👶👶👶👶 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra

This novel was a literary work of art. The author crafted beautiful sentences, memorable characters, and a stunning setting. However, the novel itself, was incredibly dense, and filled with so much content as to overwhelm. It was a grueling, heavy read, dealing with very difficult subject matter. I gave the novel 4 stars because Anthony Marra is an extraordinary writer, but I must say that I crawled through much of the novel because of the sheer gravity of it; I could only take so much at any given time. Perhaps it was the mere fact that the atrocities described herein seem to be from the time of the Second World War, not recent history. It is absolutely sickening that people are still treated in this disgusting manner during times of war.

Overall, I was duly impressed that this was Marra’s debut novel, but look forward to a novel written by him about a less tragic subject, in coming years.

Read 5/5/17