Review of Ironing
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Lily Jann
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- Latest Review: Ironing by Navajo
Review of Ironing
[Following is a volunteer review of "Ironing" by Navajo.]
Art imitates life in Ironing, a literary work by Navajo that is labeled under the experimental fiction genre. It is composed of many different characters living many different lives, which are often narrated in random order with no segment or chapter break. It starts off with the interaction shared by three women named Emma, Ginie, and Royanda. Without warning, the narration shifts to another character’s perspective. This ‘random perspective shifting’ is to be expected throughout the story as if to imitate the spontaneity of reality. The ending comes in full circle with the three aforementioned characters, though in a rather unexpected way...
For a work tagged as 'experimental,' I believe Ironing yields successful results. Reading the book feels as if I’m not only a spectator of reality, but also a person actively engaging with the book’s characters. It has made me laugh out loud, ponder on the characters' many random thoughts, relate to their many traits and thought processes, feel oddly satisfied for noticing the subtle connections they share, and feel extremely emotionally attached to the point where I could not help but cry. Though it was written in a totally new method of storytelling, Ironing perfectly captured the explicit, sometimes bitter, and most of the time spontaneous rawness of reality. And for this, I highly recommend it.
As for the book’s negative aspects, I have found none. Though, I would like to tell future readers that it might take them quite some time to adjust to how the book is written. This is because it honestly took me quite some time to get used to the rather lengthy set of paragraphs and the lack of chapter headings or breaks. However, once I got used to the book’s way of storytelling, I found it to be a very rewarding read.
Overall, I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars. Not 3 because even though I needed some time to adjust to the format, I did not regret spending extra effort to do so as the book was extremely gratifying in a new way. Thus, I rated the book a solid 4 because it is one of the rare kinds of stories that left me feeling somewhat empty yet extremely contented once I finished it. This contentment is probably because I have always pondered on the idea that people are living totally different lives, and what they see and feel shapes their actions, and it is then what makes their lives their own, and ultimately what shapes both their present and future. To quote a line from the book, “So much depends on such small things,” and those small things sometimes end up being most significant in a very subtle way as shown in the story. Ironing, then, helped me see and appreciate life, not for what it could be but for what it is.
With this, I guarantee you that Navajo's Ironing is an excellently crafted piece of literary art. However, I would not recommend it to just about anyone. I believe the book is suitable for mature, open-minded readers who seek something out of the norm, especially because the book isn't formatted according to what is traditional, and it often brings up mature, sometimes explicit, topics that may or may not affect readers in a negative way.
******
Ironing
View: on Bookshelves
Art imitates life in Ironing, a literary work by Navajo that is labeled under the experimental fiction genre. It is composed of many different characters living many different lives, which are often narrated in random order with no segment or chapter break. It starts off with the interaction shared by three women named Emma, Ginie, and Royanda. Without warning, the narration shifts to another character’s perspective. This ‘random perspective shifting’ is to be expected throughout the story as if to imitate the spontaneity of reality. The ending comes in full circle with the three aforementioned characters, though in a rather unexpected way...
For a work tagged as 'experimental,' I believe Ironing yields successful results. Reading the book feels as if I’m not only a spectator of reality, but also a person actively engaging with the book’s characters. It has made me laugh out loud, ponder on the characters' many random thoughts, relate to their many traits and thought processes, feel oddly satisfied for noticing the subtle connections they share, and feel extremely emotionally attached to the point where I could not help but cry. Though it was written in a totally new method of storytelling, Ironing perfectly captured the explicit, sometimes bitter, and most of the time spontaneous rawness of reality. And for this, I highly recommend it.
As for the book’s negative aspects, I have found none. Though, I would like to tell future readers that it might take them quite some time to adjust to how the book is written. This is because it honestly took me quite some time to get used to the rather lengthy set of paragraphs and the lack of chapter headings or breaks. However, once I got used to the book’s way of storytelling, I found it to be a very rewarding read.
Overall, I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars. Not 3 because even though I needed some time to adjust to the format, I did not regret spending extra effort to do so as the book was extremely gratifying in a new way. Thus, I rated the book a solid 4 because it is one of the rare kinds of stories that left me feeling somewhat empty yet extremely contented once I finished it. This contentment is probably because I have always pondered on the idea that people are living totally different lives, and what they see and feel shapes their actions, and it is then what makes their lives their own, and ultimately what shapes both their present and future. To quote a line from the book, “So much depends on such small things,” and those small things sometimes end up being most significant in a very subtle way as shown in the story. Ironing, then, helped me see and appreciate life, not for what it could be but for what it is.
With this, I guarantee you that Navajo's Ironing is an excellently crafted piece of literary art. However, I would not recommend it to just about anyone. I believe the book is suitable for mature, open-minded readers who seek something out of the norm, especially because the book isn't formatted according to what is traditional, and it often brings up mature, sometimes explicit, topics that may or may not affect readers in a negative way.
******
Ironing
View: on Bookshelves
Latest Review: Ironing by Navajo
