Play Book Tag discussion

Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra
Book on CD narrated by Colette Whitaker
4****

From the book jacket - Marra transports us to a snow-covered village in Chechnya, where eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night, accusing him of aiding Chechen rebels. Across the road their lifelong neighbor and family friend Akhmed has also been watching, fearing the worst when the soldiers set fire to Havaa’s house. But when he finds her hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives. He will seek refuge at the abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats the wounded.

My reactions
I had considerable difficulty getting into this novel. Perhaps it was because I was listening rather than reading, but Marra’s moving back and forth in time, and changing points of view, just confused me. I did not connect to the characters at first and didn’t understand their relationships and connections. But that, I suppose, is Marra’s intention. We do not often know why someone crosses our path, what connections she or he brings, what influence he or she will have on our future. We do not know when hope and grace, courage and dignity may find their way into our lives. We can only pray that they do.

Setting the novel in Chechnya, a country most Americans would be hard-pressed to find on a map, and about which most of us know little, adds another barrier to the reader’s connecting to the story. It is simply easier to connect to a story and characters who are familiar, rather than to those who are so foreign. But that is also the beauty of this work; because the reader who perseveres will find a marvelous story of human spirit, of love and kindness, and betrayal. And those are universal characteristics.

It is a very dark story, however, and readers who cannot tolerate graphic violence and the kinds of horrific torture than humans have always found a way to inflict on each other, should be wary. This may not be the book for those readers.

Colette Whitaker does a marvelous job on the audio. She has good pacing and a fluid delivery. While I was sometimes lost that was more the result of Marra’s skipping around in time and changing points of view, than any fault of Whitaker’s. If I were to read this again, I would stick with the text rather than the audio.


CROSS-POSTED to: PBT Top 100 Fiction titles -and- Hitting the PBT High Notes

Just got from the library. Given it's rave review I wonder how I will experience it.

Book Concierge wrote: "

Constellation of Vital Phenomena
– Anthony Marra
Book on CD narrated by Colette Whitaker
4****


BC,
I also tried to listen to this book. It didn't work for me at all. But the audiobook that I had, had three different voice artists, none of them Colette Whitaker. You didn't by some awful mischance get an abridged version? If you did, I strongly encourage you to get the full text and read it.

yay!!!!!

Jgrace wrote: "You didn't by some awful mischance get an abridged version? ..."

Nope .. full text ... through overdrive.

I can see how this might be a difficult audio book.

It's amazing how tuned our brains are to a blank line between text signals a change (time/POV). Even a brief pause does not have the same effect (at least for me). I read a library book and loved this one.