Love and Other Thought Experiments: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

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There is a comprehensive source list at the end of the novel, but some of the influences are more opaque to me, for example Olivia Manning’s The Balkan Trilogy, which seems to be key but I’m unclear why. On another, it’s a sandbox of philosophical ideas ranging from free will and the nature of consciousness, to the limits of human experience.

Knowing where it is heading would probably reveal some earlier connections that you miss on first reading.I was interested in Sophie Ward’s citing A Visit from the Goon Squad and Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge as influences on her book’s individual story structure. Here, each of the ten chapters begins with a 'thought experiment', and while about half of the time I could make out how the following narrative exemplified some aspect of such, in the other half it left me scratching my head on how they interfaced.

It all felt very empty and mathematical to me, and while I appreciated the way it all fell into place from a tactical perspective, the fact that the plot does revolve around this circle of love makes the emotional distance a real detriment to overall enjoyment. Each chapter begins with the explanation of a particular thought experiment and then uses that experiment as the foundation of the fiction that follows. I'm not a fan of fantasy or far-fetched fiction and felt the author was feeling a bit too pleased with her plot to stop a good few paragraphs or chapter earlier.Sin embargo, yo lo considero más del campo de la novela, ya que todas las historias están relacionadas por sus personajes, que aparecen aunque incluso no sean siempre de la misma naturaleza. As you discover all these little facts and intricacies about the book, you can become lost in the deeper meanings and the cleverness of the writing. The family is untraditional because a lesbian married couple (Rachel and Eliza) decide to have a child using sperm donated by one half of another gay married couple (Hal and Greg). You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

With cover blurbs by industry giants, expensive pre-publication media blitzes, and Book Club promotions by OprahReeseSarahJessica, many second-rate novels skirt critical assessment on their way to orchestrated popular acclaim. Regardless, the ripple of a book's effect on your life can be strong; whether the change is immediate or revealed much later varies from book to book. De cualquier manera, más que de temas fantásticos, el libro habla de relaciones entre pareja y entre madre e hijo, especialmente, sobre cómo estas relaciones se mantienen ante el paso del tiempo y enfrentándose a circunstancias adversas. That’s definitely an understandable sort of impatience, and I agree that we could do with more books that tackle LGBTQ+ themes directly.Unusually for a novel, each chapter has a bibliography - in addition to the philosophical and scientific underpinnings, these include novels, children's books and other literary works all of which are mentioned in or influence the stories. The rapid and abrupt changes in perspectives between each chapter gave this novel an untethered feeling that made it difficult to connect and empathize with any single character. Ward has a Open University Degree in Literature and Philosophy and a PhD in the use of narrative in philosophy of the mind.