by Marie-Helene Bernito
A story of humanity in a simple philosophic trope. Easy to read, but you will find yourself wanting to tab this book with all your exclamation marks and go back and re-read passages that just WOWed you.
Imagine it’s the 1980s. At the same time that Earth's spaceship Voyager 1 blasted off into space with the famous golden record, an alien was born as a human baby. Coincidence? I think not! Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino is written in a style so unusual I can’t think of another novel that has a similar writing style.
A new take on “alien visits earth by way of being born to a human" and “alien interacts with humans” and “alien communicates with home planet…” However, in this case, the method of communication is an ancient fax machine. What kind of creative mind came up with this one!?! It is a cross between metaphoric science fiction (not really) and a literary coming-of-age story.
When I used to teach writing to fourth and fifth graders, we taught them about voice, and how to make sure their pieces demonstrated their voice. This is a shining example of that. In addition, the ideas, organization, word choice, and sentence structure of this writer are beyond compare.
This book is not for everyone. I would say many mainstream readers might not appreciate it, especially if you want to listen to it on an audible platform. In my opinion, you must physically look at/read the sentences. I’ve heard the opposite thoough also, so take my opinion with a grain of salt! You should, however, understand the structure that this writer put forth, and have an interest in it. If I were to recommend this, it would be to anyone wanting an experiential novel, and especially to people who have taught writing! It’s just so unique. Did you hear me, fellow teachers??! A+!!!