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Fiona Snyckers

Autor/a de Lacuna

9 obres 34 Membres 3 Ressenyes

Obres de Fiona Snyckers

Lacuna (2022) 11 exemplars
Trinity Rising (2009) 4 exemplars
SPIRE (2017) 4 exemplars
Now Following You (2015) 4 exemplars
Team trinity (2013) 2 exemplars
Trinity On Air (2010) 2 exemplars
Lacuna: A Novel 2 exemplars

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Notwithstanding the #Me Too movement, women’s accounts of rape are still frequently disbelieved in favor of unsatisfying “he said-she said” narratives that all too frequently come down on the side of the powerful. One only needs to consider the Kavanaugh hearings or the many allegations against Trump to understand this sad fact. Snyckers explores this dynamic by re-imagining Lucy Lurie, the protagonist of “Disgrace” JM Coetzee’s award-winning novel that uses a brutal rape as a metaphor for racial reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike Coetzee’s Lucy, a passive person devoid of agency, Snyckers’ Lucy is intelligent and belligerent, totally obsessed with scratching back her voice and agency from how they were portrayed in Coetzee’s novel. Snyckers’ creation is far from perfect. She suffers from PTSD, is withdrawn, afraid of crowds, deluded about finding Coetzee and making him understand her point of view, and at bottom, a deeply unreliable narrator.

At its core, this engaging stream-of-consciousness narrative explores the relationship between fact and fiction in storytelling. It artfully explores the question of just who owns a story? Is it the artist, the subject, or the reader? Lucy begins her meditation with the strong belief that she owns her story and Coetzee has no right to use it for his own purposes. Clearly, one can make a successful argument that rape is a particularly ill-suited metaphor for South African racial reconciliation, yet the central question of the novel is never resolved. Instead, one comes away with the feeling that art needs to be judged on its own merits by those who consume it. The artist and the subject are merely conduits to carry ideas forward. Interestingly, this question appeared once again in all its messy glory in the recent press. Amanda Knox, the American student accused of killing her roommate while studying in Italy, objected to the adaptation of her story in the recent film, “Stillwater.” Clearly, such creations can interfere with healing from trauma. Notwithstanding, they still can contain artistic value. One could rightly argue that “Stillwater” may not have as much artistic merit as “Disgrace”, but it is not totally devoid of art.

Snykers’ writing is accomplished primarily because it explores culture broadly with humor and insightfulness almost exclusively through Lucy’s internal monologue. She does so by identifying and criticizing Lucy’s ideas using multiple characters, including her long-time friend Moira, her therapist Lydia Bascombe, her love interest Eugene Huzain, her distant father, and her academic colleagues. It is ironic, however, that Snyckers’ fictional Coetzee plays no active role in the novel, except in Lucy’s mind. This is primarily a novel of ideas, but the plot, such as it is, still has a satisfying resolution.
… (més)
½
 
Marcat
ozzer | Nov 26, 2021 |
Gone are the days when the only genre most South Africans felt qualified to pen were earnest literary tear-jerkers which, while bringing international prestige to their writers (doubly so if the books was banned), were not popular page-turners.

Thriller writer Fiona Snyckers is one of a group of local women whose exciting and often hilarious books are enjoyed all over the world. And not just by ex-pats.

Virologist Dr Caroline Burchell is wintering at the South Polar International Research Establishment; she and ICU sister/paramedic Kebile Chuma – comprise the SPIRE base medical team, and Caroline is also conducting research into deadly viruses.

Antarctica is not condusive to road or any other sorts of trips at the best of times; during the winter SPIRE is inaccessible. Which is exactly the time a barrage of deadly viruses hits the base, ultimately killing everyone but the Doc.

Because her lover is Muslim, she is suspected of having deliberately released the homicidal bugs. Caroline can accept the suspicion and the isolation: what terrifies her is the suspicion that she is not alone, a ruthless killer is stalking her in the most desolate place on earth.

The worst – and the best – thing about Spire is it is short enough to read in one sitting.
… (més)
 
Marcat
adpaton | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Aug 10, 2017 |
Spire by Fiona Snyckers is a recommended thriller set in Antarctica.

Dr. Caroline Burchell is a surgeon and virologist who has been chosen to join the team of SPIRE and spend the winter in Antarctica doing research. SPIRE stands for the South Pole International Research Establishment. Caroline has brought vials of cryogenically frozen viruses that she plans to study over the 8-9 months she will be there. Before she can even begin her research though, the whole team there is coming down with a wide ranging number of diseases that are represented in her vials. The only problem is that the seals on her vials are all still intact which means someone else has brought the same deadly diseases to the station and released them. Soon Caroline is the only survivor with no hope of rescue in sight; however soon mysterious occurrences in the station make her suspect that there may be another survivor hiding from her.

The set up to Spire is intriguing as I am always up for virus-outbreak stories. Then it changed into potentially an exciting lone-woman-against-the-elements story. For a brief, shining moment I thought it was going to be sort of a twist on The Martian, or Endurance, only with a female doctor trapped at an Antarctica research station, but it soon lost some of its initial momentum and morphed into something else. The quality of the writing is adequate, no glaring problems and written in a simple, easy to follow style reminiscent of a YA novel.

Once the story changed, it lost its energy. The viruses were introduced to eliminate everyone and add a twist that was, quite frankly, not very believable. Add to this Caroline's finding a cat at the station, and her ability to use the internet, contact people, including colleagues and her family, Skype, etc., made the disorienting sense of isolation and solitude vanish. The horrible sense of isolation and potential for death, etc., was really only fully utilized during one part of the plot. FYI, it's also not a very tech-savvy novel for those of you who care about such things.

Now, it is still an interesting story. It was easy to set all my misgivings aside and just enjoy the novel as is. Don't expect any great use of the viruses, though, beyond a plot element to isolate Caroline. This is an airplane book. It will hold your attention and help pass the time but you won't worry if you never finish it. Apparently it is a sequel to the novel Now Following You, but you won't need to read that before Spire.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Clockwork Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/07/spire.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2069362510
… (més)
 
Marcat
SheTreadsSoftly | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jul 23, 2017 |

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Premis

Estadístiques

Obres
9
Membres
34
Popularitat
#413,653
Valoració
3.8
Ressenyes
3
ISBN
15