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Chargement... Good Kings, Bad Kingspar Susan Nussbaum
Top Five Books of 2013 (140) Workman Publishing (10) Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Nussbaum succeeds at her goal here: to write a book about characters with disabilities, who have personalities beyond their disabilities, interact with each other and with characters who are able-bodied. The characters are fully fleshed out and interesting, realistic characters. But this absolutely comes off as a political piece. It is certainly enjoyable in its own right, but it is impossible to read without thinking of it as a piece about disability-rights, criticizing institutions (which, I agree with in spirit, but also agree that there are nuances to the discussion not fully elucidated here.) and discussing discrimination, over-utilization of intelligence and personality testing and casting a cynical eye over seemingly all parties involved in providing care to those with disabilities. Perhaps the best part of the book is that Nussbaum portrays even most of her villains as human, simply ignorant or over-worked or otherwise preoccupied. She does have a few truly irredeemable characters, but by and large, especially for a piece trying to make a statement, this is done well -- an invitation to dialogue. Perhaps I am biased. This book was recommended by a disability rights activist that I'm sure knows people like those in this book. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that my friend knows Ms. Nussbaum. As a "temporarily able bodied" person, my interaction with differently abled people has been fairly limited. This book brought me into a world so different from my own. Or rather, it has expanded the view of the world I live in, to better include people that have too often been invisible to me. Some of the violence and hardship in this book make it a rough read. It is an important read nonetheless. The story is complicated and compelling and the story telling is masterful. I highly recommended it. Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing. These teens may seem to have the normal teen angst but, their lives are anything but "normal". These are teenagers institutionalized - some for physical reasons and some for mental. This is a novel that explores their friendships, relationships and what life is like for them inside the institution. Astounding. Upsetting. At times I was moved to laughter, at others to tears. And I could not put this book down. It's about institutionalizing the disabled, it's about abuse, and it's about friends and family and finding out who you are and who you want to be. TRIGGER WARNING: child abuse, rape, ableism. The author--who is physically disabled herself--did a wonderful job of presenting so many different aspects of disability. There were some (in character) ableist slurs regarding the mentally disabled, so do watch out for that. The author also seemed to respect the different heritages of her characters; she writes in an interview how seriously she took it and how much she researched everything. Give this book a try, but be so careful with yourself when you do because you will hurt. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML: This PEN/Bellwether Prizeâ??winning novel set in a state-run facility for disabled teenagers is "saucy, brutally funny, gritty, profane, poignant and real" (The Kansas City Star). Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Critiques des anciens de LibraryThing en avant-premièreLe livre Good Kings Bad Kings de Susan Nussbaum était disponible sur LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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This was an interesting book with some interesting things to say. But it is grim reading, and I was outraged at the way the author chose to end it. I don’t expect or even want happy endings, especially in a book so determined to strive for realism. But there is no sense of resolution, no looking forward, no… anything. It just stops, like the author got tired of writing or the publisher refused to print more than 465 pages.
Audiobook, purchased via Audible. The performances by a cast of readers were the best part of this book. They breathed life into the characters as each told his or her own story. This is one good exception to my dislike for first person present tense. The writing style, in this case, fit the story being told perfectly.
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