Last but not least some more new weird.
Hope you folks have the time to read and relax a lot over the festive days!
Jeff VanderMeer
Hope you folks have the time to read and relax a lot over the festive days!
Jeff VanderMeer
Borne
Jakob says: My Christmas present to
myself: read a book by Jeff VanderMeer. I am an avid fan not only of his
Southern Reach Trilogy, but maybe even more so of his earlier Ambergris
and Veniss novels and stories. However, I kept putting up reading one
of his more recent novels, Borne. Stupid me! Now I‘m at it, and of
course I love this post-apocalyptic story of parenthood. Especially
since the „child“ that the main character has decided to care for is a
shape-changing creature that, in its usual form, looks like an
upside-down vase with tentacles coming out of it, and that occasionally
has all kinds of eyes (bird-eyes, fish-eyes, human eyes) swirling over
its body. Would you believe that this is an endearing creature? Well, it
certainly is more endearing (and more human) than that kaiju-sized
flying bear hovering over the city …
I‘m going for the big,
gimmicky stuff, which will lure you into reading this, but the essence
of Borne is of course more than that: it is, as mentioned before, an
honest depiction of parenthood (especially the scary parts), and it
deals with heavy political stuff – like a protagonist who has spent most
of her life as a fugitive from social and ecological disaster, but
still vaguely remembers having a life where you could go to a restaurant
or even to school … the creatures and vistas of Borne are outlandish,
but the psychology of its characters (including some of the creatures)
is so close to home that it hurts - in the best way that good books can
hurt.
(What, you have already
read Borne? Then you need to go and get Dead Astronauts, VanderMeers
brand-new novel that picks up on elements from Borne!)
No comments:
Post a Comment