“But nobody had enough, nobody stopped, no matter how much he had, and the fields, even the vineyards, looked like public gardens, fake flowerbeds, like those at the railway station, or else wilderness, burned-over land, mountains of slag.”
———————
This book opens with a lot of important information about the main character, including that he’s an adopted orphan searching for identity and belonging. Much of this book felt like grief in progress, and it was beautiful.

I really liked the way he and Nuto talked around Nuto’s history during the war, so we understood what was important because of what was unsaid/avoided. The class conversations with Nuto I also enjoyed. Cinto represents our narrators childhood self, a slightly altered version with his injury. 

I liked that the narrator remains nameless, it created this interesting suspension and detachment. I honestly felt a bit unmoored while reading it, but it wasn’t unpleasant. There was some remarkable immersion in the scenes. It reminded me a lot of Cormack McCarthy‘s writing. 

I did feel like I was missing some needed political context, but I could extrapolate just enough to follow along without having to do my own research. It may have made the text more impactful/enjoyable to have that missing knowledge. 

I also found it interesting to read “upper class courting“ from an external lower class party. Usually those stories are the forefront of a plot, and I found the narrator’s perspective refreshing.