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Loading... The People in the Trees (2013)by Hanya Yanagihara
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I'm not sure how to feel about this book. There aren't many almost-500 page books that I've read and not complained about the length, but add this one to the list. Although I didn't find any of the characters likable, the writing and character development was fantastic enough that I cared about what happened to the dislikable people. Perhaps one of the main things preventing me from loving this book was that it didn't live up to her other masterpiece, A Little Life. Still, I will buy her next book the day it comes out! Really impressive debut novel, about a Nobel-winning biologist, Norton Perina, who made a groundbreaking discovery, but eventually is convicted for sexual assault of children that he had adopted. It sounds grim, and it is. There are many impressive things about this book, but perhaps the most was how convincingly the author depicts Perina. While not devoid of a tiny bit of charm, and at times being an evocative narrator (particularly of scientific matters, and the natural world), he is consistently vain, self-aggrandizing, and deluded. Even while you never lose sight that he is a monster, as a narrator he is still engrossing. Furthermore, it is interesting that, even with Perina's biases and prejudices, the goodness of a few other characters still peeks through. This is some skillful writing. The passages on the pacific island of Ivu'ivu (the bulk of the book) are fascinating and compelling. And if the book dips slightly on his return to the US, by then I was immersed enough to not really care. The one false note for me was the character of the editor — an ex-colleague and acolyte of Perina's, who is entrusted with this memoir, and footnotes it as he sees fit. It's a nice conceit, but I felt we either needed more of him, or less; as it was it felt a little tentative. Nonetheless, just a minor quibble. Much like the flora and fauna of the island Ivu'ivu, The People In The Trees, is rich, subtle, multi-faceted — disturbing and brutal, but also beautiful.
Hanya Yanagihara’s novel takes the form of a purported memoir of a disgraced medical scientist-slash-anthropologist, introduced and footnoted by one of his colleagues. It’s hard to ascertain who is less reliable here: the doctor, Norton Perina, imprisoned for abusing native children he adopted, or his delusional supporting amanuensis, who thinks the doctor is being vilified and who falls all over himself to make excuses for Perina’s odd behavior. ... In short, it’s just too damned interesting to put down, which makes it an extremely auspicious debut novel. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Joining an anthropologist's 1950 expedition to discover a lost tribe on a remote Micronesian island, a young doctor investigates and proves a theory that the tribe's considerable longevity is linked to a rare turtle, a finding that brings worldwide fame and unexpected consequence. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I should have had listened to Kubodera.