While She Knits--Disturbed Edition

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I will remember how to post to a community, I will, I will!
 ^_^

The question of the day:
    What books have disturbed or challenged you?

Did the fact that they challenged you make them, in the end, more profound?

In the case of Queen of Attolia, I think the story has a lot more punch than the Thief (much as I hate to admit it; the Thief has my undying loyalty) because of the suffering it puts you through. If, by the end, you finally understand Gen and Irene, the turnaround from the betrayal at the beginning makes a real impact.
    It might be cool to discuss  the smaller parts of the three books that disturbed us, why, and how they affect reading the rest of the story.

Comments

[netslefj.livejournal.com]

Agree on the Wein series! The trilogy probably was realistic for slavery, though it pushed the limits of what a child is able to survive and how a child is able to function, I thought. Fourth book goes to a level of adult irrationality that is so sick it's contemporary (think Guantanamo and holding camps for illegal immigrants), and I thought the end was a graphic-novel or TV-episode ending now you know my prejudices) and not a literary end point.

Mary Russell's Sparrow books still horrify me. I read them as part of a book discussion group, and some participants clearly were able to abstract the events as literary devices, but I still am not able to stomach the modifications to the priest's hands which are intended as such a high honor to him. And the odd thing is that they were recommended to me by the same person who recommended MWT's work, both series recommended for their power and quality of writing.

There, I feel that I've brought some lingering distress into the daylight. Thanks for the question!