This took me back to my Can Lit days at university! Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein is a novel that explores themes of guilt, abuse and prejudice through the eyes of an unnamed narrator who moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. I found it to be a challenging read - the narrator is unreliable and elusive, often withholding or contradicting information. The plot is sparse and ambiguous, leaving many questions unanswered. The prose is dense and lyrical, but also repetitive and obscure. The novel seems to demand a close and careful reading, but I felt that it did not reward my efforts.

I appreciate that the novel tackles complex and important issues, such as the legacy of trauma, the effects of antisemitism, and the power dynamics of family and society. I also admire the author's skill and originality in creating a distinctive voice and atmosphere. However, I did not enjoy the novel as a reading experience. It felt more like an academic exercise than a visceral story. I think this novel is better suited for a literature course than a general audience.

Study for Obedience is an eerie stream-of-conscious novel that follows our unnamed narrator after she moves in to her brother's house. She's the youngest of her siblings, was ostracized during her childhood and faces the same treatment by the towns people. They grow continuously suspicious of her as bizarre things happen to the animal life around her.

Since our narrator cannot speak the language, the use of zero dialogue helps put the audience right where she is in terms of understanding what is happening around her.
As she spends more and more time in isolation, she breaks free of her rigorous obedience that has been in place since she was young.

Bernstein cleverly illustrates religious prejudice and xenophobia in subtle and ubiquitous ways.

I missed the deadline to download an e-arc of this novel from NetGalley, so I decided to go out and buy a copy of the physical book because the reviews were so mixed and I had to know which side I fell on. I can't say that I regret my purchase. The English major in me absolutely loved this book. I've never read this style of novel outside of a classroom before and although it required more brain power than my normal choice for casual reading, I enjoyed it nonetheless. This novel really is a vibe. Sarah's words and how they flow and sound as you're reading along was super pleasing. This is one of those books you read not for context, but for the way it sounds as you read it aloud. Bravo.

No surprise that this would be a literary award nominee. This story is well written and a perfect short length, told in bite size pieces. A relateable story to anyone who has ever been new to a place, a worthy read.

I read this novel a few months ago, and have been delaying providing a review, as I am still thinking about it! I suppose that's a good sign! This book is unlike anything I've read before - a unique writing style and story. There is no dialogue, and the book is written in a "stream of consciousness" style. Interestingly, although the novel appears to be set in modern times, the narrator's voice sounds very much like the early 20th century. The author's intention here is unclear to me.

The story explores themes of loneliness, persecution and prejudice. Our narrator is a nameless young woman who grew up the youngest of several children, and who learned early on to ignore her own needs and look after the needs and desires of others in the family. At his behest, she travels to her older brother's home to help him after his wife and children leave. It's not the town where they grew up, but their "people" apparently once lived there. The narrator knows no one, and doesn't speak the language; and being a newcomer and different, the townsfolk seem to blame her for a series of unusual and unfortunate events that occur following her arrival. While the author is clearly a very talented writer, and the book is certainly well-written, there is very little in the way of plot. Nonetheless, it held my interest,

What a weird little book. I liked the mood of it. But I hated the characters and I couldn't get past that. The Narrator's actions and thoughts just didn't make sense to me at all. I wanted to push her down a hill.

I enjoyed the read but not really sure i got the message. The book has won a prize so I will definitely revisit it again.

Thank you to PRH and NetGalley for the ARC.

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein has been everywhere. It made an appearance on the shortlist for the Booker and won the Giller Prize. This is very much a character driven novel which I don’t mind. It’s one of those stories that we don’t know the protagonist’s name and it’s told in a stark way, if that makes sense. The main character goes to stay with her brother and through her interactions with the townspeople we get insight into who the protagonist is and what the townspeople are all about.
There were some beautiful lines in this book. I think there is definitely some good writing here and I know that the stay was trying to get at some significant points about society. I found it difficult to connect with the characters and the story didn't grab me. This is one of those stories that may need a re-read to appreciate the depth of the book more. I'm definitely interested in seeing if I like other work by this author and that cover is gorgeous!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for giving me early access to this book for an honest review.

I unfortunately could not finish this book. From the start I had a difficult time connecting to any of the characters or really being able to follow the plot. The lack of dialog as well as the many run sentences made it very difficult for me to focus and understand the story.

The best thing this book gave me was the opportunity to talk about this book with people who loved it. I am not one of them, but the discussion of this book has been enthusiastic especially after it took home the Giller Prize earlier this week.

For me, it was just too cerebral. There were moments when I was easily engaged and then those moments trailed off and went in a completely different direction than I was anticipating.

I liked it enough to finish it, but I just didn't see the merit that lovers of Study For Obediance claim to have.

This review was posted on my blog on Nov. 14, 2023 at https://www.thecuecard.com/books/study-for-obedience/

(3.5 to 4 stars) I think Shirley Jackson (and Lydia Millet) might have liked this strange little novel … which includes an off-kilter narrator who goes to her brother’s rural estate in a northern country to help him with things after his wife leaves with their children. The narrator is a solitary “inept” person who took care of her siblings growing up, left journalism and is a typist for a firm, and tries to maintain control over herself and adhere to obedience at all times.

When her brother suddenly leaves for a trip, she is left at the place alone with his small old dog and begins to take long walks into the woods and mountains, eventually having to go into town in the valley for supplies, which is a bit hard since she doesn’t know the country’s language. Then weird things begin to happen (on properties in town) and she feels the animosity and suspicion from the townspeople, which she tries to make right by volunteering at the farm co-op and leaving some woven stick dolls, but things don’t exactly go as planned and you wonder how it will end.

The plot seems simple enough to understand, but the off-kilter solitary narrator goes off on tangents that may or may not be too understandable. She’s mentally out there … and reflects a bit about how the townspeople might belong there but not her. Some stuff she talks about flew over my head. Still the writing at times is smart and with its long, long sentences is quite lyrical and alluring. It’s a nice wonder that this little unsettling novel won the Giller Prize and made the Booker Prize shortlist. Whoa. Though I was hoping the ending would have had something a bit more happen. The townsfolk seem to hold her to account for several bad things that happen, but the ending perhaps wasn’t as big as I was looking for, though plenty of murky oddness abounds.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Canada for allowing me an advance copy to read and review.

This is a cerebral novel. All the “action” occurs in the narrator’s head. The narrator is called to her brother’s home in a northern land to take care of him and his home. The reader never learns their names. The residents of the community behave negatively towards the narrator. She volunteers at the community farm but is shunned by the others. Strange things happen, e.g. piglets die, cows go mad, etc. There are suggestions of anti-Semitism by several reviewers. Bernstein writes beautifully and the novel is nominated for several major awards. A Montrealer, she lives in Scotland.

“Who was I? Why had I come? I was not from the town, that much was clear, not even from the surrounding areas, and, unlike my brother, I lacked the essential quality that would have enabled me to overcome these basic failings. I was not from the place, and so I was not anything. I was a nothing, a stranger who was not wanted but who nevertheless imposed herself continually, day after day, a kind of spectral presence hovering at the edges of the life of the town, whose intentions were obscure and who for some reason evinced a terrible fidelity to the idea of staying put.”

In Study for Obedience, the anonymous narrator has come to live with her recently separated brother in an unnamed town in an unnamed northern country where they don’t speak English and she doesn’t speak the local language. At first, she acts in the role of a housekeeper for her brother, but he soon departs, leaving her alone in his house and she develops a simple routine, going for walks through the countryside and bicycling into town.

Seems like the description of a contemplative story of slowing down and spending time in nature, taking the time for self reflection and getting yourself sorted, right?

Not so fast.

As you read, you realize there are an increasing number of puzzling and unsettling incidents and observations mentioned. Ominous even. For starters, she isn’t just a housekeeper for her brother. She bathes him and dresses him which is not, to the best of my knowledge though I am an only child, a usual kind of interaction between adult siblings. Indeed, he appears very particular and she acquiesces to his wishes. She tries to make herself “smaller and smaller”. And so, Study for Obedience seems like it’s going to be about the expectations for women to be obedient and subservient. She says:

“I had never been able to live in my life. Which is not to say I tried to live in anyone else’s, merely that from a young age I was heedful, I took instruction easily and tried to live according to the narratives made available to me.”

Later, when she is alone, her few interactions with the townspeople suggest that they are not at all comfortable with her. Incidents like a finding a ewe stuck in a fence while giving birth don’t help. Is it a coincidence or a portent? And the fact that she can’t communicate with them nor they with her truly cements the separation. She says:

“It was a familiar feeling: wherever I had been in my life I was always an incomer, an offlander, sometimes a usurper, more rarely a conniver, it was something in my blood that made me feel this way and likewise something in my blood that made others feel this too, that I was strange somehow, not to be trusted.”

And so, perhaps Study for Obedience is about communication and about how we “other” those who are different from us. More specifically, the narrator’s mentions include people having “discomfort with my ethnic background”. We come to understand that she is Jewish and so Study for Obedience has something to say about antisemitism too. Indeed, this was an area I wished I knew more about for I felt I might not be recognizing relevant tropes and references.

So far, we are sympathetic to the narrator but then her brother returns and he becomes ill and we’re not sure if that’s a coincidence or somehow her doing. And meanwhile, she feels the townspeople are becoming even more suspicious of her and you find yourself…wondering.

I devoured Study for Obedience. It was the first of the Booker longlisters that I read that I found myself unable to put down. There’s a great desire as a reader to want to figure out what’s going on, but this isn’t a thriller, so don’t expect your questions to be answered.

Study for Obedience is a book that feels a bit like a pointilist painting (think Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte; it’s the painting in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off). From far away, you can see the picture and you think that by looking more closely, you’ll understand it better, but when you do come close, the meaning scatters and the picture is lost. Things are suggested, briefly mentioned, glossed over, There are many times when you say “wait, WHAT did I just read?”. Things are unsettling, perhaps even evil? Or maybe not? Is this sense of foreboding about the town or about her? Is it real or just her perception? And eventually, you start questioning the reliability of this narrator to whom you have been feeling so empathetic.

Study for Obedience is on the shortlist for both the Booker and Giller prizes and it will be interesting to see whether it wins either prize. There are many readers who didn’t get on with it, but, while I’m still not sure what it was about, I think I like it?

Study For Obedience is narrated by a woman who denies herself any humanity, dignity or self-love. She sees fear and loathing everywhere she looks, especially from her own family. When she moves to her ancestral homeland at her brother's request, she is shunned by the villagers, and strange things start to happen. The events are so bizarre that it seems more like a nightmare than real events.

The book is extremely short and took me a very long time to read. There are run-on sentences that I had to read five or six times to understand. It felt like I was doing grammar exercises, which took away the fun of reading. There was also a lot of biblical symbolism that was over my head.

Read this if you enjoy English assignments.

This story examines the harsh realities of one of the more negative aspects of society, any society. Although such content is unsettling, the book is brilliantly written and well deserving of its place on the shortlist of both the 2023 Giller and Booker prizes.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Study for Obedience is a dark absurdist novel dissecting both modern and traditional societal values. It really calls into question how the individual’s needs stands vs. the collective and how prejudices can turn an event as simple as moving to a new town into something sinister and occult.

What I think what this story did well was provide an immersive experience. It’s been some time since I read a book that made me question every turn as much as this one did. I often found myself turning back pages to “fact-check” our unreliable narrator.

When our unnamed female moves to a small Northern town to become a housekeeper/caretaker for her brother, we know very little about her other than she was the primary carer for her many siblings and that she felt herself to be incredibly obedient. Soon after her arrival, the tiny town begins to experience sinister, think folk-horror, level events that specifically correspond to the narrator’s arrival. Now, these couldn’t possibly be related, BUT we are told this story exclusively as a stream-of-consciousness from the woman and we soon know that her descriptions are not entirely trustworthy.

While I was fully transported into the story, I did find the style of writing to detract from my ability to be fully immersed. Without any dialogue and written with as many run-on sentences as it was, it was easy to overlook details that ended up being crucial to understanding the events taking place.

This certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it was just the right level of absurdity to peak my own interest. This novel is disturbing and unsettling in the best way possible and is unrelenting in its progression. I would definitely recommend to fans of Kafka or those who love post-modernist literature.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada, Knopf Canada and Sarah Bernstein for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

I regret to say that I could not finish this book. From the beginning, I found it incredibly difficult to follow the plot and connect with the characters.

One major drawback of this book is the absence of dialogue. Without any meaningful conversations between characters, the story lacks depth and fails to engage me on an emotional level. Additionally, the lack of names for the characters further distances me from forming any meaningful connections with them.

The excessively long sentences, often spanning half a paragraph, made it difficult to maintain focus and comprehend the author's intended message. This stylistic choice, combined with the confusing plot and lack of dialogue, made it nearly impossible for me to stay engaged with the story.

In conclusion, I found this book to be a challenging read that ultimately fell short of my expectations. The lack of clarity in both the plot and characters, the absence of dialogue, and the problematic portrayal of abuse as obedience made it difficult for me to connect with the story.

In one's lifetime, there will always come along an author who is able to tell their story with tons of tone and technique over subject matter. One that has the ability to drag you into their chewy scenery as if you were right there with the unknown narrator. That is exactly what it felt like reading Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein, making me become an instant fan.

A brief description without spoilers: A Jewish women goes to the north part of her country to take care her divorced brother who needs help around the house, but the animals and people in the small town start acting strange because something is afoot and who knows what might happen if you back someone into a corner.

Keeping with my pattern of reviewing books, I will give you the bad first. Two things some people will not like, but I really enjoyed. People are not going to like that the book is very descriptive or wordy as the young people say these days and that the narrator is never named. For me, these were both blessings in disguise because I found a new writer to read, but can see why people don't like these books.

Sarah Bernstein is a writer from my own heart. Not only did they draw me pictures with their words, I was rooting for them to get to a hundred words in every sentence and was disappointed when they did not pass Margret Attwood, but were very close. With this level of technical skill involved, the journey of studying for obedience turned into the beautiful study of agency and gender roles. Challenging the norms of misogyny so well with a wit that might be unmatched, you start to understand this unamed narrator so well and wish the book goes a little longer then it did.

As you can tell I enjoyed reading this complex book and would highly recommend it to any reader that wants their writers to describe things to a T or to any teacher teaching Writing and English to show their students that it is okay to be as descriptive as possible and see how far they can take it.

This will be a book for the ages and hope you pick it up and enjoy it as much as I did, but remember to stay out of trouble!

Love Always, Chris Humphrey!

I think this is a book that will be decisive. I suspect readers will really love it or really dislike it. It's challenging and intriguing and I still can't decide how I feel about it. Readers will need to decide for themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this Arc n exchange for an honest review.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

A very strange book, and one that is so unique it is virtually guaranteed to evoke strong feelings in the reader - as this is a book that will challenge as much as it enthralls.

Narrated by a voice that is ageless, unnamed, and only very loosely described as female and of Jewish descent, this is a stream-of-consciousness read that plays with time and space and location, excludes the idea of plot, and essentially gives us the often beautiful, maddeningly incomprehensible ramblings of our main ( that is to say, only) protagonist. The reader can only see the world through her eyes, and a very meager world it is, where not much happens, and all of it is at least to some level, impenetrable.

The youngest in a very large family, raised to be servile to her siblings, our narrator hints at emotional, physical, and even sexual abuse, all placidly taken in stride as she outlines her lot in life and where it takes her. Or is this placidity a ruse, her true emotional state unknowable to even the narrator herself?

Ending up in a “northern country” performing housekeeping and personal care duties for her affluent and blithely despotic brother, alienated from the townspeople, (who seem to fear her), our narrator appears to self-reflect on both her alienation, her feeble female nature and her inbred shortcomings, but remains trapped in her own meta-consciousness.

With twinges of both Shirley Jackson, and dystopian Margaret Atwood (“Alias Grace” comes to mind), as the “creepy” factor surrounding her life in the form of strange circumstances in the village farming life grows, it’s not clear if our narrator is after all, complicit, innocent or an agent, “both obedient and murderous”, of what appear to be acts of demonic origin or witchery, directed against the natural order.

I absolutely loved this read, though it’s complexity renders it perhaps not the best choice for my current Covid 19-addled brain. Regardless, this is a book that will require rereading (I look forward to it).

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a beautiful ARC. All thoughts presented are my own.