Welcome to Litsy!

The Antidote is so different: it‘s historical fiction but felt fresh. The point of view is constantly changing so the action is slow and even feels a bit repetitive but I think that is actually a good thing for this novel. There‘s also Wizard of Oz vibes, weirdly. I hadn‘t encountered that in other reviews I‘ve read, but the town is Uz, and there‘s a scarecrow. Stolen lands, a collective misremembering & willful ignorance, it‘s America!

A fun read! There weren‘t as many choices as I would have liked, some of the section ended with no choice and lead to a flip the page and to another section. A bit silly at times with the action, it was more melodramatic! First time to read a choose your own romance story!

Another heartbreaking and great book by this author.

#poemadayish #poetrypals
@lil1inblue @Cuilin

#OOTD Day 9

We‘ll be discussing this book tonight at book club. I started it at the beginning of Sept and just finished it last night. Tiny font, many pages and I kept falling asleep. It would have been a DNF for me if it wasn‘t a book club book. Fido runs into her old friend Helen on the street after a 7 year “estrangement “ and gets tangled up in Helen‘s marital problems. 🥱

Thanks to the apartment renovation, I have not been reading much this year. I mostly read the selections for the NYRB Classics bookclub, and some refreshing titles (like Celia Dale) here and there.

These are the remaining NYRB Classics that I chose for the rest of the year. I think we have read most of the mainstream titles, and now exploring the catalogue more extensively.

The pace of this story set in 1880s Burma is languorous. It is understandable without being enjoyable. The characters were flat. Even the eccentric wasn‘t all that interesting. And the ending. After being drug through each tool and technique for tuning pianos, it ended on a completely discordant note.

*Cat (Serene) is not allowed on the table
This was the wrong time to read this book. I thought it was well crafted. Chan handled the multiple times and POV well. I was never confused where or who we were dealing with. I appreciate this being an area that is a historical blind spot for me (British Malaya occupied by Japan)
The writing is obviously debut level, a bit chunky, occasionally trying to do too much. But she gets her points across.