Fever Dream (by Samanta Schweblin)
I didn't participate in the Tournament of Books summer reading event, but I did pay attention to the final winner, which will automatically get a pass into next year's ToB. When it showed up on my library app* I grabbed it. Hooray, a head start!
Fever Dream is not an exact translation of the original title, but it's an excellent description of what this book is. A woman is in an unknown location, recounting a story in which something bad may or may not have happened to her child, and another child (who is talking her through the story) may or may not have had his soul moved out of his body. Also, this novella may or may not be (but probably is) an allegory for the real-life use in Argentina of a carcinogenic pesticide called glyphosate.
This is a novella, not a novel -- it really can be read in one sitting and I believe is fewer than 100 pages long. It reminded me a bit of Annihilation, in terms of the vague creeping horror. As a mother to a small daughter, it was a tense experience; I had to keep reading to find out how things would turn out. I'm looking forward to the discussion of this during the Tournament of Books. If you don't mind experimental literature that reads like a prose poem of creeping dread, you may want to give it a go.
*After reading The To-Do List, I made a long to-do list. One of the items was "figure out how to borrow library books on my Kindle." Since the last time I'd tried it, Amazon has built an integration, so it means I can use the Overload app to reserve books via my local library, and then download them right from my Kindle app, which is how I read everything anyway. This is going to save me a fortune on books! I did have to stop by my local branch to renew my library card but it was super easy. That's my PSA for the day for fellow Kindle lovers.
Fever Dream is not an exact translation of the original title, but it's an excellent description of what this book is. A woman is in an unknown location, recounting a story in which something bad may or may not have happened to her child, and another child (who is talking her through the story) may or may not have had his soul moved out of his body. Also, this novella may or may not be (but probably is) an allegory for the real-life use in Argentina of a carcinogenic pesticide called glyphosate.
This is a novella, not a novel -- it really can be read in one sitting and I believe is fewer than 100 pages long. It reminded me a bit of Annihilation, in terms of the vague creeping horror. As a mother to a small daughter, it was a tense experience; I had to keep reading to find out how things would turn out. I'm looking forward to the discussion of this during the Tournament of Books. If you don't mind experimental literature that reads like a prose poem of creeping dread, you may want to give it a go.
*After reading The To-Do List, I made a long to-do list. One of the items was "figure out how to borrow library books on my Kindle." Since the last time I'd tried it, Amazon has built an integration, so it means I can use the Overload app to reserve books via my local library, and then download them right from my Kindle app, which is how I read everything anyway. This is going to save me a fortune on books! I did have to stop by my local branch to renew my library card but it was super easy. That's my PSA for the day for fellow Kindle lovers.
Labels: 2018 tournament of books, kindle, library, litfic, translated
posted by mo pie at 10:32 AM
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