2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Book Review: The Crossed-Out Notebook by Nicolás Giacobone

This book was fascinating and infuriating and repetitive and unusual and original all wrapped up in one…

It’s ostensibly the tale of a writer held captive by a director and forced to produce screenplays to which the director will claim sole credit. But it’s much more than that, and that’s where it both succeeds and fails in my opinion. It succeeds in its exploration of what it means to be trapped, but physically and inside one’s own head. Also in what it means to be a writer, to be an artist, to be original, to be lost, and to be a captive to one’s own head space. But it occasionally falls into its own oubliette of cleverness, as so many non – traditional narratives do I think, and that was where it occasionally lost me.

It’s an unusual narrative that flips back and forth in time and space, both external and internal, and the flips happen without any notice or any explanation. I’m not usually a fan of non-traditional narratives. I tend to prefer my stories to be slightly more linear than not, since I generally read to be entertained as opposed to be exploring an art form. That said, a non-traditional narrative can be an art form, and still entertaining and engaging, when crafted well. For the most part, this one is crafted very well. I did occasionally find it repetitive and painful to read, although both in hindsight and at the time I realized that may well have been intentional. This is a story about a man who was losing himself, and in that regard the flow of the narrative is spot-on. It does make for a slightly difficult and at times a bit tedious read though, but I do think it ultimately achieved its goal.

And as always, I’m all the more impressed with the trickiness of the narrative and the cleverness of the language, given that this is a translation. The concept of translation is important in the story, and I think that was a cool resonant piece given the way the book was written.

It was odd and at times strange and infuriating, but also highly original and I’m glad that I read it on the whole – but it isn’t going to be a book for everyone…

My review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley.

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