Young to Old, Old to Young
Mar. 18th, 2018 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLast night, I finished The Good Children by Roopa Farooki, which tells the story of four children growing up in Pakistan in the 1940s, and how their parents’ abuse and expectations shape their subsequent lives.
I found it an uncomfortable read to begin with. It is uncompromising in its depiction of the mother’s treatment of her children, and how that impacts on their later development. The writing is very frank in exploring people’s lives, feeling and motivations, conveying the complexity of emotions when dealing with other people and trying to find your place in the world.
I particularly liked the way it showed the layers of what went on in certain characters’ minds, even while they were unable to put this across when speaking to their friends, siblings and spouses.
It was also interesting to learn about a different culture, and the traditions and assumptions associated with it.
I got to know and like all four of the main characters, as the story followed them into middle and eventually old age, and the intricacies of their own families were well-drawn and engaging. There wasn’t really a sense of conclusion at the end, though - the book just sort of stopped. But I enjoyed the journey nonetheless.
The audiobook I was listening to during the same period was Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I read the whole series years ago, but couldn’t remember many of the details, so decided to try the audio versions. The main character, John Parry, is very personable and easy to like, so I was quickly invested in his story. He joins the Colonial Defence Forces at the age of 75 and his consciousness is transplanted into a much younger, and enhanced body, to enable him to serve.
There was maybe a bit too much scientific detail for my tastes, but the characters were engaging enough that I could put up with that. My biggest problem with the book was that Parry goes through various phases of signing up, travelling to space, being trained, and eventually joining the war against various hostile alien species. This made for a fast-paced and exciting narrative, but Parry is the only character who features throughout - all the peripheral characters keep being replaced by new ones, which made it difficult to get a cohesive sense of the story.
The book is also oddly light for being intermittently incredibly grim. There’s a lot of horrible violence and character death, but also a lot of humour. It almost feels like it’s trivialising the consequences of war in places, but it also looks at some difficult subjects around violence against other species, as well as grief and loss.
I love the world Scalzi builds for these novels, though, and am keen to continue with the series. This first one definitely felt like it was setting up a larger story, so I shall look forward to following Parry on the next stage of his military career in space.
I found it an uncomfortable read to begin with. It is uncompromising in its depiction of the mother’s treatment of her children, and how that impacts on their later development. The writing is very frank in exploring people’s lives, feeling and motivations, conveying the complexity of emotions when dealing with other people and trying to find your place in the world.
I particularly liked the way it showed the layers of what went on in certain characters’ minds, even while they were unable to put this across when speaking to their friends, siblings and spouses.
It was also interesting to learn about a different culture, and the traditions and assumptions associated with it.
I got to know and like all four of the main characters, as the story followed them into middle and eventually old age, and the intricacies of their own families were well-drawn and engaging. There wasn’t really a sense of conclusion at the end, though - the book just sort of stopped. But I enjoyed the journey nonetheless.
The audiobook I was listening to during the same period was Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. I read the whole series years ago, but couldn’t remember many of the details, so decided to try the audio versions. The main character, John Parry, is very personable and easy to like, so I was quickly invested in his story. He joins the Colonial Defence Forces at the age of 75 and his consciousness is transplanted into a much younger, and enhanced body, to enable him to serve.
There was maybe a bit too much scientific detail for my tastes, but the characters were engaging enough that I could put up with that. My biggest problem with the book was that Parry goes through various phases of signing up, travelling to space, being trained, and eventually joining the war against various hostile alien species. This made for a fast-paced and exciting narrative, but Parry is the only character who features throughout - all the peripheral characters keep being replaced by new ones, which made it difficult to get a cohesive sense of the story.
The book is also oddly light for being intermittently incredibly grim. There’s a lot of horrible violence and character death, but also a lot of humour. It almost feels like it’s trivialising the consequences of war in places, but it also looks at some difficult subjects around violence against other species, as well as grief and loss.
I love the world Scalzi builds for these novels, though, and am keen to continue with the series. This first one definitely felt like it was setting up a larger story, so I shall look forward to following Parry on the next stage of his military career in space.
