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juushikaTitle: The Sinner (Die Sünderin)
Author: Petra Hammesfahr
Translator: J. Maxwell Brownjohn
Published: Penguin Books, 2017 (1999)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 390
Total Page Count: 567,265
Text Number: 2147
Read Because: once again, this gay incest book list; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: "She always said 'we' when she meant me."
A whydunit: what motivated a young mother to stab an apparent stranger to death on the beach? I came to this for a weird sibling relationship, and sure did get one. But it's buried, successfully and otherwise. A narrative of obscured memories and motives, this is cyclical and oblique, intentionally but nonetheless inauthentic and distant, and I couldn't tell you if it's German literature or Brownjohn's translation or Hammesfahr's voice, but the writing is stiff and the PoV hops disorientating. After such convolution, a neat resolution feels insincere. All this makes for a difficult thriller, lacking momentum and failing to earn its payoff, and yet I like the intent and component pieces. An effort was made! Unsuccessfully.
Author: Petra Hammesfahr
Translator: J. Maxwell Brownjohn
Published: Penguin Books, 2017 (1999)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 390
Total Page Count: 567,265
Text Number: 2147
Read Because: once again, this gay incest book list; ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: "She always said 'we' when she meant me."
A whydunit: what motivated a young mother to stab an apparent stranger to death on the beach? I came to this for a weird sibling relationship, and sure did get one. But it's buried, successfully and otherwise. A narrative of obscured memories and motives, this is cyclical and oblique, intentionally but nonetheless inauthentic and distant, and I couldn't tell you if it's German literature or Brownjohn's translation or Hammesfahr's voice, but the writing is stiff and the PoV hops disorientating. After such convolution, a neat resolution feels insincere. All this makes for a difficult thriller, lacking momentum and failing to earn its payoff, and yet I like the intent and component pieces. An effort was made! Unsuccessfully.
