I haven't read what GR friends have said about this book--I'm coming to it a little later than most--which made it all the more of a pleasure. I thought long and hard before writing this review.

Yeah, I’d say so. Two of the most interesting characters in the novel are Natasha and Ramzan. Even the dialogue between characters was archaic, forced, almost fictitious. Ultimately, it ends well — mostly cause I was thrilled to be done with it. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. But Marra’s characters never seem to inhabit the borrowed scenes, which feel separate to the rest of his narrative. He employs many turns of phrase that are little jewels in an otherwise under adorned prose.

This, too, can feel satisfying--yes, life will go on from all this awfulness--but I felt the heavy hand of the novelist here, a little too much. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle’s inaugural John Leonard Prize and the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction, as well as the inaugural 2014 Carla Furstenberg Cohen Fiction Award.

But “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” is ambitious and intellectually restless. Finally I thought, why couldn’t we have just gotten here sooner!? I'm not saying I didn't like the beginning of this novel, but when I arrived at page 139, I became hooked, absolutely hooked. Overall, I don’t recommend this book at all.1.5 STARS, © 2013-2020 - Elizabeth Ladean Photography LLC | All rights reserved | Kansas City, Missouri based Missouri, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina - natural light adventurous wedding and elopement photographer, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena // book review, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine // book review, Everyone Brave is Forgiven // book review, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things // book review.

The characters were multidimensional figures, and the story shed light on a plot that I wouldn't have otherwise known about. US Attorney General allows prosecutors to probe 'substantial allegations' of vote irregularities, US election results and maps 2020: Joe Biden wins US election after victory in Pennsylvania. While in medical school, he skipped his classes to study art, which led him to drawing portraits for refugees of lost family members. It is neither Historical Fiction nor French but rather a modern novel (it takes place in the 1990’s and early 2000’s) about life in Chechnya. I have to say I learnt next to nothing about the Chechen wars. Thanks! Marra’s novel was a National Book Award long list selection as well as a shortlist selection for the Flaherty-Dunnan first novel prize. Oh, what a joy to read a fully-realized, beautifully written, totally engrossing novel. It sounds like a very in-depth read and a great book.

Did I enjoy it? To see what your friends thought of this book.

Oliver Bullough is disturbed by the use of Chechnya’s suffering as colour for a novel. ANTHONY MARRA is the winner of a Whiting Award, Pushcart Prize, and the Narrative Prize. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Russ. The characters are sympathetic, and the horror of the Chechnyan conflict unimaginable, if it weren't such close kin to so many others. Their human spirit shines through like the grass that grows in the cracks of a sidewalk. I don't mean to compare authors or their style of writing or even content presented. There's nothing easy about torture. A decade of war in Chechnya informs this multivalent, heartfelt debut, filled with broken families, lost limbs and valiant efforts to find scraps of hope and dignity. Anthony Marra’s first novel, A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA, opens as Havaa, an eight-year-old girl hiding in the woods, watches her father Dokka being abducted by Russian soldiers in the middle of the night in a war-torn village in Chechnya. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. We got chopped off fingers, burned down houses, torture-induced ratting, and a whole host of other atrocities.

There are also short histories of objects that bring about connections between the different characters. The story traces the character's lives and the moral choices they have made in their struggle to survive.

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019. Their lives are surrounded by the difficulties of a long, vicious war. The scene is Chechnya, but it has been repeated in life and literature all around the world. "–Sonja, Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2014. This book had potential. The writing was beautiful. And the plot is brilliantly conceived and tightly woven throughout this masterful novel.

Some characters were explained in such detail only to never be mentioned and again — and that made me feel like I was wasting my time reading when all I really wanted was more information on the, I’d say — 5-6 primary characters. But also because genuinely, the final wrap-up of the main characters was well executed.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra, describes the tragic lives of displaced peoples in the aftermath of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. The engrossing story was heartbreaking, uplifting, sad, and confirmed the best in people in terrible sit. Armenia and Azerbaijan agree ceasefire deal as Russia deploys peacekeepers. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra Published in 2013 Pages: 379 Genre: Novel, war, literature about Chechnya “On the morning after the Feds burned down her house and took her father, Havaa woke from dreams of sea anemones.” A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra, describes the tragic lives of displaced peoples… If you'd asked me to find it on the map, I couldn't. Much of the book takes place in the Chechnya of 2004, following the abduction of a man named Dokka. Chechnya is a subject that has slipped out of the news, and the war there has largely ended, but the Russian region remains far from anything we would recognise as normal. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

I have just seen that people post to Goodreaders the request for recommendations of similar books. Indeed, by moving the descriptions from when they took place to the years required by his plot, and by placing them in an imaginary city, he divorces them from any relevance to what was actually happening. The lyricism of the long sentence is what captivated me at the time, but it also encapsulates muc.

Anthony Marra's debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, is such a book for me. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a sweeping novel that uncovers the characters' pasts and propels them into the future. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is the 2013 debut novel by American author Anthony Marra.The story, told from an omniscient point of view, begins one morning in 2004 in the small Chechen village of Eldár.The night before, a villager named Dokka was captured and taken by Federalist soldiers, and his house was burned to the ground. Inviting comparison with such masters is a risk that Marra should perhaps have avoided. My friend Will recommended this book by Anthony Mara about war-torn Chechnya. I know in a somewhat vague way that Russia and its bordering countries have been struggling for decades to regain a non corrupt economy and better quality of life for its people.

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