Provisional rating. I always come back to Glück's poetry to find I had missed so much. The last poem of this collection reveals you have been deceivedProvisional rating. I always come back to Glück's poetry to find I had missed so much. The last poem of this collection reveals you have been deceived, or rather that the poet has been deceiving herself. You must go back and re-read it with that revelation in mind.
First Memory "Long ago, I was wounded. I lived to revenge myself against my father, not for what he was� for what I was: from the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved.�
On the one hand, this was a fun and entertaining read. It is clearly a book that started with the concept rather than the character/story, which meansOn the one hand, this was a fun and entertaining read. It is clearly a book that started with the concept rather than the character/story, which means that it's fun to consider all the questions that the author clearly wants us to contemplate about truth and fiction.
And yet, the actual content felt kind of flimsy. "Trust" could have stood to be much denser, much more populated, each section longer and more fleshed out. There were some flashes of more interesting story lurking between the pages and I wish Diaz had pushed himself further. Despite the fascinating ideas it explores, it all feels rather hollow. Sometimes I wasn't sure if the weaknesses of each portion were there on purpose, of if they were due to Diaz's shortcomings as a writer. And then again, aren't we owed better written books even when they try to do something formally daring?
[This is more on the spoiler territory], I am also a bit tired of the "forgotten/dismissed woman" framing. On the overall, this was done a bit more elegantly than other contemporary novels, but I find it grating and at this point, kind of trite.
Reading Iris Murdoch is always such a delight. As A.S. Byatt says in the introduction, it's quite an achievement having a book that is both fun and plReading Iris Murdoch is always such a delight. As A.S. Byatt says in the introduction, it's quite an achievement having a book that is both fun and plenty of interesting philosophical ideas. ...more
In my head, ever since Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, I have been looking for a book that would be about a dystopia that shows how important In my head, ever since Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, I have been looking for a book that would be about a dystopia that shows how important art remains to the very definition of the human. I have longed for a book that would bring together Kazuo Ishiguro, Marilynne Robinson, and Ursula LeGuin. This is all of it and more, with an added bonus of meditations on language, and 19th century poetry.
It is erudite, propulsive, and incredibly moving. I know that it has taken quite a while to get to publishing so the fact that it is so prescient and yet original in its understanding of AI! Nothing that is built by humans can ever shed its human DNA.
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