sarah shun-lien bynum's madeleine is sleeping
a finalist for the national book award in 2004 (it lost to lily tuck's the news from paraguay, whcih i also didn't think was anything special), this is the story of a girl who falls into a deep sleep and has weird dreams where she joins up with a sort of freak show. these dreams are interspersed with brief looks at her family, although the line between the dreams and the reality is often blurry. i suppose this was meant to be all fairy-tale-like, but i didn't really like it much. there's no real sense of the characters and it just feels like bynum was trying a little too hard. now i remember why i think the national book award is a crock.
2 comments:
Hey! Not entirely a crock! William Vollmann! Read Europe Central! No crock! Still, I love you.
-Erin
aw, thanks! i've never read that book so maybe i should give it a shot. but the vast majority of books nominated in the past few years have been books i've generally disliked--who on earth is on that committee?
i'll stick with the bookers for now, i guess!
Post a Comment