sandrinepal's reviews
1227 reviews

This book feels eerily timely, which is both a blessing and a curse, in my opinion.

On the one hand, as elections loom in many countries (France just had snap congressional elections in early July, while the US is gearing up for the next round of presidential madness this November), this information about far right movements and how they are bleeding through to the "traditional" right needs to be widely publicized.

On the other hand, because the situation is so volatile, it seems difficult to capture it in any kind of definitive way, especially in writing that is not meant for a periodical. The book makes many (very logical) references to the Charlottesville incidents of 2017, but seven years later, that almost seems like a blip on the radar in light of all that has developed since.

The book is dense with research and connections between American and European far right movements. The writing can be a little opaque at times, but the gist remains quite clear. I would love to read more off-the-cuff, shorter pieces from Feola in magazines or online.

Thanks to NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

What was most unexpected for me was the fact that all 13 books referenced in Americanon were non-fiction. I suppose it speaks to what a fiction junkie I am that when I read the phrase "Thirteen Bestselling Books", my brain defaults to "novels". Nevertheless, I persisted, and I must say McHugh's description of her search criteria seemed very sound once I read the introduction.

Another unexpected development is the fact that some of the authors come out smelling rosier than others. There were a few tidbits about Benjamin Franklin that really tickled my fancy, especially about his journey to France to hit up Louis the 16th for... well... louis and support. The fact that he was welcomed like a total rock star (Ben Franklin wallpaper, you guys!) is not something that we French people are taught in school. No love lost, however, for the viciously homophobic author of Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know about Sex. Yes, yes, of course, "those were different times", etc. but the man still paved the way for untold misery for so many people.

Lastly, I appreciated McHugh's perspective on American self-reliance as an expat in France. As a French person who was an expat in the US for over 20 years, her comments about the do-or-die need to be self-sufficient because help is not baked into the system really resonated with me. 

 This came out of left field for me: I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I think in part I was accidentally a great demographic for it at this particular point in time. Let me count the ways...

So... yeah.

This is one of those books where I went searching for people's reactions after I finished reading it. It affected me so deeply that I felt the need to find kindred spirits. I won't dwell on it too much, but I was disappointed in many reviewers' reactions. Some argue that the book is not dystopian enough, that it doesn't live up to the golden standards of the genre, like 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale. I disagree, in part because I don't think Prophet Song purports to be dystopian: I found it chillingly realistic, from cover to cover, which is partly why I'm giving it 5 stars. Many readers also complained about the opacity of the style (no dialogue punctuation? Egads!) I found it a very effective style for evoking Eilish's mounting confusion and distress.

Are there a few passages that are a little too florid? Maybe. But for me, overall, this was a Ken-Loach-award-winning-film of a book and I will recommend it to just about anyone who will listen.

 

 Enh. Ordinarily, I would be the target demo for this book: it's female-character driven, set in the ancient world, riffing on a major work of literature (Homer's Iliad, ostensibly). And yet, it didn't really do it for me. In their afterword, the authors mention that they intended the book as a high fantasy work, hence some liberties they took with historical facts (like... inventing words??) I didn't know this about myself, but I guess I'm a stickler for accuracy in my historical fiction. Because if your characters are speaking made-up words, how much of your take on the ancient world can I really embrace? A lot of the female empowerment plotlines also felt anachronistic. TL;DR: 2.5 stars. 

 Out of the ten stories in this collection, these were my favorite:
The Board by Elif Batuman
The showing of a rental apartment quickly descends (in more ways than one) into a bureaucratic fever dream. To me, this really captured the claustrophobic and absurdist essence of Kafka.
Hygiene by Helen Oyeyemi
A Korean man is ghosted by his maybe-romantic interest until her symbiotic best friend takes over the conversation. The epistolary format was a great riff on the Kafkaesque breakdown of meaningful communication.
Apostrophe's Dream by Yiyun Li
A conversation between punctuation marks? I. Am. THERE! I wasn't entirely sold on the Kafka tribute aspect of this story, but the drama was on point (teehee).

The Charlie Kaufman story (This Fact Can Even Be Proved by Means of the Sense of Hearing) was in character, though it did feel sort of aimless compared to Black Mirror, maybe because it was less in-your-face than content meant for a TV audience. 

 This recording is obviously older, but it fits nicely into what my brain expects Shakespeare productions to sound like. Doesn't really hold a candle to the BBC version of 2005, though. 

 This was one of my favorites of the audio productions I listened to. Must be the American accent. 

 It grows on you. Like mold, but harder to read. 

 Une occasion rare d'assister de l'intérieur à la tempête médiatique. Meurice est précis dans la subjectivité et cohérent dans les logiques dont il se revendique (satire comme forme outrancière de la liberté d'expression, ligne droite là où ses détracteurs tournent en rond ou se contortionnent). C'est aussi un compte-rendu à chaud, qui se lit comme un reportage de qualité. 

 Tell me you're experiencing a midlife crisis without telling me you're experiencing a midlife crisis. Listing relationships and their accompanying soundtracks is itself a bit of a 1990s exercise, isn't it. Except Nick Hornby already pretty much killed that game in "High Fidelity". The redeeming quality was the solo trip to China (though hold the thoroughly unmotivated heartbreak, please—yelling "TRUTH AND BEAUTY!!" in a temple, in actual all-caps? how much angstier can you get?) If this can be a YA classic for first-gen Chinese American kids, grool. I am severely not that target demo.