Sprachlich wunderbar, nur leider nicht mein Fall. Obwohl es nahezu ausnahmslos um die Gefühlswelt der Hauptfigur ging, konnte ich keine Verbindung aufbauen. Vielleicht war das sogar so gewollt, weil die Figur so verloren ist aber für mich hat es die 144 Seiten in die Länge gezogen.

First of all, the edition of the book I’ve read was nothing but an ARM WORKOUT?! Penguin, what the ***? Why do you make a paperback out of rock hard paper so that you aren’t even able to open the book properly??? But apart from that this book just wasn’t for me. The topics were important and interesting, but the actual storyline and writing? Nah. The writing style was very repetitive and sometimes even pretentious. There was no real character building, these characters were absolutely flat and unlikable (especially the woman who was portrayed to have random mood swings). The lyrical writing is forcing emotions which aren‘t there in the actual plot, I can’t even explain it. „Under what conditions does the uncontainable stay contained? Things unsaid don't often remain so. They take shape and form in ways one doesn't expect, manifesting in touches, glances, gazes, sighs. All you have wanted to do was hold each other in the darkness. Now, you have opened the box and left it unguarded in the night. You have both placed faith in the other that you will wake up intact. You have acted on a feeling. You are in a memory of the present. You are tumbling through a fever dream, surfacing only to plunge once more.“

“You've been wondering about your own relationship to open water. You've been wondering about the trauma and how it always finds its way to the surface, floating in the ocean. You've been wondering about how to protect that trauma from consumption. You've been wondering about departing, about being elsewhere. You have always thought if you opened your mouth in open water you would drown, but if you didn't open your mouth you would suffocate. So here you are, drowning.”