Sign in with Facebook
Stuart's Reviews > Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing
by
by
** spoiler alert **
I have strong mixed feelings about the book (which, by the way, I listened to on Audible).
On the one hand I loved the first half. Everything about marsh life, the beauty of nature, reflections on abandonment and meditations on isolation and self sufficiency. I especially enjoyed the carefully crafted sense of time and place � the language, characters like the young Tate, Jumpin and Mable.
But much the second half of the book � the legal case and trial and wind-down felt conventional and flat by comparison. The trial felt like a lukewarm “To Kill a Crawdad� � an unsurprising walkthrough with a sprinkling of community prejudices already noted and explored. And I so wish that the only relationships explored with at least some dimensionality weren’t, at bottom, romances. Personally, I cringe at what is likely an unintended focus on romantic love as the pinnacle of human connection. Anyway, feel there was great groundwork and potential for something much more unique and profound. A missed opportunity
The second part was —to me anyway—somewhat redeemed by the prison cell passages and the cat, Sunday Justice. But the final reveal in the last pages baffled me—would have thrown the book across the room had I not been listening to it in the car. At the time ruined goodwill I had in the novel; gonna stew on that for a while and see if I recover.
On the one hand I loved the first half. Everything about marsh life, the beauty of nature, reflections on abandonment and meditations on isolation and self sufficiency. I especially enjoyed the carefully crafted sense of time and place � the language, characters like the young Tate, Jumpin and Mable.
But much the second half of the book � the legal case and trial and wind-down felt conventional and flat by comparison. The trial felt like a lukewarm “To Kill a Crawdad� � an unsurprising walkthrough with a sprinkling of community prejudices already noted and explored. And I so wish that the only relationships explored with at least some dimensionality weren’t, at bottom, romances. Personally, I cringe at what is likely an unintended focus on romantic love as the pinnacle of human connection. Anyway, feel there was great groundwork and potential for something much more unique and profound. A missed opportunity
The second part was —to me anyway—somewhat redeemed by the prison cell passages and the cat, Sunday Justice. But the final reveal in the last pages baffled me—would have thrown the book across the room had I not been listening to it in the car. At the time ruined goodwill I had in the novel; gonna stew on that for a while and see if I recover.
Sign into ŷ to see if any of your friends have read
Where the Crawdads Sing.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Comments Showing 1-3 of 3 (3 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Dianne
(new)
-
rated it 3 stars
Apr 10, 2019 07:20AM
Well said, Stuart, cannot agree with you more. Excellent analysis and review!
reply
|
flag
Thanks, Diane! What did you think about the very end, that Kya did indeed carefully plan to kill Chase. Been thinking about it all morning. Raises all sorts of ethical issues and arguably undermines some of the key presumptions and sympathies garnered in the book. And I’m not entirely sure the author intended as much throwing it in at the end. No doubt the plight of folks with few options and little access to justice deserves deep thought and discussion. But to me, at that juncture, the novel no longer seemed worthy of that weight.
Stuart wrote: "Thanks, Diane! What did you think about the very end, that Kya did indeed carefully plan to kill Chase. Been thinking about it all morning. Raises all sorts of ethical issues and arguably undermine..."(view spoiler)
