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dreamtokens's review
I loved it, the character's voices, their intermingling stories, they all had an easy-to-read, intense-stream of consciousness air to them. I found it in a collection I quite like, it caught my attention and I was right about it doing so. There's not a LOT of queer literature in Romanian, so I'm glad this is translated.
solenophage's review against another edition
3.25
Summary: Five young Greenlandic adults’ lives interweave as they discover their identities, fall in love, and betray each other.
Fia goes through the motions of a relationship with a long-term boyfriend she’s fallen out of love with. An encounter with Sara, a beautiful girl at a party ignites a new passion muddled with confusion.
Her brother Inuk’s life spirals after his friend Arnaq spills a secret that embroils him in public controversy and leaves him ostracized. He questions what it is to be a Greenlander, to be queer, and to forgive.
Arnaq lives to party, to drink, to fuck, and numb out her trauma. She’s falling in love with Sara’s partner, Ivik, and struggling to find happiness as her past clings to her.
Ivik wants to please Sara, he wants to make her feel loved, but he can’t stand to let her touch him. The divide between them grows wider as he struggles for an excuse to hide that he does not understand his own actions either.
Sara feels polluted. She feels abandoned. But slowly she realizes a truth that might destroy her relationship, but will let both her and Ivik find happiness and forgiveness.
Reflections: The writing style or the translation style was unique, a messy, poetic stream of consciousness. I came to enjoy it though it could be disorienting. Inuk’s chapter, which leaned more towards an abstract exploration of identity than the other characters’, worked the best with this style, in my opinion.
I was left with the weird sense of feeling my connection to the characters was both shallow and deep. The views of their lives were fairly narrow, limited primarily to the five main characters’ interactions with each other and to the parts of their lives concerned with relationships, sexuality, and partying. The narrative zoomed in on singular issues in each character’s life and got very personal, digging into their insecurities and darker thoughts, but the rest of who they were and what sort of lives they lived were neglected to the point the characters didn’t seem like full people.
Ivik’s acceptance of his trans identity was written oddly in that he does not realize or state that he is trans. But Sara gets this epiphany moment where she figures it out without him in the picture, decides with 100% certainty he is a man, completely flips how she thinks about him and their relationship based on this, and then brings it up with him for the first time (by straight up telling him what she’s decided he is). It’s not necessarily offensive – it can even be a nice thought that people sense that you are your true gender no matter what – just presented in a way that seems too simple and unquestioned. It’s treated like there’s some definitive marker of trans manhood and once you see it there’s no question (and no need for tact) when really a person could have had Ivik's experience and have been a woman or nonbinary or not ready for a label. The way Sara’s written then becomes uncomfortable as does the fact that Ivik never gets to give his own account of understanding/accepting his gender.
t__vert1's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
brownflopsy's review against another edition
4.0
I have read more than a few Nordic Noir books over the years, but this one my first one from Greenland and I found it rather intriguing - it was also an interesting and unusual choice to round off Women in Translation month.
The book is split into the stories of five separate people - Fia; her brother, Inuk; Inuk's best friend, Arnaq; and Sara and her girlfriend Ivik. Through their narratives, we go on a journey that explores their relationships with each other, how this has affected their deepest feelings and what they have learned about themselves.
It takes a while to understand where this story is going, but by the time you get to Arnaq's narrative you realise how clever this book actually is. It is not until you hear the story from the points of view of each of the characters and put all the pieces together that you understand the whole piece - and intriguingly appreciate what a catalyst Arnaq is for the direction of the novel. It's really rather brilliant.
There is no question that this is an unusual and, in part, somewhat sad tale that reveals rather a lot about the negative attitude of the traditional and insular Greenlanders towards those of their own who are gay, lesbian, or gender dysphoric. However, I also found it to be a very touching and intimate portrayal of the relationships between the cast of characters, and I rather enjoyed it.
If you are not afraid to walk a bit on the wild side, then I can recommend this short and unconventional novel as being worth your time. It will certainly make you think, as all good Virago titles do!
The book is split into the stories of five separate people - Fia; her brother, Inuk; Inuk's best friend, Arnaq; and Sara and her girlfriend Ivik. Through their narratives, we go on a journey that explores their relationships with each other, how this has affected their deepest feelings and what they have learned about themselves.
It takes a while to understand where this story is going, but by the time you get to Arnaq's narrative you realise how clever this book actually is. It is not until you hear the story from the points of view of each of the characters and put all the pieces together that you understand the whole piece - and intriguingly appreciate what a catalyst Arnaq is for the direction of the novel. It's really rather brilliant.
There is no question that this is an unusual and, in part, somewhat sad tale that reveals rather a lot about the negative attitude of the traditional and insular Greenlanders towards those of their own who are gay, lesbian, or gender dysphoric. However, I also found it to be a very touching and intimate portrayal of the relationships between the cast of characters, and I rather enjoyed it.
If you are not afraid to walk a bit on the wild side, then I can recommend this short and unconventional novel as being worth your time. It will certainly make you think, as all good Virago titles do!
maprykoto's review
5.0
One of my favorites books EVER. I could relate so much, loved how it is written, it’s very fluid. All the characters’ stories are so touching. It was mind blowing!
hgwe11s's review against another edition
2.0
4/10 + 2 stars. NPR rec.
Toxic queer friendship group, but make it Greenlandic.
Toxic queer friendship group, but make it Greenlandic.
kah's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
saareman's review against another edition
4.0
Greenlandic twenty-somethings spiral out from Rashomon-like encounter
Review of the English language translation of "Homo Sapienne" by Anna Halager
This would probably be a 3 in my regular scoring, but it gets a bump to 4 just for the added frisson of it being the first Greenlandic novel that I have ever read. And I just like the interconnectedness of having a single encounter being a pivot point for each of the 5 character stories here. That is what I mean by "Rashomon-like" in the header, i.e. the same encounter from several different points-of-view, not meaning that it is a murder/assault as in the film.
I also tagged this as "short stories as a novel" as the 5 characters here have their own 5 separate sections of the book to tell their tales about how they interact with the others. Mock screengrabs of texting as the equivalent of conversation was a neat modern day touch, but likely will date the book in the long run. Still overall I enjoyed this first novel from a young Greenlandic writer (24-years-old when this was first published in 2014). The ending is a bit of a deus ex machina in that an unrelated event is suddenly introduced into the mix in order to create a "happy ending."
Niviag Korneliussen had her breakthrough through the short story "San Francisco" (2012) which was published in "[b:Ung i Grönland: ung i världen Inuusuttut - nunatsinni nunarsuarmilu |31932329|Ung i Grönland ung i världen Inuusuttut - nunatsinni nunarsuarmilu |Tukummeq Danielsen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1473474914s/31932329.jpg|52586994]" (Young in Greenland - Young in the World) (2013). The short story also has characters named Fia and Sara, who are the main leads of "Last Night in Nuuk," although the short story has a more dreamy surreal plot with a different end result. You can read "San Francisco" in English translation here or in the Nordic anthology collection "[b:The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North|36417302|The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North|Sjón|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508081321s/36417302.jpg|58114098]."
Trivia Notes
Niviaq Korneliussen wrote this novel first in Greenlandic and also translated it herself into Danish. I am assuming that the English translation by Anna Halager was from the Danish edition although that isn't explicitly stated in my ARC copy.
Confusingly, the novel is being published under 2 different titles in its English translation, as "[b:Crimson|37760563|Crimson|Niviaq Korneliussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526683144s/37760563.jpg|43249569]" in the UK and "[b:Last Night in Nuuk|39218053|Last Night in Nuuk|Niviaq Korneliussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529978208s/39218053.jpg|43249569]" in North America. Most other translations just seem to go with the original "[b:Homo sapienne|23644765|Homo sapienne|Niviaq Korneliussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420812972s/23644765.jpg|43249569]."
Review of the English language translation of "Homo Sapienne" by Anna Halager
This would probably be a 3 in my regular scoring, but it gets a bump to 4 just for the added frisson of it being the first Greenlandic novel that I have ever read. And I just like the interconnectedness of having a single encounter being a pivot point for each of the 5 character stories here. That is what I mean by "Rashomon-like" in the header, i.e. the same encounter from several different points-of-view, not meaning that it is a murder/assault as in the film.
I also tagged this as "short stories as a novel" as the 5 characters here have their own 5 separate sections of the book to tell their tales about how they interact with the others. Mock screengrabs of texting as the equivalent of conversation was a neat modern day touch, but likely will date the book in the long run. Still overall I enjoyed this first novel from a young Greenlandic writer (24-years-old when this was first published in 2014). The ending is a bit of a deus ex machina in that an unrelated event is suddenly introduced into the mix in order to create a "happy ending."
Niviag Korneliussen had her breakthrough through the short story "San Francisco" (2012) which was published in "[b:Ung i Grönland: ung i världen Inuusuttut - nunatsinni nunarsuarmilu |31932329|Ung i Grönland ung i världen Inuusuttut - nunatsinni nunarsuarmilu |Tukummeq Danielsen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1473474914s/31932329.jpg|52586994]" (Young in Greenland - Young in the World) (2013). The short story also has characters named Fia and Sara, who are the main leads of "Last Night in Nuuk," although the short story has a more dreamy surreal plot with a different end result. You can read "San Francisco" in English translation here or in the Nordic anthology collection "[b:The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North|36417302|The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories from the North|Sjón|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508081321s/36417302.jpg|58114098]."
Trivia Notes
Niviaq Korneliussen wrote this novel first in Greenlandic and also translated it herself into Danish. I am assuming that the English translation by Anna Halager was from the Danish edition although that isn't explicitly stated in my ARC copy.
Confusingly, the novel is being published under 2 different titles in its English translation, as "[b:Crimson|37760563|Crimson|Niviaq Korneliussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1526683144s/37760563.jpg|43249569]" in the UK and "[b:Last Night in Nuuk|39218053|Last Night in Nuuk|Niviaq Korneliussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529978208s/39218053.jpg|43249569]" in North America. Most other translations just seem to go with the original "[b:Homo sapienne|23644765|Homo sapienne|Niviaq Korneliussen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1420812972s/23644765.jpg|43249569]."
orlily's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
kiwikathleen's review against another edition
1.0
I was looking for a book set in Greenland to fill a challenge and didn't have a lot of choices. However, I should have known I wouldn't enjoy this - it's about young people partying and sleeping with each other. It does have distinct characters and it has an interesting style, but I found nothing likable in the book.