.

I kind of started to get into it though and although some parts were a bit confusing, it was so beautifully written and the descriptions were lovely. I also had a vague sense of what was happening in the plot but was just intrigued about being inside the characters minds literally.

I am honestly really disappointed by this one because I genuinely thought it might be the first five star read of all my uni reading. When I started I was a bit confused and shocked to find that everything was he said, she said. I knew it was stream of consciousness but just didn’t expect it to be set out like that.