I am so thankful for your channel, Sophie. This video is a truly superb year in review, I'm in awe! Sending warm hugs your way, and looking forward to 2025. Onwards! E x
@@theonlyrealproperty2567 🤗 thank you! i honestly love to hear it, bc i get stressed about having to wrap up a full year. best wishes to you for the holidays and the new year!
@ Not to be a macho jerk or mansplain or anything, and I haven’t watched all your videos, but you look like the most elevated and mature form of yourself since you started recording. It’s definitely more than just rocking a magnificent chrome dome 👑✨👏🦭
@ thank you! it’s very possible i am 😁 (i was also afraid of where yr comment might be heading when you invoked mansplaining and very pleased with its culmination lol)
ahhh the video of the year!!! was not surprised to find Dictee in your list, and how funny. i actually just picked it up the other day because something was festering in me and i knew i had to have it in my hands as a source of inspiration.
Fabulous list. I loooooved I Who Have Never Known Men sooooooo much. I have Orlanda on the shelves am saving for 2025. I must get back to reading more Morrison. And I must read Martyr, Is Mother Dead and all three of Eva Baltasar’s books.
Wow! This is my first time on your channel. Your have incredible taste. I am impressed with the quality of books you have read just this year. And you gave me many ideas. Ever since The NY Times best books of the 21st Century list came out I have wanted to read The Last Samarai. And now your review makes me want to read it even more. (Plus you end with poetry and art criticism books? You are amazing!)
@@chambersstevens3135 thank you! 🤗 i stayed away from the last samurai for a couple of years without knowing anything about it bc i think i assumed it would be some sort of historical epic from an english point of view, and was i ever wrong ha ha ha. i’m really glad i was gifted it this year and gave it a shot!
So many great recommendations! I really need to get to I Who Have Never Know Men and Say Nothing, both sound amazing and exactly my taste. I need to give Eva Baltasar another chance, because I read the Spanish translation of Mammoth and since I’m not completely fluent I might have missed something and the disconnect came from there. Happy holidays 🎉
@@theknightssayme thank you! i’ll be curious to see if you do connect better with baltasar on reread. i’ve loved her work, but i can also see her books just not working for everyone. happy holidays to you!
That’s a wonderful list of books and I can heartily agree with you on the ones I have read - Jazz, I who have never known men, Book of Disquiet, Details, and Mammoth. I have the Empusium and Orlanda on the shelf ready for next year so I can look forward to those now. Very best wishes to you for 2025!
Love the spotlight! Merry Holidays to you. Glad Book of Disquiet made it. It is one of my all-time favorites. My top favorites this year are Stoner/ John Williams, Sula and The Bluest Eye/Toni Morrison for top fiction. The Loneliness files By Athena Dixon and De Profundis / Oscar Wilde for top non-fiction.
sula and the bluest eye are my i think my two favorite morrisons 🖤 i will look into the loneliness files, bc that sounds right up my melancholy alley! thanks for watching and giving your own faves! happy holidays to you! ✨🍾
What a wonderful list!!! I also read and loved My Death this year. Such a quirky little book! So many of these are on my shelves. I just listened to an interview with Danielle Dutton about her book, which I definitely want to get to soon. She's the co-founder of one of my favorite publishers, Dorothy: A Publishing Project. And I really want to read Christina Sharpe's earlier book, In the Wake (also on my shelves...need to make time for it!) Thanks so much for sharing!
i first heard of dutton through dorothy, in fact! this book is a funny hodgepodge of things, but it worked for me. and i’d like to read in the wake myself!
The end of the yr video! I love these rundowns. I too so so loved I Who Have Never Known Men and am looking forward to reading another Harpman. I still think about it - much like I thought about The Wall for quite awhile. My library doesnt have it, but I'll track it down someday. Is Mother Dead was such a memorable reading experience for me because of how much angst I had while reading it. When a book does that! I wish you, especially at this point in time, the happiest and most satisfying new year, Sophie.🥰
@@thelefthandedreader6632 angst is exactly the word! oyyyy 🤣 will there be a left handed reader best of? 👀 (i hope so) happy end of 2024 and new year ahead to you! 💕
beautiful! i’m glad to spread her work! i discovered her via the only real property, who has a great discussion of another of brock-broido’s books. if you don’t know the channel, she has many excellent poetry recs in general
I was so looking forward to this video. thank you for making it. Of the books mentioned I've only read a few, but like them just as much (with the exception of The Book of Disquiet). My own favorite books form this year would also be a longer list. Some favorites: Fiction: Is Mother Dead, a little bit also because I got to meet Vigdis Hjorth this year at a book event. Poetry: Aednan by Linnea Axelsson Non-fiction: Debt by David Graeber Art book: Hideaways by Iraville (it's a cute illustration art book)
@@juditkovacse thanks for listing some of yr favorites! i want to check out aednan, which i don’t know at all. am i to understand you have beef with the book of disquiet? 😁
@@juditkovacse ha honestly these are fair points. it’s an ungainly thing, and definitely boring at times. also, in my opinion, absolutely infuriating in places. and yet i’m one of those people who love it - it works as a whole for me. i think it was more appealing and understandable to me in french than in english
I also just finished and loved The Empusium - one picky note, though, while both set at similar Sanatoriums, they are not in the same geographical location, with MM being set in Davos, Switzerland, and the Empusium being set in Göbersdorf, Silesia, today's Sokołowsko, Poland. True that the Göbersdorf sanatorium, founded by the real-life Dr. Brehmer, first established the treatment methods also then practiced in Davos, where Thomas Mann's wife briefly stayed and inspired his novel. (and maybe that's what you meant, but I found these details really interesting, so sharing in case you or anyone else does!)
oh, yes, of course! i even had to go back to check just now bc i was *convinced* that the empusium took place in davos while summarizing it here. that invention/elision makes some sense on my part for the reasons you state, but also absolutely doesn’t make sense bc silesia is repeatedly mentioned in the book, and poland/polishness is a fundamental element of the vibe and plot… 🙃 i guess in my universe, it takes place in two geographies simultaneously? anyway, thanks for the correction! 😁
@@bibliosophie The copy I had included a map and things like postcards and a picture of the prospectus from the Göbersdorf sanatorium, so it was hard to overlook, lol. (I read it in German translation, so no idea if the English copy had them too). Heh, just noticed looking back that the epigraph in the Empusium is from another of your year's favorite books, Pessoa's Book of Disquiet (which I found fine in snippets but a bit unbearable as a longer work...)
@@erinh7450 i also don't know if the english has them bc i listened to the audiobook. i love the idea of these extra-textual elements. and yes, i smiled when i saw the pessoa citation. it's a book that gets cited quite a bit, which is partially why i wanted finally to read it this year
@@erinh7450 oh, and very much agree that the pessoa gets unbearable! for me, this was only sections rather than as a total work, but i also read it with pauses, so that may have helped
I literally finished I Who Have Never Known Men yesterday and I’m so blown away that I don’t know what to do with myself. It was brilliant and I can’t believe that it was written in the 90s and I’m only now discovering it. How has it not been mainstream? 😮
@@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged ah, perfect timing! i’m glad a lot of people are discovering harpman recently, including me. since you liked i who have never known men, i would also recommend orlanda. i wonder if you’d also like it. and have you read the wall? it has similar themes and circumstance
@@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged it’s a somewhat divisive book - some people find it moody/pensive while others just find it boring. i wonder where you’ll fall on the spectrum!
Unfortunatlley, I only read, almost in its entirety, the Pessoa/Bernardo Soares book. But it's a book I now and then read a couple of pages. I wish you a great next week. And I will stay tuned for 2025. The world is in a lesser good moment right now, but there are lots of sparks around for us to discover. So, lot's of reading, lots of singing and loads of health.
merci beaucoup pour votre recommandations My favorite read was Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange and favorite audio book was Killers of the Flower Moon I who have never known men left such an imprint regarding about humanity and isolation gorgeous as always
one of my childhood memories is a holiday to Italy, and standing in front of the Birth of Venus and being ordered by my father to appreciate its genius and importance but being very bored by it, because I was a child. And here I am very impressed by you wearing the literal Birth of Venus and being impressed by your selections. Time is a cycle.
what a wonderful list Sophie! I have already read and love I who have never known men, I also had 3 others on my tbr (the wall, the book of disquiet and the last samurai). and I have found several others to add to my tbr. Anyways, my favourite books of the year are: Either/Or by Elif Batuman The cost of living by Deborah Levy Any person is the only self by Elisa Gabbert August Blue by Deborah Levy Beautiful world where are you? by Sally Rooney (Reread)
@@booksxeunoia excellent! 💕 i really liked either/or myself last year, and mostly liked any person is the only self this year. i will probably read the cost of living pretty soon, since i finally read my first levy this year (hot milk)
The book of disquiet🤌 Some authors I'd like to recommend: Emil Cioran and H.P Lovecraft who you might already know about, just curious what would be your thoughts about their works and ideas/beliefs.
@@faisalsalik5595 i’ve had only limited interaction with cioran - and more via other writers - but i tend to be intrigued by him. lovecraft i’ve never been drawn to
my favourite non fiction book which I am rhapsodising to everyone about this year is Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis --- maybe the most enjoyable biography I have ever read, even if you are not inclined to be interested in these icons, it becomes a work of innovation and originality in terms of what a biography can be. So enjoyable.
I very much want to get to My Death, Malina, Mammoth, The Last Samurai, several Vigdis Hjorth, The Empusium. I loved The Book of Disquiet. I've been wary of My Work since I was a little lukewarm on Ravn's The Employees. Henry James I think the books I've enjoyed most this year have been: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion - Beth Brower The Unseen - Roy Jacobsen Thessaly trilogy- Jo Walton Saint Sebastian's Abyss - Mark Haber Doomsday Book - Connie Willis The Ambassadors - Henry James Look at Me - Anita Brookner The Trees - Percival Everett Stranger in Olondria - Sofia Samatar The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Catherine Webb
@@mattkean1128 i loved the employees, and i think it helped me feel more tenderly towards my work. i’m not sure you’d like it if you haven’t gotten on with ravn previously. but then again, the two books are quite different in many ways, so who knows
@@mattkean1128 thank you for listing your books! a lot of these i’ve not read or don’t know at all, but i’ve taken a screenshot to investigate further :)
Kaveh Akbar is an excellent writer and I enjoyed reading “Martyr” very much, but I thought the praise for the novel was a little over-hyped. Cyrus Shams is an engaging character with a sense of humour, an interest in literature and writing poetry, and a strong support network in the form of his lover, Zee Novak, and the people at the drug and alcohol addiction recovery program with whom he is working. When Cyrus declares, “I want to die. I think I always have”, I didn’t feel much sense of alarm. Cyrus seems too connected to this world to want to leave it very readily. The plot of “Martyr” revolves around young Cyrus’s quest for a meaningful death. As he says at one point, he doesn’t want to waste his “one good death”. I thought this was a backwards way of looking at things. What Cyrus should really be worried about is not wasting his one good life. And by the end of the novel, Cyrus has come to realize what should have been obvious to him all along, that it is more important to lead a meaningful life than to worry about having a meaningful death. Lead a meaningful life, and the death will take care of itself. “A meaningless life meant a meaningless death”, Cyrus comes to understand. To me, this seems so obvious, it’s a wonder it took Cyrus a whole novel to figure it out. The phantasmagorical, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” final scene also seemed way over-the-top and totally uncalled for. A far better way to end the story would have been for Kaveh Akbar to show us Cyrus and Zee sitting at the back of a Gray Coach bus, heading west back to Indiana. The sun would be setting and we would overhear Cyrus and Zee quietly talking and making plans-to find an apartment to share; to find better jobs; in Cyrus’s case, to write more poetry; and in general, to get on with their lives. The sun would set, the bus interior would grow dark, and Cyrus and Zee would then fall asleep with their heads resting on each other’s shoulder. The End.
it’s definitely getting a tremendous amount of year end hype, and has been getting hype all year, so i think it’s sort of inevitable that it become overhyped, all while being very good. i myself felt almost bashful about putting it in my list, but it does remain a fave of the year!
@@bibliosophie No need to feel bashful. I like Lee Childs' Jack Reacher novels, though the quality has gone downhill since the one where he helped out the young couple from New Brunswick.
let's go!!!!!!!!! i'm so happy you liked is mother dead! it's so fun. pls read if only! would love to know your thoughts on that one which is about a woman's obsession w/ a silly man
I am so thankful for your channel, Sophie. This video is a truly superb year in review, I'm in awe! Sending warm hugs your way, and looking forward to 2025. Onwards! E x
@@theonlyrealproperty2567 🤗 thank you! i honestly love to hear it, bc i get stressed about having to wrap up a full year. best wishes to you for the holidays and the new year!
Kicking ass and looking gorgeous 🎉 Merry Christmas and happy New Year 🎊🎆
thank you! happy christmas and new year to you! ✨
@ Not to be a macho jerk or mansplain or anything, and I haven’t watched all your videos, but you look like the most elevated and mature form of yourself since you started recording. It’s definitely more than just rocking a magnificent chrome dome 👑✨👏🦭
@ thank you! it’s very possible i am 😁 (i was also afraid of where yr comment might be heading when you invoked mansplaining and very pleased with its culmination lol)
@@bibliosophie You just described the latest Tom Clancy plot!!
@@qlimponx 👀
ahhh the video of the year!!! was not surprised to find Dictee in your list, and how funny. i actually just picked it up the other day because something was festering in me and i knew i had to have it in my hands as a source of inspiration.
@@nathansnook ooh i love it. did it inspire?
Fabulous list. I loooooved I Who Have Never Known Men sooooooo much. I have Orlanda on the shelves am saving for 2025. I must get back to reading more Morrison. And I must read Martyr, Is Mother Dead and all three of Eva Baltasar’s books.
oh, i would *love* to know what you think of baltasar’s books - i’ve loved all three. and i’ll be very curious to hear yr thoughts on orlanda, too 🖤
What a mixed bag of reading sweets, wonderful video in review, hope you have a great year end & an exciting new year.
@@apoetreadstowrite thank you! wishing all the best for the new year! (and the last week or so of the old one)
@@bibliosophie: Thanks.
Wow! This is my first time on your channel. Your have incredible taste. I am impressed with the quality of books you have read just this year. And you gave me many ideas. Ever since The NY Times best books of the 21st Century list came out I have wanted to read The Last Samarai. And now your review makes me want to read it even more. (Plus you end with poetry and art criticism books? You are amazing!)
@@chambersstevens3135 thank you! 🤗
i stayed away from the last samurai for a couple of years without knowing anything about it bc i think i assumed it would be some sort of historical epic from an english point of view, and was i ever wrong ha ha ha. i’m really glad i was gifted it this year and gave it a shot!
So many great recommendations! I really need to get to I Who Have Never Know Men and Say Nothing, both sound amazing and exactly my taste. I need to give Eva Baltasar another chance, because I read the Spanish translation of Mammoth and since I’m not completely fluent I might have missed something and the disconnect came from there. Happy holidays 🎉
@@theknightssayme thank you! i’ll be curious to see if you do connect better with baltasar on reread. i’ve loved her work, but i can also see her books just not working for everyone. happy holidays to you!
That’s a wonderful list of books and I can heartily agree with you on the ones I have read - Jazz, I who have never known men, Book of Disquiet, Details, and Mammoth. I have the Empusium and Orlanda on the shelf ready for next year so I can look forward to those now. Very best wishes to you for 2025!
@@ianp9086 thank you, and good 2025 to you! happy reading :)
Love the spotlight! Merry Holidays to you. Glad Book of Disquiet made it. It is one of my all-time favorites. My top favorites this year are Stoner/ John Williams, Sula and The Bluest Eye/Toni Morrison for top fiction. The Loneliness files By Athena Dixon and De Profundis / Oscar Wilde for top non-fiction.
sula and the bluest eye are my i think my two favorite morrisons 🖤 i will look into the loneliness files, bc that sounds right up my melancholy alley!
thanks for watching and giving your own faves! happy holidays to you! ✨🍾
What a wonderful list!!! I also read and loved My Death this year. Such a quirky little book! So many of these are on my shelves. I just listened to an interview with Danielle Dutton about her book, which I definitely want to get to soon. She's the co-founder of one of my favorite publishers, Dorothy: A Publishing Project. And I really want to read Christina Sharpe's earlier book, In the Wake (also on my shelves...need to make time for it!) Thanks so much for sharing!
i first heard of dutton through dorothy, in fact! this book is a funny hodgepodge of things, but it worked for me. and i’d like to read in the wake myself!
The end of the yr video! I love these rundowns. I too so so loved I Who Have Never Known Men and am looking forward to reading another Harpman. I still think about it - much like I thought about The Wall for quite awhile. My library doesnt have it, but I'll track it down someday. Is Mother Dead was such a memorable reading experience for me because of how much angst I had while reading it. When a book does that! I wish you, especially at this point in time, the happiest and most satisfying new year, Sophie.🥰
@@thelefthandedreader6632 angst is exactly the word! oyyyy 🤣
will there be a left handed reader best of? 👀 (i hope so)
happy end of 2024 and new year ahead to you! 💕
@@bibliosophie, yes!
@@thelefthandedreader6632 🍾
I was just looking up Lucy Brock-Broido - hadn't heard of her - and wow! amazing rec thank you. Keen to read many others of these too
beautiful! i’m glad to spread her work! i discovered her via the only real property, who has a great discussion of another of brock-broido’s books. if you don’t know the channel, she has many excellent poetry recs in general
@bibliosophie ooh thank you, looking forward to checking it out!
I was so looking forward to this video. thank you for making it.
Of the books mentioned I've only read a few, but like them just as much (with the exception of The Book of Disquiet).
My own favorite books form this year would also be a longer list. Some favorites:
Fiction: Is Mother Dead, a little bit also because I got to meet Vigdis Hjorth this year at a book event.
Poetry: Aednan by Linnea Axelsson
Non-fiction: Debt by David Graeber
Art book: Hideaways by Iraville (it's a cute illustration art book)
@@juditkovacse thanks for listing some of yr favorites! i want to check out aednan, which i don’t know at all. am i to understand you have beef with the book of disquiet? 😁
@@bibliosophie I did not get why people love it. I found it very boring. And was very annoyed at the repeated use of the word 'torpor'. 😄
@@juditkovacse ha honestly these are fair points. it’s an ungainly thing, and definitely boring at times. also, in my opinion, absolutely infuriating in places. and yet i’m one of those people who love it - it works as a whole for me. i think it was more appealing and understandable to me in french than in english
I also just finished and loved The Empusium - one picky note, though, while both set at similar Sanatoriums, they are not in the same geographical location, with MM being set in Davos, Switzerland, and the Empusium being set in Göbersdorf, Silesia, today's Sokołowsko, Poland. True that the Göbersdorf sanatorium, founded by the real-life Dr. Brehmer, first established the treatment methods also then practiced in Davos, where Thomas Mann's wife briefly stayed and inspired his novel. (and maybe that's what you meant, but I found these details really interesting, so sharing in case you or anyone else does!)
oh, yes, of course! i even had to go back to check just now bc i was *convinced* that the empusium took place in davos while summarizing it here. that invention/elision makes some sense on my part for the reasons you state, but also absolutely doesn’t make sense bc silesia is repeatedly mentioned in the book, and poland/polishness is a fundamental element of the vibe and plot… 🙃 i guess in my universe, it takes place in two geographies simultaneously? anyway, thanks for the correction! 😁
@@bibliosophie The copy I had included a map and things like postcards and a picture of the prospectus from the Göbersdorf sanatorium, so it was hard to overlook, lol. (I read it in German translation, so no idea if the English copy had them too).
Heh, just noticed looking back that the epigraph in the Empusium is from another of your year's favorite books, Pessoa's Book of Disquiet (which I found fine in snippets but a bit unbearable as a longer work...)
@@erinh7450 i also don't know if the english has them bc i listened to the audiobook. i love the idea of these extra-textual elements. and yes, i smiled when i saw the pessoa citation. it's a book that gets cited quite a bit, which is partially why i wanted finally to read it this year
@@erinh7450 oh, and very much agree that the pessoa gets unbearable! for me, this was only sections rather than as a total work, but i also read it with pauses, so that may have helped
I literally finished I Who Have Never Known Men yesterday and I’m so blown away that I don’t know what to do with myself. It was brilliant and I can’t believe that it was written in the 90s and I’m only now discovering it. How has it not been mainstream? 😮
@@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged ah, perfect timing! i’m glad a lot of people are discovering harpman recently, including me. since you liked i who have never known men, i would also recommend orlanda. i wonder if you’d also like it. and have you read the wall? it has similar themes and circumstance
@ The Wall has been on my list so I’m definitely motivated to pick it up sooner rather than later.
@@ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged it’s a somewhat divisive book - some people find it moody/pensive while others just find it boring. i wonder where you’ll fall on the spectrum!
Unfortunatlley, I only read, almost in its entirety, the Pessoa/Bernardo Soares book. But it's a book I now and then read a couple of pages. I wish you a great next week. And I will stay tuned for 2025. The world is in a lesser good moment right now, but there are lots of sparks around for us to discover. So, lot's of reading, lots of singing and loads of health.
thank you! my best wishes for your 2025!
merci beaucoup pour votre recommandations
My favorite read was Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange and favorite audio book was Killers of the Flower Moon
I who have never known men left such an imprint regarding about humanity and isolation
gorgeous as always
@@user-vt8rw8qw9k i want to get to wandering stars at some point soon! thank you for watching and for sharing your faves!
one of my childhood memories is a holiday to Italy, and standing in front of the Birth of Venus and being ordered by my father to appreciate its genius and importance but being very bored by it, because I was a child. And here I am very impressed by you wearing the literal Birth of Venus and being impressed by your selections. Time is a cycle.
@@zoobee i love it! themes and variations :)
what a wonderful list Sophie! I have already read and love I who have never known men, I also had 3 others on my tbr (the wall, the book of disquiet and the last samurai). and I have found several others to add to my tbr.
Anyways, my favourite books of the year are:
Either/Or by Elif Batuman
The cost of living by Deborah Levy
Any person is the only self by Elisa Gabbert
August Blue by Deborah Levy
Beautiful world where are you? by Sally Rooney (Reread)
@@booksxeunoia excellent! 💕 i really liked either/or myself last year, and mostly liked any person is the only self this year. i will probably read the cost of living pretty soon, since i finally read my first levy this year (hot milk)
The book of disquiet🤌
Some authors I'd like to recommend: Emil Cioran and H.P Lovecraft who you might already know about, just curious what would be your thoughts about their works and ideas/beliefs.
@@faisalsalik5595 i’ve had only limited interaction with cioran - and more via other writers - but i tend to be intrigued by him. lovecraft i’ve never been drawn to
The thumbnail is giving Saint Sophie 😇
@@ChanelChapters ha! yesss i love that
my favourite non fiction book which I am rhapsodising to everyone about this year is
Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis --- maybe the most enjoyable biography I have ever read, even if you are not inclined to be interested in these icons, it becomes a work of innovation and originality in terms of what a biography can be. So enjoyable.
@@zoobee thanks for this! i’ll seek it out!
I very much want to get to My Death, Malina, Mammoth, The Last Samurai, several Vigdis Hjorth, The Empusium.
I loved The Book of Disquiet. I've been wary of My Work since I was a little lukewarm on Ravn's The Employees.
Henry James
I think the books I've enjoyed most this year have been:
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion - Beth Brower
The Unseen - Roy Jacobsen
Thessaly trilogy- Jo Walton
Saint Sebastian's Abyss - Mark Haber
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
The Ambassadors - Henry James
Look at Me - Anita Brookner
The Trees - Percival Everett
Stranger in Olondria - Sofia Samatar
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Catherine Webb
@@mattkean1128 i loved the employees, and i think it helped me feel more tenderly towards my work. i’m not sure you’d like it if you haven’t gotten on with ravn previously. but then again, the two books are quite different in many ways, so who knows
@@mattkean1128 thank you for listing your books! a lot of these i’ve not read or don’t know at all, but i’ve taken a screenshot to investigate further :)
Kaveh Akbar is an excellent writer and I enjoyed reading “Martyr” very much, but I thought the praise for the novel was a little over-hyped. Cyrus Shams is an engaging character with a sense of humour, an interest in literature and writing poetry, and a strong support network in the form of his lover, Zee Novak, and the people at the drug and alcohol addiction recovery program with whom he is working. When Cyrus declares, “I want to die. I think I always have”, I didn’t feel much sense of alarm. Cyrus seems too connected to this world to want to leave it very readily.
The plot of “Martyr” revolves around young Cyrus’s quest for a meaningful death. As he says at one point, he doesn’t want to waste his “one good death”. I thought this was a backwards way of looking at things. What Cyrus should really be worried about is not wasting his one good life. And by the end of the novel, Cyrus has come to realize what should have been obvious to him all along, that it is more important to lead a meaningful life than to worry about having a meaningful death. Lead a meaningful life, and the death will take care of itself. “A meaningless life meant a meaningless death”, Cyrus comes to understand. To me, this seems so obvious, it’s a wonder it took Cyrus a whole novel to figure it out.
The phantasmagorical, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” final scene also seemed way over-the-top and totally uncalled for. A far better way to end the story would have been for Kaveh Akbar to show us Cyrus and Zee sitting at the back of a Gray Coach bus, heading west back to Indiana. The sun would be setting and we would overhear Cyrus and Zee quietly talking and making plans-to find an apartment to share; to find better jobs; in Cyrus’s case, to write more poetry; and in general, to get on with their lives. The sun would set, the bus interior would grow dark, and Cyrus and Zee would then fall asleep with their heads resting on each other’s shoulder. The End.
it’s definitely getting a tremendous amount of year end hype, and has been getting hype all year, so i think it’s sort of inevitable that it become overhyped, all while being very good. i myself felt almost bashful about putting it in my list, but it does remain a fave of the year!
@@bibliosophie No need to feel bashful. I like Lee Childs' Jack Reacher novels, though the quality has gone downhill since the one where he helped out the young couple from New Brunswick.
@ holy wow, a quick search tells me that there are a LOT of jack reacher books, so i suppose some dip isn’t that surprising
let's go!!!!!!!!! i'm so happy you liked is mother dead! it's so fun. pls read if only! would love to know your thoughts on that one which is about a woman's obsession w/ a silly man
@@kiranreader i do plan to get to if only - from what i’ve heard, i think it’ll make me uncomfortable and a bit sad lol