isaacq > Recent Status Updates

updated my review.
reached p.226 and have restarted from first page.

story #5 - The River Nemunas
i found this one more effective and affecting, like the first story in the collection. we're still in very sad territory here, but our narrator—a resilient young girl starting a new life in Lithuania after being cruelly orphaned in Kansas—imbues the tale with her stalwart faith.

story #4 - Village 113
continuing the themes of memory and loss, here we encounter a Chinese village slated to be destroyed, its people bought off and relocated, for the erection of a dam. the story has a quiet, somber tone of resignation. all the hopefulness from story #1 has truly up and vanished from this anthology.

story #3 - The Demilitarized Zone
we meet Davis, his senile father, his estranged adulterous wife, and his soldier son. or rather we barely meet them, and then the story ends. there must have been some symbolism i missed in this one, because as a straightforward narrative there was really nothing to it, and it was too short to build an attachment to the characters that would make the ending cathartic.

story #2 - Procreate, Generate
we follow Imogene and Herb through their protracted struggles to become pregnant. both want the same thing, but both have very different needs. this was a sad one, lacking the adventure-quest panacea that buoyed the first story.

story #1 - Memory Wall
a sad study of loss, cushioned within one of the most feel-good stories i've read in a long while. set in a near-future South Africa, the story initially seems to be centered on the elderly Alma Konachek and her high-tech memory loss treatments. but our protagonist turns out to be Luvo, a teenage boy exploited by thieves to hack the memory cartridges of the wealthy. riveting and emotional!

what the heck? this book is bananas.

i'm really enjoying this so far, but i have no idea what kind of tone it's going for. the narration and dialogue are dead-serious, but the events happening are batshit crazy. RIYL a dose of pathos with your spontaneous human combustion.

quite engaging!