A Constellation of Vital Phenomena in 100+ Books in 2025

May 08, 2013 Renata rated it really liked it

Oh what to say? It took me a while to get into this, like nearly half of the book. But once I did, I couldn't stop reading. I can't say that I love his writing style, but the way the story lines intersect really hooks you. I would recommend this book to a contemplative reader - it is not an easy read with all those long, complex sentences. ...more

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Oct 20, 2013 Jess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2014

This is easily one of my favorite books and I want to tell everyone I know to read it. Not only is his writing amazing, and so beautiful, but the way the story is unfolded and revealed is done so lovely. Equal parts heart breaking and heart warming, I loved the characters and these glimpses in to their lives. So so good, go, read this book!!

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Nov 10, 2015 Dolly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015, military, read-but-not-finished-reviewing, russia, germany-german, science, historical-fiction, religion-philosophy, van-noy-book-club

This book was chosen for the November 2015 discussion for my local book club. It is a tough story, often heartbreaking, from the very beginning, and I would not recommend it for someone looking for a light read.

But if you want to get into the heart of someone who is living in the middle of a war, into the lives that are shattered by such a war, this is the book for you.

interesting quotes:

"I've never met an oncologist who wasn't a hedonist." (p. 13)

"The sketches had suggested that the pinnacle o This book was chosen for the November 2015 discussion for my local book club. It is a tough story, often heartbreaking, from the very beginning, and I would not recommend it for someone looking for a light read.

But if you want to get into the heart of someone who is living in the middle of a war, into the lives that are shattered by such a war, this is the book for you.

interesting quotes:

"I've never met an oncologist who wasn't a hedonist." (p. 13)

"The sketches had suggested that the pinnacle of design no longer consisted of cramming the greatest amount of reinforced concrete into the ugliest rectangle possible." (p. 22)

"Work isn't meaningful just because you spend your life doing it." (p. 53)

"My father says persistence is a polite way of being annoying." (p. 58)

"As a web is no more than holes woven together, they were bonded by what was no longer there." (p. 63)

"I'm saying that if you want to keep a man, you better hide his shoes every night so he can't walk out on you." (p. 99)

"She was fluent in four languages and yet her fists against the rusted hood were the fullest articulation of her defeat." (p. 106)

"There is something miraculous in the way the years wash away your evidence, first you, then your friends and family, then the descendants who remember your face, until you aren't even a memory, you're only carbon, no greater than your atoms, and time will divide them as well." (p. 124)

"'The draft soldiers in blue uniforms are scared teenagers. They are what we might call the victims of absurdism,' he said, not one to miss an opportunity to lecture a captive audience. 'They would surrender if you waved a soup spoon at them. Most can't find Chechnya on a map and don't care if Putin, Maskhadov, or Father Christmas presides over the republic; most arrived by train in passenger carriages but most will return as Cargo 200, sealed within zinc-lined coffins in the freights." (p. 144)

"Too much oil in the ground, never enough in the tank, he thought; it could be the national motto." (p. 157)

"Better than anyone, she knew she had done nothing to deserve the beauty she was blessed with. Their parents' plain features, replicated predictably in Sonja, had reacted violently in Natasha to create something as surprising as a dove hatching from a pigeon egg." (p. 168)

"Her existence was so narrow, her energies so focused, she lived like a nail driving through the surface of daily routines and disappointments." (p. 171)

"Based on the average life expectancy of a Soviet woman, she could expect to live for another forty-eight years, but the Soviet Union had died, and she hadn't, and the appendices couldn't explain this discrepancy in data, when the subject outlasted its experiment. Only one entry supplied an adequate definition, and she circled it with red ink, and referred to it nightly. Life: a constellation of vital phenomena - organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation." (p. 184)

"The war that turned lieutenants into colonels, and unemployed men into jihadists, also turned residents into chief surgeons." (p. 204)

"The illusion of victory in the minds of the newly converted was, in itself, victory." (p. 227)

"Invader and invaded held on to their fistfuls of earth, but in the end, the earth outlived the hands that held it." (p. 238)

"Ramzan nodded, yes, of course he was required to wear a seat belt, just as he was required to give directions to a torture camp, because stupidity was the single abiding law of the universe." (pp. 251-252)

"For months they'd run their fingers around the hem of their affection without once acknowledging the fabric." (p. 286)

"Her sister's work was undeniably good, but its execution bothered Natasha. To work in these circumstances a surgeon must reduce each patient to her body, but this was an attitude shared by the traffickers, pimps, and johns populating Natasha's private perdition. So while Sonja examined a cracked pelvis without once meeting the patient's eye, or addressed the patient by placard number rather than by name, Natasha sequestered herself in the fourth-floor maternity ward, where whole days passed without their paths crossing, where the wails of newborns reminded her that life is louder than its pulse." (p. 303)

new word: aphorist

...more

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Dec 03, 2013 Jgrace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: europe, judithg, jgrace, historical-fiction, contemporary-fiction, grief, read-in-2014, 20th-century, family-relationships, survival

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
5 stars
“Life: A constellation of vital phenomena - organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation.”

From the author’s note: “ The axis on which this novel rests is formed from two narratives shared by Islamic and Christian traditions -- that of a parent asked to sacrifice a child, and that of an orphan delivered into the family responsible for her orphanhood …”

The decisive action of this book takes place over five days in ...more

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