A sportswriter is sent to a city (identifiable through landmarks as Nottingham) on an assignment, only to find himself confronted by ghosts from his past. As he attempts to report on a football match, memories of his friend, a victim of cancer, haunt his mind. As the teens make their way through the extensive cave system they talk and share experiences. Things are tough but they have each other. Grant, slowly, starts to realise that running away from his problems will help nobody and he has to take responsibility for his behaviours, even if the consequences are bad. Otra vez esta sensiblería, el pasado siempre propicia la sensiblería, es inevitable, todo lo que es suyo lo veo a la luz de lo que ocurrió después, su lenta desintegración, su muerte. Las olas del pasado demuelen las defensas de mi arenosa cordura, la pintura tiene que resguardarlo, aquietarlo, volverlo romántico, bonito.”

There were a couple of places where I didn’t feel the narrative conceit was consistent. It was fortunate that the penultimate section I read happened to be him in the press box of the ground. What would have happened if I’d happened to read that after the ‘first chapter’, the timing would have been way off. This did happen when an early section I read had him on the final part of his walk up to the ground, when later I read sections where he stopped off to buy some meat at a butchers. Just seemed to me that the author could have got around these timing problems easily enough but just hadn’t noticed or tried. first impression: this in an interesting structure devised to express the time of mourning a friend, a woman, a past, and in its deliberate renditions of vignettes of memories, in its conversational narration, certainly captures evocative recall- but, unfortunately, this is a work that leads me to think more than leads me to feel... Twenty minutes ago, I had this review in the bag. I had taken thorough notes, had arranged them by topic, and had even highlighted passages to quote.After taking a class on narratives derived from traumatic memory, I felt my chest puff out and my know-it-all-ness preparing to reject Johnson’s version of how memory is experienced. After having only read the introduction, I found myself shouting angrily at the text, “But memory isn’t random! It is triggered by something in the present, a smell, a taste, a lost memento rediscovered in the attic.” Like Proust considering a tea-soaked madeleine, memory occurs when something in the present triggers something in the past. It is not random. It is not accidental. Fabuloso es el siguiente párrafo en el que, aprovecha el recuerdo de la degeneración de la enfermedad de su amigo para cambiar el narrador, cambiar de la primera persona de un narrador poco fiable a una segunda persona que nos acerca al momento, que nos da, de una manera audaz un momento para la ternura: Een uitspraak die voortkomt uit een beperking, als je het mij vraagt. De stelligheid waarmee de bewering wordt geponeerd maakt bovendien dat het neigt naar een testimonium paupertatis. El último pliego es un prodigio que nos lleva de la mano como verdaderos partícipes narrativos del dolor del protagonista; somos conscientes de la mentira de la generalización que tiende a hacer ley de nuestros sentimientos solipsistas: I suspect this is why The Unfortunates was such a short book. Liggett probably knew that the longer you spent with the story, the more likely you would work out her purposes, so she deliberately made sparse with the details and practically raced through the final act, glossing over everything that led up to the big reveal. Ironically, had she actually slowed down to take the time to develop the plot and characters, this might have resulted in a deeper and more satisfying read. As it is, Grant and the new friends he meets down in the caves—Shy, Kit, Maria, and Darryl—all felt rather flat and generic. The story also felt very scripted, with every action taken by the characters being choreographed, but to be fair, that might have been the result of knowing what was coming.

I'll have to think more about this. Despite its many merits, the book isn't interesting or endearing enough to make me want to read it again right away, and it's hard to imagine that I'll notice tremendous differences (apart from a more logical lunch regime) if I try again in a few months or years. In that sense, I didn't - and am unlikely to - experience the 'experimental' side of the novel in a satisfactory fashion, as reading the novel for the first time is much the same as reading any novel for the first time (apart from the feel of the chapter booklets). The most successful aspect for me was that it left me with an urge to rearrange the memories - not randomly, but as I would prefer to see them. And perhaps, given the novel's concluding paragraphs, this was Johnson's real intention. This book was so thoughtful and I truly loved my entire reading experience. I heard comparisons to Disorientation, one of my favorite books so it makes sense why I loved this. Sensitive topics such as body image, depression, and micro-aggressions were explored well. Book Cover⇢ It's bloody fantastic. Others have said that it doesn't go with the story...but I think it actually does. A] playful, powerful debut... A poignant reminder of how tight a hold mental illness can have' Zakiya Dalila Harris Desde luego que este procedimiento entraña cierta cantidad de trabajo clerical y administrativo por parte del lector. Pero no es una cantidad excesiva, a buen seguro, y por otra parte el lector perezoso puede proceder de modo normal, aceptando el orden del encuadernador. Que prefiera no divertirse del modo aquí propuesto es, claro está, inalienable derecho suyo; pero en tal caso se perderá una experiencia nada ordinaria (si es que tiene precedentes); y quizá el meollo del asunto. Lo que también es su derecho inalienable.Pero Los desafortunados es otra cosa. En este libro, los dos compromisos fundamentales –innovación formal y verdad rigurosa- se alían en una obra literaria extraña, poderosa y cautivadora.” I recommend this make-your-own-Billy-Pilgrim story because, unlike most experimental fiction, reading this book is NOT like sitting in a very uncomfortable chair. Firstly, there is not enough room on this coffee shop table for the book, my computer, my notes, and the five highlighters it took to organize my thoughts into a rainbowed outline.

Imagine if a drama could be different for everyone who experiences it, giving everyone a unique perspective on the same story. That’s The Unfortunates, a shape-shifting audio experience for smart speakers re-created from an experimental BBC Radio 3 drama. The book is written as her thesis statement to the University Committee to document her experience before she joins the Unfortunates… I would highly recommend reading this book as I fear audio might not translate some of the most special aspects like the footnotes, images, and other mixed media that truly made this so impactful and memorable! I initially thought that the plot would be more of a murder mystery than what it really was, but this way was much more impactful and I understand why it was written this way. The narrative format was super unique, and 100% weird, but somehow it worked? It was a bit difficult to get attached to the characters with this format, but it worked in the end, and I really enjoyed some of the relationships of this book. When you think of an Alexa skill you don’t necessarily think of visuals, but we did need some artwork to represent the sections on devices like the Show and the Spot, which have screens. Andrew and Joanna created some beautiful artwork, using abstract photography and projection to create images that reflect the feel of each section without destroying the ambiguity of the piece.I LOVED the mixed media style format! I thought the inclusion of all the artwork, redacted words, different fonts, documents, text exchanges, etc. made me feel like I wasn’t just reading something, I was experiencing something that will resonate with me for a long time. One thing to note is this book takes itself almost too lightly at times, and it will definitely offend and bother some readers. In my opinion, the dark humor is purposeful - and Chukwu seems to be speaking from the heart - but it is not for everyone. Lo único que importa es, en palabras de Johnson, lo que significa para mi vida esa muerte, el “nosotros” final, nos une al autor en su dolor, un viaje inolvidable, desgarrador, conmovedor en su aparente frialdad; dolor unido a belleza; vida, ni más ni menos.

De stijl is sober en grauw met eindeloos veel komma's en bijzinnen. De staccato verteltrant vond ik in het begin sterk omdat dat inderdaad is hoe een hoofd werkt en samen met de schijnbare willekeur aan gedachten en de regelmatige weglating van woorden leek het me een realistische en stilistisch vernuftige weergave van de werkelijkheid. Daar komt bij dat het boek reflecteert op het schrijfproces, als het ware de gekunsteldheid van de roman blootlegt, en dat vind ik bewonderenswaardig. Zie de volgende 'zin'. But…I am not sure what that accomplished. According to Jonathan Coe who wrote a very fine Introduction in 1999, B. S. Johnson believed that:

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This is by far one of the most unique reading experiences I have ever had. Initially, I was hesitant as to how this novel (which is not actually a novel) would come together, but B. S. Johnson has created a beautiful rumination on death and life as it proceeds after a loved one has passed. Chukwu meticulously and brilliantly balances tough topics like depression with biting comedy, crafting a narrative about a young woman trying to survive and help others do the same' Shondaland