Book Club Book #2 for 2016...Wonder how many members will make it through this one?!?
One of Canada Reads 2014 finalist, Rawi Hage's Cockroach is the story of an impoverished Iranian immigrant who is struggling with many issues in Montreal. The theme of 2014 for Canada Reads was: "One Novel to Change Canada". Having read this novel, I'm not sure that Cockroach is far reaching enough to carry that title.
Here's Goodreads' summary:
The main character who remains nameless struggles with:
mental health--he is delusional, and has episodes of believing he is half human, half cockroach.
financial--living in poverty, struggling with hunger, holding down a job, securing clean housing.
historical conflict--his past haunts him, he has memories that revisit him.
social problems--his friends who owe him money, and are owed money, have questionable loyalties.
cultural conflicts--these are really hi lighted by the interactions between him and his psychiatrist, Genevieve.
So how many women in the group read it? ALL OF THEM READ THE BOOK THIS MONTH!!!!! That has to be a first!!!
One of Canada Reads 2014 finalist, Rawi Hage's Cockroach is the story of an impoverished Iranian immigrant who is struggling with many issues in Montreal. The theme of 2014 for Canada Reads was: "One Novel to Change Canada". Having read this novel, I'm not sure that Cockroach is far reaching enough to carry that title.
Here's Goodreads' summary:
The novel takes place during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless immigrant community, where a self-described thief has just tried but failed to commit suicide. Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend sessions with a well-intentioned but naive therapist. This sets the story in motion, leading us back to the narrator's violent childhood in a war-torn country, forward into his current life in the smoky emigre cafes where everyone has a tale, and out into the frozen night-time streets of Montreal, where the thief survives on the edge, imagining himself to be a cockroach invading the lives of the privileged, but wilfully blind, citizens who surround him.
The main character who remains nameless struggles with:
mental health--he is delusional, and has episodes of believing he is half human, half cockroach.
financial--living in poverty, struggling with hunger, holding down a job, securing clean housing.
historical conflict--his past haunts him, he has memories that revisit him.
social problems--his friends who owe him money, and are owed money, have questionable loyalties.
cultural conflicts--these are really hi lighted by the interactions between him and his psychiatrist, Genevieve.
So how many women in the group read it? ALL OF THEM READ THE BOOK THIS MONTH!!!!! That has to be a first!!!
impressed that all the women read the book! Now you have to get them onto the 2016 selections!! Looking forward to March!
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