CAWPILE: 8.43/10 - 4/5

Desde el inicio la autora te presenta una forma impecable de escritura, su prosa es exquisita y creo que eso fue lo primero que me atrapó de la novela.

La historia de amistad entre Agnés y Fabienne fue muy interesante, es como ver dos personas que sacan lo mejor de la otra persona, pero de la peor manera.

La exploración del deseo de superación, frustración de querer que todo sea igual y conservar a alguien en la vida, cuando no tienes ese poder, fue fascinante.

Igual me gustó el aspecto de la producción de textos, pensar que si la persona que idea las ideas, las que las ejecuta o el que es la cara es dueño, y más que nada, quien tiene el talento.

hmmmmm
I'm not sure what I thought of this.

In some ways, it's exquisite - the focus on female friendship (yes please), between two girls at the precipictic end of childhood/brink of adolescence (ok maybe), the crystalline language (sharp! lots of knives throughout!).

I admire Li's writing, and I often find it a little cold and somewhat removed? while being so impressive. I almost think it's funny how much this is compared to the [b:My Brilliant Friend|35036409|My Brilliant Friend (The Neapolitan Novels, #1)|Elena Ferrante|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493655783l/35036409._SY75_.jpg|19174054] series, because I thought those books were so visceral and heated - and this felt at the opposite end of the spectrum for me. Maybe it just points to the dearth of stories about girls' (close/maybe suffocating/unsurpassable) friendships. And sure, they both grew up impoverished and in conditions that were at times shocking.

Instead, especially after Agnes goes to England, I was reminded more of [b:Lolita|7604|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1377756377l/7604._SY75_.jpg|1268631], with a girl with a (not as) terrible guardian, being so isolated and forlorn. And again, at times that clinical language. Oh also I guess the story being told in hindsight, with new names for some of the characters from marriage, and the kind of rescuing but anonymous American husband?

And then, there was a lot of focus on fables, which is not as much of an appeal to me. And I had a lot of questions - why was this set in France? Why after the war? What was the significance - the poverty? The presence of Americans sprinkled throughout? What was going on with Mrs Townsend and her trips to Japan and the whole Kazumi part???

But. Wow, did I love some of this.
"Why, you look like a sad potato."
"Very tall men, to my mind, were like very short men. You could not possibly take them seriously."
"Her mind was like a bird. My mind was like a train, and someone had to lay the track down for me."
"I was trying to turn my brain into a bird, but it only thrashed about like a clumsy bumblebee."

I also liked some of the longer quotes and a lot of the atmosphere of the book. I'm glad to see the delight of so many others around this book, and once again thank The Bookstore Podcast discussion of this book, which helped me prioritize the book!

Although the title may be misleading, "The Book of Goose" is an ingenious portrayal of obsession within a female friendship. In the post-World War II France countryside, Agnes and Fabienne are more than just best friends: their bond almost morphs them into a single-self, creepily enough. When Fabienne convinces Agnes to transcribe her eccentric story into a novelization, the book is published. This action leads to the girl's separation, as Agnes is sent to an English finishing school. As the two girls communicate through letters, Fabienne's control over Agnes starts to become obsessive, as her illustrious imagination takes hold. Drawing similarities from the film "Heavenly Creatures," Yiyun Li's novel makes readers question: how much attention is too much within adolescent friendships?

Almost a bit too similiar to My Brilliant Friend, but very well polished.

Gorgeous book, absolutely beautiful prose. Girlhood is very complicated and precious and dangerous and transformational!

A book about obsession and identity.
An unusual story but definitely not one in the same vein as Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. There is indeed a shared premise between the two books and that is two girls growing up in post-war Europe, with one of them possessing extraordinary intellectual abilities, although deprived from non basic educational opportunities, that form a strong bond and friendship while battling a harsh and often unforgiving reality around them. However, I think this is too superficial a comparison and somewhat unfair to both writers to be considered as a selling point for the story in "The Book of Goose".
To start with, Ferrante's narrative is firmly grounded on reality with a superb sense os time and place, with characters, even minor ones, reflecting the socioeconomic structure of post-war Italy.
The Book of Goose finds the two girls growing up in rural France and one of them spending time in a boarding school in England in the fifties but it could have been set up anywhere in the world where circumstances that support the storyline could be applied. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I think that Yiyun Li is interested in the dynamics of the relationship between the two girls more than anything else. So, the book reads as a very "esoteric" account of the lives of Fabienne, the more powerful and charismatic of the duo, and Agnes, the more earthbound, literally and metaphorically, one. There are many references to them being two parts of the same entity pulling each other together and apart and a surreal take on how this relationship evolves. An interesting book, and I do not regret reading it, but I struggled with the curious and fable like storytelling, which completely ignores the wider world around the two main characters, as well as the deliberate(?) imbalance between them, especially as Agnes who, in her late twenties is the narrator of the story, assumes an incomprehensible dummy/passive role more often than not.

very strange yet lovely coming of age novel with an absolutely gorgeous cover! very reminiscent of My Brilliant Friend.

My Amazing Pal by Belena Berrante

How unfortunate to have written a book that's nearly identical to one of the most beloved novels from the last decade