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Our Life in the Forest
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
9 posts | 3 read | 9 to read
In the near future, a woman is writing in the depths of a forest. Shes cold. Her body is falling apart, as is the world around her. Shes lost the use of one eye; shes down to one kidney, one lung. Before, in the city, she was a psychotherapist, treating patients who had suffered trauma, in particular a man, the clicker. Every two weeks, she travelled out to the Rest Centre, to visit her half, Marie, her spitting image, who lay in an induced coma, her body parts available whenever the woman needed them. As a form of resistance against the terror in the city, the woman flees, along with other fugitives and their halves. But life in the forest is disturbing toothe reanimated halves are behaving like uninhibited adolescents. And when she sees a shocking image of herself on video, are her worst fears confirmed? Our Life in the Forest, written in her inimitable concise, vivid prose recalls Darrieusecqs brilliant debut, Pig Tales. A dystopian tale in the vein of Never Let Me Go, this is a clever novel of chilling suspense that challenges our ideas about the future, about organ-trafficking, about identity, clones, and the place of the individual in a surveillance state.
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Abailliekaras
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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Our new episode of Books On The Go is up! 🎧@mr_annie & I discuss ‘Our Life in the Forest‘ by Marie Darrieussecq trans by Penny Hueston (because we‘re celebrating #WITMonth year-round 😉😂) - we loved this short, darkly funny novel. 💫 one of my surprise hits of the year.

review
Abailliekaras
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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Pickpick

I loved this. A dystopian tale set in the near-future. The narrator has a clone, or ‘half‘ who has lived in a coma & supplied spare body parts when needed - a group & their ‘halves‘ are in the forest. Eery, with aspects of Handmaids Tale & Animal Farm, & mystery of why they‘re there & the sinister society they‘ve escaped. She writes with a great sense of humour & disarming, frank tone which I really enjoyed. Beautifully paced, with a twist. #wit

41 likes5 stack adds
review
Creadnorthey
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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Pickpick

I wizzed through this book. It does a great job of covering territory I‘ve seen handled in other books; the horrific keeps to the periphery until it smacks you sidelong in the brain. Without giving too much away, I‘ll slide this between Kazuo Ishiguro and Margaret Atwood on my bookshelf.

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Creadnorthey
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq

Truly enjoying this story- the translation reads very well. There is a creep factor hanging in between the lines...

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readingjedi
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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Mehso-so

Brief and weird, this was good, but not brilliant, speculative/dystopian fiction. My main gripe was I disliked the narrative voice, the character being close to death and becoming confused gave the text a vague & unreliable feel. Which I usually enjoy but didn't work for me here. The MC is also addressing the reader as someone who already knows what she's talking about so there's a lot that goes unexplained. But the premise is solid... ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

readingjedi Cont.... intriguing and chilling in equal measures. And the shock reveal at the denouement gives genuine pause for thought. 6y
93 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
readingjedi
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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Today's read is this one & I love the cover! With thanks to #netgalley for this book.

batsy Ooh this sounds good! 6y
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Caterina
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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I‘m enjoying some of my favorite tea (seriously y‘all, I‘m addicted to this peppermint and lemon tea!) in the evening light. This #arc from #netgalley is a really quick read - I just started it last night, and after a bit of reading today I‘m already at 82%! It‘s a fun futuristic read, with lots of interesting bits of world building. It doesn‘t have the same feel as most dystopians do, but it‘s definitely a creepy future!

Caterina Side note - don‘t read the Litsy description of the book, it‘s seriously all spoilers! I still haven‘t reached one of the plot points mentioned in it, and I‘m almost done with the book!! 6y
Andrea4 Hm peppermint and lemon. That sounds actually delicious!! 6y
39 likes2 comments
quote
Caterina
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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“Robots confuse raise and raze, sent and scent, lyre and liar, pair and pear, sole and soul, cunt and can‘t...”
Okay y‘all, one of these is not like the others. Is there any accent where cunt and can‘t are homonyms?? 🤔🤣
#arc #netgalley

valeriegeary I just cunt understand. 🤣 6y
Bookzombie @valeriegeary 😂😂😂😂 6y
See All 11 Comments
Caterina @Reggie That link is not working for me, it says “this video is not available.” 6y
Bookzombie @Reggie 🤣🤣🤣 6y
Reggie It‘s a YouTube video of this comedian named Caroline Rhea and she does this bit about The Sound of Music. And how Julie Andrews character says I just can‘t face it anymore. And the Mother Superior says, because of her accent, what is it you cuntface? 6y
Caterina @Reggie Thanks for the description! I looked up the Sound of Music clip in question, but it sounds nothing like “cunt” to my ears. 🤔 It must sound closer to cunt for a different accent than what I‘m used to. Perhaps the American Southern accent has a strong “uh” in cunt than other accents? Idk. @Bookzombie 6y
Reggie My crime here is that I‘ve never watched the Sound of Music. Caroline Rhea just painted this scenario that was hilarious to me. And how the poor actress can‘t find away around saying it. 6y
Bookzombie @Reggie @Caterina I haven‘t seen the movie in years, but Rhea‘s comedy about it cracked me up. I could imagine an accent that could make it sound that way. As far the American Southern accent, I think we would get more of a “caint” than a “cunt.” I could be wrong though. 6y
Caterina @Reggie @Bookzombie I loved the movie when I was in elementary school, but I haven‘t seen it since! For the accent, I don‘t know how to describe it exactly, but the pronunciation I‘ve heard, which has usually been from my fellow Southerners, is harsher? It definitely doesn‘t sound at all like the Mother Superior‘s “can‘t.” (And of course our “can‘t” is veryyyyy different!) 6y
valeriegeary @Reggie that was amazing! I laughed so hard! Thank you! 6y
29 likes11 comments
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Caterina
Our Life in the Forest | Marie Darrieussecq
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Today is rough. I woke at 3 AM with fibro pain so bad I was crying. I‘ve been taking prescription pain killer all day and using a heated blanket, despite it being summer and my having no AC. Now I have a killer headache because I was on YouTube trying to distract myself from the #fibro pain. I‘ve settled in with #tea and a new #arc from #netgalley (available as read now), with my Kindle on the lowest light I can see. Ready for this day to end. 😩

LeahBergen Hugs 💕 6y
okthislooksbad All the gentle hugs! It sounds absolutely awful - glad you have some distractions ♥ 6y
Jas16 Sending lots of love. 6y
DGRachel I‘m so sorry. {{hugs}}. I hope you feel better soon! 6y
Caterina @LeahBergen @okthislooksbad @Jas16 @DGRachel Thanks so much y‘all! ❤️ It helps so much on a day when I‘ve been cooped up alone and in pain to hear kind words and get in some human interaction (I‘m an extrovert, so the struggle is real when I can‘t see other humans because of chronic illness). 6y
31 likes5 comments