BOOK REVIEW: THE WATER CURE by SOPHIE MACKINTOSH
A Very Fact told in an Unusual, Mesmerizing & lyrical Way!
BOOK: The Water Cure
AUTHOR: Sophie Mackintosh
PUBLISHERS: Hamish Hamilton
RELEASE DATE: 14/6/2018
GENRE: Feminine Dystopia
BLURB: Imagine a world very close to our own: where women are not safe in their bodies, where desperate measures are required to raise a daughter. This is the story of Grace, Lia and Sky, kept apart from the world for their own good and taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love. And it is the story of the men who come to find them - three strangers washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent, trailing desire and destruction in their wake.
The Water Cure is a fever dream, a blazing vision of suffering, sisterhood and transformation.
REVIEW: I wanted to read the books from 'Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlist' & for it's astonishing blurb & unique concept, I picked it.
It is book that will actually leave you stunned & disturbed. You can feel it's shock but hardly can express it. You can't love it, hate it or ignore it. Literally I have to write another novel to explain this work of art. But believe me it's not ordinary. Let's discuss some little things without spoilling it's storyline.
The novel has a very very disturbing plot, I will not say it unusual, but surely disturbing - A quite island, a big house, three sisters, one 'caring' father, a mother, their complex relationship [more complex than you ever imagine], the terrible outer world, the father's desperate effortd to save his 'daughters' from the toxic, their weird culture, practice and the water cure.
The story follows the father's death, mother disappearance, the men's arrival & the revelation and realization of the sisters at last.
From the very first sentence to the last, you can call this novel as the 'Longest & Most Beautiful Poem' ! The young and brilliant author has a unique storytelling capacity, she told the story in a mesmerizing poetic style. I failed to select any quotes, as every sentence of the book is a masterpiece itself. The fruition lied here. You have to pick the book just to experience this grand storytelling, the dreamy description, the hypnotic setting.
The story is absolutely complex and disturbing. You have to have a strong heart and mind to read this. You need to keep calm to match the level of this brilliant writing. I don't want to spoil the storyline, but there is a lot of weird practice!
The novel is actually an allegory, you can't relate to the plot, but the overall feeling and conclusion is universal, it told a very fact in a unreal manner. I strongly believe it to be a feminine dystopian. Absolutely.
The highlight of this art piece is that it didn't reveal anything. Unlike other novel it leaved all the questions unanswered. You can't pick who was right, who was wrong, why these happened! Every readers can find his/her own way to explain this. The story was through the three sisters' eyes, so the author never described anything what they can't see. So you have to live in the puzzle world and you can't see the actual happening.
The detailing and plot building was extraordinary and passionate. The author created magic everywhere - black magic, dark.
Overall it's a saga of three sisters to get independence, and in the course to get it came the realization, the ultimate truth of life - Be together but dream alone.
So for it's disturbing plot this is not everyone's cup of coffee, and the author didn't write it for everyone, off course
! Ultimately 'The Water Cure' is a sharp scream of three loved, tortured & broken soul, the psychological epic, which told a very usual fact in a very unusual way. A masterstroke of its kind.
Overall Rating : 4/5
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Thanks for reading.
Wow. Good you reviewed. This is really not my kind of book. But I really like your reviews. Will come back for more.
ReplyDeleteHey, thank you very much... Please keep in touch... 😇😊
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