Unabridged Episode 17: Siobhan Fallon's The Confusion of Languages

Quick Summary: This novel depicts two women who are army wives stationed in Jordan. The book comes from both of their perspectives, and it revolves around the challenges of dealing with life in a country in which daily life centers on a different culture.  Cassie, who has lived in Jordan for years, tries to advise Margaret, a newcomer on how to live successfully. Fallon reveals the truth of their stories through Margaret’s journal and Cassie’s own reflection on their time together. ​

My Take: Phew, this one was not what I had anticipated. In a lot of ways I wound up feeling disappointed and frustrated, but there were some things I enjoyed -- the language was lovely in places, and the characters' strong personalities really resonated. 
My conclusion: While I appreciated some aspects of the novel, and I definitely found myself wanting to find out what was going to happen, I found myself disappointed by the end. I wanted to like both of the main characters a bit more (though I so appreciated something Roxanne Gay says in Bad Feminist -- we shouldn't (I'm paraphrasing here) be reading books to find characters that are likeable! I this that is an excellent point, but I couldn't relate to either of the women in this story enough.)   3/5 stars. 
Favorite Quotes: 

• "We depend on this give-and-take when living abroad. You can’t exile yourself from your homeland and not always feel that tidal pull of return. Those minor details, the commercial jingles and pop songs, the chain restaurants and decade-defining shades of our blue jeans, are details you don’t even think about until you are face-to-face with a society that has very little to do with your own. Suddenly those one-hit wonders become a secret language, the very vestiges of American culture." - I so appreciate the commentary in the novel about being an expat and being in a foreign land. There is a truth to those experiences that the women have that really resonated with me. 
• "Only a man could separate his life into that sort of divide and choose to put Work in the important category and family in the not. That’s why men rule the world." - The male/female dynamics in the book were fascinating, and it was painful and striking to see how the men in their lives really ruled the choices that both Margaret and Cassie made throughout the novel.
  

What I added to my TBR list: I've heard so many great things about Unbroken  by Lauren Hillenbrand, and I loved what Jenni had to say about it. It's now a definite yes on my (ever-growing!) TBR list. 

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Unabridged Podcast