Tom Malmquist

As I read I assumed I was reading a memoir, but it's classified as "literary fiction." It is so authentic, though, so wrenching, there's no way it's anything but true.

I loved this book, painful as it was to read. The style reminded me a little of Karl Ove Knausgaard, whose books have also been termed autofiction. Some reviewers disliked the literary flourishes: running conversations together in one paragraph so that it was difficult to figure out who was talking; shifts in tense and time periods. To me, this was its beauty. It's the way one's brain works after horrific tragedy.

Other reviewers commented that there was very little feeling in the writing; again I disagree. It felt as if it was poured out from Malmquist's heart and soul.… (mehr)