Alexandra Kaste

In writing, characters have wants and needs, and the resolution of the need at the expense of the want is the hallmark of a happy ending. The character grows up, realizes the want was immature and becomes content with resolving the need. However, this story telling device only works if the character's want is actually immature. When it isn't, but still lives in opposition with the need, the story is a tragedy. This story is a tragedy.

Why the hell this book has 4.23 stars while Alice Munro's Dear Life only has 3.7 I refuse to understand. I finished this and honestly don't remember a single story or image. Reading it wasn't bad, but became a monotony of “how will this couple break up?” Go read Alice Munro. I care when her couples break up.

I DONT KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT THIS BOOK! Is the darkness the horrific treatment of the Congo at the hand of the Belgians, or is it a dated and colonialist metaphor for primitivism??? Is it both??? Are we supposed to agree with the perspective of the narrator?? Are we supposed to criticize it?? I don't know! Still hard to read dehumanizing portrayals of the Congolese whatever the intended reading. Also so much tell and less show. Idk. I'll be thinking about it a lot at least.