Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother’s Story
asha bandele
208 pages
Published in 2009 by HarperCollins
Source: Bought it
Something Like Beautiful is almost a collection of snapshots of poet/writer asha bandele’s life as a wife and mother before her life was dramatically changed. After being married for several years, she learns that her husband, who’s been serving time in prison, was denied parole and will be deported back to his native Guyana, a country he hasn’t lived in since his early childhood. Almost overnight, asha becomes a single mother.
I really wanted to love this book but after fifty pages, I knew it wasn’t for me. It had nothing to do with the subject matter but the narrative. I was expecting a story told pretty linearly and not one that is more a stream-of-consciousness.
Here’s a passage:
There are times I have to force myself to remember to breathe when I think of all my mistakes, my slips of judgment, and the way they have tracked me and my baby like some madman stalker all the way through, not just moments, but years that I would recall if could, years for which I would beg. Can I have a do-over? I would beg because how can a mother not beg to erase anything ugly, anything wrong that entered the life of her child?
I’m not a big fan of stream-of-consciousness novels, personally.
I had some expectations for this book, but I think it will annoy me too. Too much stream-of-consciousness bugs me too.
Stream-of-consciousness doesn’t work for me either. Sorry this didn’t live up to your expectations.
I also don’t really like stream of consciousness and find it too distracting. I can totally see why this one didn’t work for you.
I’m also not a fan of that type of narrative! Looks like you’d have lots of DNF company on this!
Sorry this one didn’t work out for you. It sounds pretty “meh” to me too.
I don’t mind that style, but I do have to be in the right mood for it. Guess that makes me a moody reader.
I’m not very fond of the stream-of-conscousness narrative style either.
If the clipped narrative is the way all 209 pages read, I’m sure I’d be looking for the story too. (Stream-of-consciousness is a new term in the lit world for me.)
I tried reading this book when I received it as an ARC and couldn’t get into it either. The description of the book is very intriguing but it doesnt read well.