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Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer (view source)
Revision as of 09:12, 14 September 2020
, 09:12, 14 September 2020no edit summary
It's a brave and ultimately disturbing book and the emotional honesty of the voice is strong. So often books that involve a child narrator can be sentimental but Bauer never allows this to happen. He also expertly contains the links of the two stories so that you genuinely believe that the child narrator and the adult narrator are the same person and that's not an easy skill to achieve.
The nature of the story makes it a difficult read at times, although the style is always highly accessible and there is always the prospect of reconciliation between the mother and her son to keep you optimistic about the outcome, but you will have to read for yourself to see if this pans out. There are times that the story is quite draining to read, and it asks uncomfortable questions about the nature of family love and who is to blame when this breaks down and, ultimately if this can ever be reconciled. It's superbly written, but be warned, it is emotionally quite brutal.
Out thanks to the good folks at Serpent's Tail for inviting us to review this book.
For more slightly uncomfortable but emotionally honest reads then [[Room by Emma Donoghue]] and [[We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver]] would be excellent choices. [[The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas]] is another novel addressing a difficult subject, also from Australia where Bauer now resides. You might also enjoy [[Mistaken by Neil Jordan]].
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