The Gravity of Love (Audible Audio Edition) Sara Stridsberg Deborah BraganTurner translator Kristin Milward MacLehose Press Books
Download As PDF : The Gravity of Love (Audible Audio Edition) Sara Stridsberg Deborah BraganTurner translator Kristin Milward MacLehose Press Books
A dazzlingly inventive and acclaimed novel set in a Stockholm psychiatric hospital - by one of Sweden's most exciting literary talents.
'I'll put my head in the oven so you know where I am,' he whispers, kissing her neck.
Jim - charming, captivating, much loved by his women friends - has attempted suicide several times. Over his period of incarceration at the Beckomberga hospital for the mentally unstable, he voices his determination to succeed. Someday soon, he tells his daughter - as he has earlier told his mother and his wife - he will swallow 60 tablets, help them down with a bottle of whisky, and swim impossibly far out into the Atlantic.
Will he, really? This question plagues Jim's daughter, the narrator of this powerful novel, who is as addicted to the hospital as her father is to alcohol. Through her subtle observations, we understand the emotional needs of diehard alcoholics, the rational uxoricide and other seemingly normal inhabitants of a psychiatric unit in the process of shutting down, depriving them of the only place they have known as home.
A Magic Mountain for our times, for listeners of Eimear McBride and Alexander Masters.
The Gravity of Love (Audible Audio Edition) Sara Stridsberg Deborah BraganTurner translator Kristin Milward MacLehose Press Books
I finished this book quite a while ago and have tried several times to start my review but it just didn't come. I have decided that I am just going to start typing and see where my thoughts take me.I guess that the book for me reflects the mental state of some of the characters as it flits about in time quite a bit, going off on tangent after tangent before returning to where it left off. In that respect it is quite a hard book to read especially when you couple that with it being quite graphic in parts specifically when it talks about mental health. It's very "as it is" in attitude which, at times, is very full on and hard to take. Especially if, like me, you are typical British and throw the - "stiff upper lip, we don't talk about feelings" into the mix. A bit of a cultural divide there maybe?
Usually I start and finish a book in a couple of days maximum. I couldn't with this book as I found it quite heavy going - mostly due to the subject matter rather than the writing or translation. I think it took me about a week and a half all told and that's with reading other books in between.
o be honest, and I try to be, I found it quite repetitive but then that follows the narrative and fits the tone. Life in a mental hospital is repetitive by nature, alcoholics fall off the wagon in cycles, suicidal thoughts come and go in waves and so, in that respect, I found the repetition to be wholly congruent.
As time goes on, we see how Jim's actions affects others in his life, mainly his daughter's and it's through her eyes that we see what happens to Jim, especially how it affects her own life and subsequent relationships.
We also witness the collapse of the inpatient regime and the effect that "care in the community" has on the patients and staff alike - some of whom had worked/lived in the hospitals for many years.
In among all that doom and gloom we have some wonderful poetic language that really deserves to be savoured. I am not usually a fan of this sort of stuff (I much prefer plain speaking) I have to admit to finding it very fitting here and not at all intrusive nor distracting.
This is definitely not a book I would recommend as a pleasurable read but if you want something of this ilk. that'll say it as it is in a very poignant way then maybe give it a go. In a way, I'm glad I read it and I am still thinking about it two weeks after finishing it and that very rarely happens.
My thanks go to NetGalley and the Publisher for the chance to read an advance copy of this book.
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The Gravity of Love (Audible Audio Edition) Sara Stridsberg Deborah BraganTurner translator Kristin Milward MacLehose Press Books Reviews
I finished this book quite a while ago and have tried several times to start my review but it just didn't come. I have decided that I am just going to start typing and see where my thoughts take me.
I guess that the book for me reflects the mental state of some of the characters as it flits about in time quite a bit, going off on tangent after tangent before returning to where it left off. In that respect it is quite a hard book to read especially when you couple that with it being quite graphic in parts specifically when it talks about mental health. It's very "as it is" in attitude which, at times, is very full on and hard to take. Especially if, like me, you are typical British and throw the - "stiff upper lip, we don't talk about feelings" into the mix. A bit of a cultural divide there maybe?
Usually I start and finish a book in a couple of days maximum. I couldn't with this book as I found it quite heavy going - mostly due to the subject matter rather than the writing or translation. I think it took me about a week and a half all told and that's with reading other books in between.
o be honest, and I try to be, I found it quite repetitive but then that follows the narrative and fits the tone. Life in a mental hospital is repetitive by nature, alcoholics fall off the wagon in cycles, suicidal thoughts come and go in waves and so, in that respect, I found the repetition to be wholly congruent.
As time goes on, we see how Jim's actions affects others in his life, mainly his daughter's and it's through her eyes that we see what happens to Jim, especially how it affects her own life and subsequent relationships.
We also witness the collapse of the inpatient regime and the effect that "care in the community" has on the patients and staff alike - some of whom had worked/lived in the hospitals for many years.
In among all that doom and gloom we have some wonderful poetic language that really deserves to be savoured. I am not usually a fan of this sort of stuff (I much prefer plain speaking) I have to admit to finding it very fitting here and not at all intrusive nor distracting.
This is definitely not a book I would recommend as a pleasurable read but if you want something of this ilk. that'll say it as it is in a very poignant way then maybe give it a go. In a way, I'm glad I read it and I am still thinking about it two weeks after finishing it and that very rarely happens.
My thanks go to NetGalley and the Publisher for the chance to read an advance copy of this book.
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