Allen Bratton's Henry Henry chronicles a year in the life of Hal Lancaster. Readers already familiar with Shakespeare's history plays will immediatelyAllen Bratton's Henry Henry chronicles a year in the life of Hal Lancaster. Readers already familiar with Shakespeare's history plays will immediately recognize the landscape of Bratton's novel in this modern-day queer reimagining of the Henriad. There's Hal, the disaffected, wayward son; Henry, the stoic, dutiful father; Ned Poins, the working class, rowdy youth with whom Hal spends his days; Falstaff, the has-been drunkard who's obsessed with Hal; and Harry Percy, the rival, the golden boy—the dutiful son who exhibits all the ideal aristocratic traits Hal lacks. Readers unfamiliar with the narrative off which Bratton is riffing will lose very little in translation, as Bratton's characters are vividly realized, all authentic in their own right.
You can read my full review HERE on BookBrowse, and you can read a piece I wrote about Shakespeare's Henriad HERE....more
Idol, Burning provides unrelenting insight into fandom culture—specifically the "J-Pop," or Japanese pop music fandom. Rin Usami captures the insulariIdol, Burning provides unrelenting insight into fandom culture—specifically the "J-Pop," or Japanese pop music fandom. Rin Usami captures the insularity and obsessive nature of "stan culture" with aplomb, and if you've spent time in any sort of online fandom over the years, there's a lot you'll recognize in here. (If you haven't... I think you might get a little lost reading this book, if I'm being honest—let the layman beware.)
But where it shines in its portrayal of the more toxic aspects of fandom culture, the narrative itself leaves something to be desired. The whole concept that this novella is supposedly predicated on—a girl coming to terms with her favorite pop idol maybe having assaulted a woman—isn't ever really the focus, and I understand why this detail is included in the book's summary, but the reality of the way this narrative transpires is much more mundane than fraught. This isn't a story about a girl being torn apart and forced to question everything she's believed in; it's more of a portrait of the insidious nature of obsession, and the ways in which it can lead you to become disconnected from reality. And of course, there's nothing wrong with that at all; I just think this could have been a more interesting project had there been a bit more tension and more of a shift within Akari's character throughout the story.
It's short and it's worth reading and Rin Usami is one to watch for sure, but I ultimately did want more from this.
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVia for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review....more
This is one of those frustrating novels that you want to grab by the shoulders and shake because it has all the potential in the world to be somethingThis is one of those frustrating novels that you want to grab by the shoulders and shake because it has all the potential in the world to be something extraordinary, but for whatever reason it seems content to just be Fine. Roughly tracing the outlines of the Apollo and Daphne myth, The Latinist follows Oxford classics scholar Tessa, who discovers that her supervisor, the renowned scholar and Head of Department Chris Eccles, is sabotaging her career. This novel’s main strength lies in this conceit—Prins does an eerily brilliant job at capturing the quiet horror of finding yourself trapped in a situation where you’re entirely dependent on another person, who you’re slowly realizing does not have your best interests at heart. Certain passages of this novel cut me to my core, made me feel physically ill with recognition.
Unfortunately, Prins is determined to undermine his own fantastic setup by indulging the urge to humanize Chris in ways that I felt pulled against the novel’s main objectives. At first, I didn’t mind reading the passages from Chris’s perspective, as they initially just serve to corroborate how disturbing his behavior is; it seemed like a harmless if unnecessary addition. But then there’s a whole subplot involving his dying mother that ultimately doesn’t go anywhere worthwhile, that I was just itching to cut out of the manuscript altogether. What is even accomplished by reiterating to the reader that Chris is a fallible human? We know that from the start, and having that point belabored just feels patronizing.
I have a few other complaints—for whatever reason Prins likes to throw in a mini-flashback on every other page, telling the reader about a scene that had happened two days prior, rather than just showing that scene to the reader in real-time; there’s also an anthropological discovery made partway through that hinges on such an enormous assumption that it was rather maddening that none of the characters seemed to question it—but on the whole, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy reading this. Prins’s writing is sharp and readable, Tessa is a fantastically written character, and certain passages that deal with obsession and power really sing. It just feels a bit aimless and rushed in places and I think really would have benefited thematically from keeping its narrative focus on Tessa.
Thank you to Netgalley and W.W. Norton for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review....more
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