The Nine-Chambered Heart

Janice Pariat

2017 • 149 pages

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'You, though, are as beautiful as light splitting through glass.'Nine characters recall their relationship with a young woman - the same woman - whom they have loved, or who has loved them.We piece her together, much as we do with others in our lives, in incomplete but illuminating slivers.Set in familiar, nameless cities, moving between east and west, The Nine-Chambered Heart is a compendium of shifting perspectives that follows one woman's life, making her dazzlingly real in one moment, and obscuring her in the very next.Janice Pariat's exquisitely written new novel is about the fragile, fragmented nature of identity - how others see us only in bits and pieces, and how sometimes we tend to become what others perceive us to be.

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Imi

It's easy to love.

This turned out to be a pleasant surprise! In some ways (although they are very different in other ways), it reminded me a lot of [b:The Life and Death of Sophie Stark|23281949|The Life and Death of Sophie Stark|Anna North|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437951712s/23281949.jpg|42819833]. Both books are about one woman and use the different perspectives of multiple characters to build up her character. But by the end of the book, you question, despite everything you've learnt during the course, whether you really know her character at all. The protagonist of The Nine-Chambered Heart remains nameless, emphasising the idea that, perhaps, the reader and her lovers never really know her or understand. Are all nine narrators describing the same woman, adding layers to her personality, or are they seeing a different character? How can she be one and the same? There are contradictions, similarities and repetitions to each perspective which add to this mystery. Ultimately, this book is above love. Whether it's about the source of that love or the act itself is another question. Both beautiful, mysterious, and slightly discomforting at times, I believe I've found a hidden gem.

March 19, 2019