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This book changed the way I look at caramel sauce. I will never be able to unimagine that. LOL. But an insane read this is.

can i read this book without knowing anything prior?

I've finished The Eighth Life, my favorite character was the first, Stasia, I agree that the later characters Elene and Daria were disappointing after the strength of the earlier characters.

Waiting for your video..

thank you

thank you, very useful

Just finished this, utterly stunning, a quite different way of reading, and I love how you describe it. I'm a meditator, and loth to describe things as "meditative" - people often misunderstand - but this feels appropriate here. It's not blissful, it's a challenging, austere, sometimes beautiful close presence to experience, which Fosse's style and simplicity allows.

Determined by Sapolsky. Better Never to Have Been by David Benatar. The conspiracy against the human race by Thomas Ligotti. Every cradle is a grave by Sarah Perry.

I am so impressed that someone whose native tongue is not English can appreciate a work weighted with so much linguistic nuance. Kudos.

thank you...useful

Best review ever!

Nice

To understand the new generation of the book better, one should understand the 90s. It is difficult to express and even more complicated to understand for the "outsider". In her new book she manages to describe this part of the history better.

I thought the migrant experience was very well explained and described in this book, specifically the anxiety, and the pressure to "perform" as a local to belong. I felt the morality dilemna so difficult to navigate, and the ending was realistic, sad, but realistic. Thanks for reviewing!

I miss your videos, bro. There are very few male booktubers who recommend really interesting books. Please, don't leave the channel.

Where did you disappear? Please come back with more book videos

I found it sooooooo boring 😢

Honestly the thousand dollar words in Suttree and Blood Meridian would make just about anyone keep their phones handy for definitions, so I very much doubt that it’s an issue with your English vocabulary

You are so wrong. The "oppressed" are oppressing themselves as well as continuing to oppress the world. Adam Carolla's in 50yr we will all be chicks was on point.

The Only Story is a very good read with a structure indicating an unreliable narrator who is possibly so traumatised he has difficulty relating to and remembering the past. I think the ink smudges in the title indicate this? The narrative view point also changes. I felt it was indicating how Paul felt about what he was telling. When he talks about happy things, he is there, and telling in the first person. When he is talking about difficult times, he is telling himself what to do, and is second person. When talking about very painful situations, he tells in the third person, trying to distance himself from it as much as possible. Looking at it this way lent an interesting note to the last couple pages.

The novel is definitely a masterpiece. But the two characters are not equally represented as the novel and you don’t even speak about the two characters equally as well! The suffering of the Israelis and the Jews take a major part of the book over the actual suffering of the Palestinians. Neither of the Israeli characters in the book, except perhaps for poor Smadar, suffer the same way the Palestinians do in the book, let alone material reality. It is not a conflict, such a word gives an impression of parity, which has nothing to do with material, social, cultural, historical and political realities. Bassam had to pay a high price for just throwing stones, and he was coerced in prison to change. On the other hand, Rami does not suffer at all except after the death of his daughter. The shooter of Abir runs freely and perhaps he has shot many others like her. Of course, Nurit is a rarity in the Israeli society and so are Bassam and Rami, but the novel does not show this! There are variety of Israeli characters in the novel versus Palestinian prototypes who are either terrorists or “reformed” ex-terrorists or silent characters and they are primarily primitive! Reading such a novel made me recall the Palestinian Muhamed Muna, owner of one of the bookshops in Jerusalem; who said that he is sick of white men paying a visit to Palestine for few days or more and deciding to represent the Palestinians’ stor[ies]. I wonder why didn’t you go and try to communicate with the Palestinians other than the coincidental incident in the taxi? why didn’t you google them in the area you’re staying at? There are many Europeans who manage to communicate and gain the trust of the Palestinians. There are may Palestinians who can communicate!

Great review thank you! I also read the book and feelings are mixed

White scalp hunters? There were Indians and a black guy in the book's scalp hunting party!!

I've read it 3 times.Good book.Suttree was someone I aspired to be as a kid.Then I became him as an adult.Ha,life is fun!Can I have those McCarthy books you already read?😁

Thank you for this excellent review. I’ve just finished it, loved it, and so want to discuss it with others. The writing is beautiful. I feel I would get much more out of it if I understood some of the mythological elements better, but I may do some study and come back to it for a second reading. I agree with you on the mermaid return scene. I was satisfied with how she developed when she left with the other mermaids. The scene that brought her back felt unnecessary, brutal, and illogical. I wish Azar had found another way to close that piece of the story. Overall, amazing though. Thanks for the added historical perspective!

Thank you for this video

Great review , Thanks for the heads up.

Kamil I think you seriously underestimate the awareness and perception of a 12 year old child,

I'm confused who's layla's father? If harun is the father then why she calls him uncle? (I guess harun has 2 wives binnaz and suzan) why doesn't Layla call binnaz step mother instead of auntie?????? (SOMEONE ANSWER ME PLEASE 🥺)

I just finished real life and I can’t decide if I liked it or not, it was very profoundly written but I think I’m too dumb to fully comprehend the plot if there was one🤦🏻‍♀️😂😂

does jas died in the end?

How do you pronounce Marieke Lucas Rijneveld?

Amazing review. Can this novel be explained through the lens of diaspora?

great review. subbed.

Fantastic review- Im a little late to the party lol (still haven't read this) but you've helped me to finally make the decision to do so with a degree of balanced objectivity. thanks : )

Wow... Incredible U make my work easy . I am going research on this novel ... Through psychoanalysis

Wow... Incredible U make my work easy . I am going research on this novel ... Through psychoanalysis

About 2 years late to this video, but have just picked up Shafak for the first time. I'm reading The Forty Rules of Love. I completely agree with your analysis in the middle there and think it applies also to 40 Rules- the main thing that bothers me about her writing is this one-dimensional-ness to the characters which feel not quite stereotyped but not fully fleshed out or complex enough. I think the issue might be that we are made too aware of the authour behind the words looking at her little creations, and that she may be resisting greater complexity for the sake of connecting to a wider readership maybe? It feels a bit as though she wants to represent everyone, but this compromises the depth/ nuance she could be tapping in to. Just my feeling. I do appreciate her as a writer and speaker for many other reasons though.

Best book I've read in 2021. Jaclyn from Six Minutes for Me sent me here.

This is amazing. I am here at the recommendation of another vlogger. I was born in Indonesia, another pawn of the USA during the Cold War era. So a lot of the geo political and historical background you presented resonated with some parts of my reality. The thirst for more stories carved in worlds which resonate with my own has been at least three decades long. Thank you for this. I will be adding this to my list to read.

Describe the theme of the novel too

Is it easy for beginners ?

আমার বইগুলো ঝেড়ে বি ডি ইশকুলের মাস্টারমশাই ঋষিরাজকে দিয়ে, নাটকবাজি করে কোনো লাভ হবে না ।

I used to read a lot when I was a kid but sort of just stopped when I left school. I just finished The Road which was just a complete emotional punch in the stomach and I think McCarthy has reignited my old love for reading. Naturally, I figured I must read something else by this utter genius and I think you've sold this one to me with your review. So thanks a lot!

Thank you so much for this review - I completely felt this whilst reading. I really loved the concept but felt like the execution really fell short and I really struggled to connect to the characters. I hoped for more and felt like the character vignette structures felt like less of a device and more of a crutch. :( Hopeful to go back and read Fever Dreams, Samanta clearly has some great ideas, looking forward to giving her another go.

Reading it right now and your introduction was really valuable. Thank you

I read it in German and the amount of tears I've spilled.... Beautiful book, one of my faves.

I am on page 84 of TYLL. And boy is it hard going!!!! Really dry and vague...so hard to keep interested. But I shall persevere!

Read Memory Police last week and now reading The Enlightenment of the greengage tree. Both books are just fantastic, especially fell in love with Shokoofeh’s writing, coz I love Marquez. I think I will read The adventures of China Iron too, after watching ur reaction and reviews. Thanks

your accent makes it hard for me to understand anything you're saying