An interesting concept and a good attempt at a stream-of-consciousness style story over plot, this is the story of someone working on a rig. Their experience is the book however I thought it could have been a bit more fleshed out.

In 'South' the narrator is invited to an oil rig to write an expose on rig workers who have been protesting. There seems to be a lot of unrest in the country, and as the novel progresses, the narrator B is targeted by the officials running the rig.

I'm getting better at appreciating books where not everything is shared or explained (hello I Who Have Never Known Men). However, I think that's largely because it helps you embody the narrator, feeling their paranoia and confusion. This wasn't really the case in this novel. I think this book would have benefitted from giving away a little more - there were flashes of explanation, but that made it more frustrating.
The author relied heavily on dream sequences (which I personally hate) and some of the plot towards the end just didn't really make sense.
I kept going because I was interested to see if there would be a reveal, but since there wasn't really, I'd give the book 3/10.

2023 Book 16 - South by Babak Lakghomi

I receive an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Due for release 12 September 2023.

⭐⭐⭐

Babak Lakghomi has portrayed a very bleak world, with echoes of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, George Orwell's 1984, and elements of the latter half of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Set against a totalitarian government, the protagonist, B, searches for truth in the face of lies and manipulation.

No matter where he goes, B is somehow always held and controlled by unseen forces - meeting resistance everywhere he goes. He asks questions, people disappear. He is watched, observed, and overseen every minute of the day.

This is not your heart-warming, feel good search for truth that will reveal answers and wrap everything up with a nice little bow. Having said that, if you are after something to make you think, make you work for understanding, and pick it apart for representation of the world's political situations and potential to deteiorate, then this is definitely for you. He does have a style similar to Cormac McCarthy, with the short sentences and bleak descriptions, which only adds to B's sense of desperation and panic as his world and mind begin to deteriorate.

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South is the story of an investigative journalist, B, assigned to work an offshore rig in the south of an unnamed country under a totalitarian regime. The assignment seems doomed from the beginning; when he arrives there is only one person that talks to him and he disappears shortly after. Soon B sees the futility in his placement, but receives conflicting information from his editor and his shipmates when he tries to leave. B becomes stagnant; he’s rebuffed by the powers at hand and his anxiety morphs into fear when his situation rapidly changes. It’s never clear who he is afraid of or what he is guilty of, but the more he searches for truth, the more lost he becomes. There are moments in this book when the reader is left completely unmoored as B spirals into his own misery and madness, but Lakghomi created enough foundation for the reader to hold on to. We absolutely loved the unique first person perspective of someone slipping into insanity and the novel’s sparse prose added to the surreal landscape, haunting narrative, and captivating imagery. For fans of Kafka, or reader’s looking to dip their toes into a surrealist novel, we highly recommend South.

Thank you @netgalley for the advanced readers copy of South.

South read a lot like a psychological thriller for me. I was ready and waiting for something big to happen, some big revelation but if it did, it was buried for me and not obvious. The story kept me engaged even though some spots were hard to stomach. I just wish there was more, I felt like I was only reading the first half of a book. It left me with more questions than answers, but I loved it.

I was fully immersed in this book; the writing was great and I felt like I was right there experiencing it all. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book.

This eerie and compelling novel follows B, a journalist writing about a strike on a oil rig, but it's about so much more. The novel is disorienting, and you join B through the confusion of what is happening to him and the world around him. Is he being watched? Who are his friend and who are his enemies? This is an unnerving and interesting story that drew me in.

I didn’t like this at all, I only read the first few pages and just couldn’t connect with it at all. The style of writing was not enjoyable and the plot felt extremely convoluted.

I really wanted to like this dystopian story, but didn't work for me at all. DNF'it ata 40% the main chatachter was so meh that I didn't care. Also, despite the interesting premise, the story was really confusing making the reading a hard time for me. Did not engage with the writing style either, narrated in first person and as I was not interested in the main charachter, It was a difficult read for me to follow.

Writing distostopian books is not an easy job, but Lakghomi did an amazing job capturing the environment and the vibes of a totalitarian society that lacks human kindness. The desert in itself is such a powerful environment that makes you right from the beginning of the novel feel like you are not supposed to be there, and yet you are. Great and outstanding novel.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

I'm DNFing the book at 24%

Though I like the idea of this bleak, dystopian world, it's also pretty character driven, and I'm not interested in the main character.

The world is interesting, I like the writing style, I see how immersive this can be for other people, but it isn't working for me.

A short dystopian novel about a writer B on a journalistic trip into a land of drought, desolation and decay to explore life on fading oil platforms. A first-person account which falls into a hallucinatory nightmare, where people, events, and reality become unclear under a totalitarian regime where dissent is not tolerated.

An interesting and well-constructed novel of a person in these circumstances. Yes things are little unclear and unformed in places (see other reviews!) - this is a singular account from a mind that is unclear, due to personal history, current events and the general world with possible bad 'spirits' real or arising from living in deprived lands.

In portraying the dysfunction and bewilderment of a person the novel works. A book worth reading.

This was a pretty whacky, experimental book. At only 200 pages it really crams a lot in and goes through a lot of twists and turns.

Described in the synopsis as a dystopian, totalitarian world and compared to 1984 their certainty are elements of this in South. But where it differs for me is the execution and actual storytelling. The writing style is really unique and trippy, going between present day, flashbacks and hallucinations, which was really immersive and helped to show B’s deteriorating mental state. But this does become so confusing and the story just seems to go around and jump quite a lot, I felt it was a little disjointed in parts.

I really didn’t like B as a protagonist. I didn’t feel we understood enough about his backstory, his family and why he was searching for the truth about his father and what he actually found in the end. The characters of the Editor and Publisher seemed to blend into one too and it was confusing he was writing a book but simultaneously an article, which again wasn’t really explained.

The change in settings was quite rushed and confusing too and just seemed a bit lazy in terms of story telling in my opinion and relied too heavy on blackouts to join scenes together.

I also felt that the comments on the government, riots and society at the end felt like a completely different story all together to the start. And again the various settings seemed all over the place.

I love a good dystopian fiction, and thought the premise of this book showed great potential. But sadly the execution just wasn’t quite there for me. I understand the critiques linking this dystopia to our modern world, but just don’t think it could’ve been done better either with more pages or by cramming less into 200 pages. Maybe I’m just missing the point here?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

A very confusing short story. A man travels to an oil rig to write a report then it starts to unravel, unsure if what is happening is or if he is delerious. Hard to follow and confusing.

South, a short novel written by Iranian-American writer Babuk Lakghomi, is a strong depiction of our present political landscape that is deceptive and manipulative. Its protagonist B is a man who is punished for his attempt to look back into his past. The state that ruthlessly suppress even a personal quest that may go against its interest stands tall as the unnamed antagonist, who never appears, but permeates every word of the story.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Following an unreliable narrator, B, on a journey to an oil rig to write a report. On what, he’s never sure and as such neither are we.

Ostensibly about protest and tyrannical regime, South explores the effects of emotional trauma, isolation and psychological torture. For large parts of this short novel, B is uncertain of reality. As his captive (how thematic) audience, we share this lack of a big picture.

South was an unexpected journey in a totalitarian country that gives and takes hope and freedoms how they see fit. From the beginning there is an atmosphere of uncertainty, even if we have been thrown into the world with natural transition. We follow the main character B, a journalist who receives an assignment on a rig to interview people who work there. Everything seems strange and out of place. We go from Murakami to Kafka tone in no time, just to see how the system work and how the life of a simple man, like thousand others, can be controlled. I loved the description of the protagonist that is subtle and between lines. Nothing here is thrown in my face or dumped on me like I should know before going into it. I loved the pacing, and I appreciated the characters interactions. The one thing I could complain about is how short the book is. Tho it seemed planned this way, and I'm able to recognize that.

| received an ARC of this work on Netgalley.
Despite finding the themes, ideas and settings quite interesting, the prose and plot never gripped me and often bored me. This book pretends to produce a comment on our probably quite dystopic future as the climate crisis progresses and intersperses it with the story of B., someone who's life unravels maybe even more than the world. I not only find the perspective on the metaphorical (and real) South very important, but I also agree with the author's seemingly critical or skeptical view on how we deal with unethical labor and development inequality. Moreover, I found the idea of using the hallucinatory and amnesiac experiences of the main character and having them influence the structure of the novel itself quite good.
My insatisfaction with the novel comes from the execution. I felt most of these ideas came with too much confusion (I often remembered of some postmodern works, but sadly lacking in their usual humor or emotion), and too little connection with characters that failed in giving me the will to keep reading.
All in all, a 2.5-3 read but I'd still read another work from the author as he matures his authorial voice and practice.

thank you netgalley for the ARC.

the foreword did preempt me that the author’s main inspirations were camus and his observations of the political environment (totalitarian) back in his home country, Iran. i can’t say i’m a camus fan, so if i did not know this beforehand i don’t think i would have understood or enjoyed the writing/ story, so for a general reader like me it was necessary to have prior knowledge of the context.

South is about a journalist and aspiring writer, b, who takes up an assignment by a mysterious editor to go south and investigate the working conditions on an oil rig. we learn that his previously flailing career led him becoming an alcoholic bum, which put a strain on his marriage. this is all possibly because of childhood trauma from when his father became a political fugitive and left when he was just a child, and his life on the oil rig becomes one long nightmare as his days blend into one and he feels surveilled and censored. as a protagonist he is quite impotent, and when facing up to a menacing, omniscient, and malevolent government entity, he folds like a sock puppet. his already-weakened mind fragments even more and it is a sheer miracle he manages to make it out alive with all his limbs (and his desire to write) intact. throughout all that—through the beatings, torture, imprisonment, drugging, and interrogations—he still manages to think with his dick and get horny for any woman that crosses his path. defo not a hero in the conventional sense.

what this book does a good job of is conveying a climate of fear and secrecy. not a single person around b could be trusted and his spiral into isolation and lunacy was quite compelling. overall, once you get past the first part it is a reasonable engaging read best read in one sitting.

One of the writer's strengths is the creation of oppressive atmospheres where you feel the anguish of the character as your own.
Following B. on this journey through a world that we don't fully know is why this reading becomes so immersive.