The Ugly [Book Review]

Hello there!

Title: The Ugly

Author: Alexander Boldizar

Publisher: Brooklyn Arts Press

Published Date: 7^th September 2016

Rating: 3 stars

*Thank you to the author for the review copy*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Synopsis: Muzhduk the Ugli the Fourth is a 300-pound boulder-throwing mountain man from Siberia whose tribal homeland is stolen by an American lawyer out to build a butterfly conservatory for wealthy tourists. In order to restore his people’s land and honor, Muzhduk must travel to Harvard Law School to learn how to throw words instead of boulders. His anarchic adventures span continents, from Siberia to Cambridge to Africa, as he fights fellow students, Tuareg rebels, professors of law, dark magic, bureaucrats, heatstroke, postmodernists, and eventually time and space. A wild existential comedic romp, The Ugly tells the tale of a flawed and unlikely hero struggling against the machine that shapes the people who govern our world.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review: The Ugly by Alexander Boldizar is novel which I discovered through Shelf Awareness. The cover had me interested, but it had to be the synopsis which had me convinced that I wanted to read it. I feel like our capital and Westerner ways make up thinking we have the right to impose on other tribal and indigenous areas because we have our reasons. It does not matter that it doesn’t match up with theirs. As someone who strongly believes this, I wanted to read this novel and find out more about how it would be portrayed here.

And while this is the underlying predicament in the novel, we get a lot more than I bargained for! For starters, when following the issue of their tribe basically being kicked out, I really liked how the novel started off. I liked how we got to see a little bit of what the tribe was like, and what their values were. We get to see what the businessmen do when they first arrive. But I was a little disappointed by the ending. I didn’t quite understand the way in which they resolved the issue? Or if they actually had, in the long term? I felt like it was a very short term resolution, or maybe I was just not understanding something…

As Muzhduk travels to America and spends his time there, we are told about all of that as if it were in the past. The perspective also switches to the present day, where Muzhduk is in Africa for some reason. That reason is revealed to us as we read. The two different perspectives are both told from his point of view, but in America we have third person voice and in Africa first person voice. I believe the author did this so we wouldn’t become confused between the two times, and I was glad for it. I also liked the switch, and seeing how the past tied in with what Muzhduk had learned and how he acted in the present day. It also really helped in steadily understanding his reason for why he is in Africa and how he feels so determined to find who he went there to find.

Muzhduk was an interesting main character. He was very straightforward, but then also very intelligent, which intrigued me. I believe I quite grew to like him as we read more and more. When there is something in life he wants or is after, he goes and gets it. When he feels something, he will tell you. He struggles to grasp the Western ways of the world when he first gets to America, and it’s kinda adorable in a way. I also like how quickly he managed to adapt, and how shocked people were when a tribal member was intelligent. Yeah, he showed them! I believe that’s another misconception we have and his character showed that very well. Just because we don’t know about their ways, or about someone, doesn’t mean we have to assume we know more and therefore be condescending. This applies in more situations than just the one in this novel.

I should also mention that this novel is quite explicit. Not in terms of it being very descriptive, but there are sexual scenes and the author simply describes what is happening. And because Muzhduk is someone who likes sex and it is also part of some traditions in his tribe, it’s kind of mentioned quite a bit.

However, when reading this novel I felt like I couldn’t enjoy it as much as someone who was a law student might’ve, because I simply didn’t understand it. I felt like I needed to be smarter to fully grasp everything I was reading, but I wasn’t. Which doesn’t have to do so much with the book, but maybe for those who want to read it. There is quite a lot of law discussion in this book, as Muzhduk is going to America to study law. There are also quite a lot of bridges between law, society, religion, human nature and so on. It was all over my head. I felt like I was reading philosophy at times, and I could tell some of the conclusions being reached were incredibly clever, but my mind just couldn’t keep up and be able to understand how and in what way. So while I did read this one and like it, some of it just went right over my head.

There is a love interest in the novel, but the love is less expressed in the usual pursuit of her, but showing how dedicated he is to her? I wouldn’t classify this book as a romance at all. But there is some love in it, but more so a gentle, steadfast love than the characters realising they love each other and going on dates or that kind of thing.

This was a nice read. A little confusing at times, but still enjoyable.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gif Summary:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Links: Goodreads and Amazon!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Video! My book fair book haul!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Olivia’s Question: Have you ever felt like you weren’t smart enough for a book? Which was it?

Olivia-Savannah x