Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me | Javier Marías
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me is a riveting novel of infidelity and a man trapped by a terrible secret.Marta has only just met Victor when she invites him to dinner at her Madrid apartment while her husband is away on business. When her two-year-old son finally falls asleep, Marta and Victor retreat to the bedroom. Undressing, she feels suddenly ill; and in his arms, inexplicably, she dies. What should Victor do? Remove the compromising tape from the answering machine? Leave food for the child for breakfast? These are just his first steps, but he soon takes matters further; unable to bear the shadows and the unknowing, Victor plunges into dark waters. And Javier Marías, Europe's master of secrets, of what lies reveal and truth may conceal, is on sure ground in this profound, quirky, and marvelous novel.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
Billypar
post image
Panpan

I'm so upset with this book! It feels like I just ended a dysfunctional relationship 😅 The beginning was so good that when it only got worse and worse, I felt weirdly betrayed. It opens with the narrator being witness to the death of a married woman whom he was just about to sleep with for the first time. He tries to quietly remove himself from the scene but after mysterious circumstances becomes obsessed with observing her family afterwards 👇

Billypar Sounds intriguing right? But instead of pursuing this setup, it devolves into endless philosophizing that became more and more irritating the longer the main plot was delayed. The narrator reveals himself to be a voyeuristic creep but he's not given enough of a character for me to conclude if that's intentional. It ends with a truly disappointing anticlimax. Marías is clearly talented but I can't forgive him for disappointing me like this 😡 (edited) 2y
Leftcoastzen I think I will start turning books I don‘t like upside down!Great review, it‘s baffling when an author you enjoy & respect seems to go off the rails with one. 2y
Billypar @Leftcoastzen Yeah, in a weird way, if it hadn't started off so strong, I might not have had as strong of a reaction because it raised my expectations so much 🙃 (edited) 2y
See All 7 Comments
Centique @Billypar I know what you mean - I have a couple of books that started as 5 stars, absolutely in my wheelhouse in terms of characters and setting and how I thought the plot was unfolding - and then it becomes a different book. It‘s somehow upsetting because it was going to be wonderful! 2y
Billypar @Centique Exactly! It doesn't happen too often but it throws me off when it does. While I'm reading those novels it's like my brain won't stop arguing with itself to find the right way to sum up the experience 🤯 2y
Suet624 There is so little time to read the books that you really look forward to. It's annoying when you get stuck in one that you're not enjoying. 2y
Billypar @Suet624 Yeah, it is a little annoying. In the last year I think I've had more in that zone where I'm not very invested but also too curious to bail. 2y
44 likes7 comments
review
ShariEstaLeando
post image
Pickpick

Complex. Confounding. Confusing. Disturbing. Dark. Gritty. Grim. Hmmmmm.

quote
Anushka
post image