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@nichobi@bookwyrm.social How did you find it? I've been wondering if I should revisit Sally Rooney. (I wasn't super enthralled by Normal People a few years ago, but I've become a little less harsh with age.)

Attempting to read nonfiction that is not SUPER depressing, I guess?

I am skeptical about this one, but it came unexpectedly soon in the library so let's hop to it.

This is such a beautiful, short novella. I went into it with no expectations, and I'm glad I didn't.

The whole story takes place over the course of seven hours, from midnight to 7 am, and follows a small cast of characters over the course of the night. The experiences that most of the characters had reflect a strong sense of community and care that I remember coming across late at night while I was in university. Of course, there are bleak moments here, but the weight of them are kept at bay by the humanism of the characters.

The story does have surreal moments, but they don't predominate, and they add a lot to the story. Late at night, things don't always feel right, and the surreal really feeds into that.

One component of the story that does a lot of work is the point of view. For one, the narrator and the point of view have nearly anthropomorphic characteristics. At the same time, the whole story is told in the present tense. The narrator learns about occurrences at the same time we do, and it offers a sort of meta-commentary. In some ways, it reads almost more like a screen play than a novel. The PoV's voice adds to the sense of strangeness and wonder.

My only regret was that the book is so short--but I also think it was as long as it has to be.

When you know the Disney Beauty and the Beast, the bones of this story are very apparent. But they're good bones. And though I don't like the first two-ish chapters, it does pick up nicely.

Well, that was cheerful. And I'm noticing so many more little similarities between Persuasion and P&P and the evolution from P&P to Persuasion is very interesting to think about. The use of the epistolary is so good.