"I read a book one day, and my whole life was changed." - opening line of The New Life, by Orhan Pamuk

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

A SYSTEM SO MAGNIFICENT IT IS BLINDING, by Amanda Svensson

 Long-listed for the Booker Prize, "A System So Magnificent it is Blinding" is a meandering, sometimes incoherent journey into the family dynamics of triplets who have a major skeleton in the family closet that has skewed their personal and familial identity. The book presents an impossibly complicated, twisted plot as the struggles and personalities of the 3 siblings create odd situations and intra-family conflicts. Ultimately, by means of a big revelation of the truth that comes about in a convoluted and bizarre turn of events, the family reconciles itself to the truth and reconstitutes itself. Although often tiring to make sense of, the writing is clever and even beautiful at times, and worth the effort overall. To be honest, though, I did sometimes find my self pondering, "Is this really Booker Prize material?"

Click here for a review of the book from NY Times: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/19/books/review/amanda-svensson-system-so-magnificent-it-is-blinding.html




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