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A review by gilroi
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
challenging
dark
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What is prayer? What is faith? What is the division between holiness and the nature of the world? Is the world inherently innocent and pure, when untouched by man's hand? Is all love selfish? Is it possible to selfishly love god?
This is an amazing novel, but not for the faint of heart. There's no one to root for. There's very little action. It's gross and enjoys its grossness. Nothing happens like how you'd expect. Even the expectations of genre-- this is nominally a historical fiction novel, or perhaps a fantasy?-- are casually cast aside. When we talk about subverting tropes, we rarely describe them in the way this novel casts them aside. No one is purely good or evil, but they're not 'grey' heroes written with sympathy and nobility. Everyone has their own way of looking at the world, and it's all valid, and that is perhaps the greatest tragedy of Lapvona.
No one knows anything. They just know how they feel.
Is god an unkind father, a silly lord or a somber man, a fool who doesn't know the world around them? Is god anything at all? Is god just what you make for yourself? This very Marxist novel never sneers at faith, but it does take a keen interest how, exactly, one can live if your entire life is hinged upon an opiate. While I wouldn't call the book anti-religious so much as highly skeptical of organized religion (specifically in the way it was constructed-- or believed to be constructed, it's not like this book is concerned with historical accuracy-- in a feudalist medieval period), I can say this book will disappoint more dogmatically religious readers. But I also think that's kind of what it's trying to do in the first place. Just as it's trying to wiggle out of the expectation of genre, of needing sympathetic characters, of having coincidence converge happily, of reunions and rebirth and positive character growth.
Read this novel if you want a dark-- and darkly funny-- view of a very troubled town, with very fractured, selfish and cruel people populating it. And read it if you want to find out how these awful little humans are still, somehow, deserving of love.
This is an amazing novel, but not for the faint of heart. There's no one to root for. There's very little action. It's gross and enjoys its grossness. Nothing happens like how you'd expect. Even the expectations of genre-- this is nominally a historical fiction novel, or perhaps a fantasy?-- are casually cast aside. When we talk about subverting tropes, we rarely describe them in the way this novel casts them aside. No one is purely good or evil, but they're not 'grey' heroes written with sympathy and nobility. Everyone has their own way of looking at the world, and it's all valid, and that is perhaps the greatest tragedy of Lapvona.
No one knows anything. They just know how they feel.
Is god an unkind father, a silly lord or a somber man, a fool who doesn't know the world around them? Is god anything at all? Is god just what you make for yourself? This very Marxist novel never sneers at faith, but it does take a keen interest how, exactly, one can live if your entire life is hinged upon an opiate. While I wouldn't call the book anti-religious so much as highly skeptical of organized religion (specifically in the way it was constructed-- or believed to be constructed, it's not like this book is concerned with historical accuracy-- in a feudalist medieval period), I can say this book will disappoint more dogmatically religious readers. But I also think that's kind of what it's trying to do in the first place. Just as it's trying to wiggle out of the expectation of genre, of needing sympathetic characters, of having coincidence converge happily, of reunions and rebirth and positive character growth.
Read this novel if you want a dark-- and darkly funny-- view of a very troubled town, with very fractured, selfish and cruel people populating it. And read it if you want to find out how these awful little humans are still, somehow, deserving of love.