Garnering rave reviews coast-to-coast, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is an unforgettable debut novel that deftly explores the human cost of war—and the healing power of hope. [ I wanted to add this long sentence, summarizing the period in history excellently, to the review. Each chapter is set in one of the ten years the book covers and the alternating … I originally learned about this book when it was. It is that which makes us family.”, “For their entire lives, even before they met you, your mother and father held their love for you inside their hearts like an acorn holds an oak tree.”, “Invader and invaded held on to their fistfuls of earth, but in the end, the earth outlived the hands that held it.”, “But inside us there is a word we cannot pronounce and that is who we are.”, “He was losing her incrementally...As a web is no more than holes woven together, they were bonded by what was no longer there.”, “For months they'd run their fingers around the hem of their affection without once acknowledging the fabric.”, “I've always though Marx's view on religion was the one thing he got right. Good thing for me that it's about others because what Marra described in this book sounded awful. It is an amazing … This is a book that made me pause, reflect and pause again. I recognize you. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Quotes Showing 1-30 of 207 “We wear clothes, and speak, and create civilizations, and believe we are more than wolves. The story takes place in worn torn Chechny and flashes back over the characters lives during 5 precious days. Ostensibly the novel is set in Chechnya though in many ways the novel depicts a generic modern war and the terrifying lawlessness that prevails in an invaded country. Hardcover, 416 pages. ― Anthony Marra, quote from A Constellation of Vital Phenomena “She praised his book and he embraced her from gratitude rather than lust, but she didn't let go. I knew little of Chechnya, and Marra does a masterful job of supplying enough information without weighing down the narrative. This is a book that made me pause, reflect and pause again. Despite the shock wave of walking into an empty flat, the absence isn’t immediate, more a fade from the present tense you shared, a melting into the mast, not an erasure but a conversion in form, from presence to memory, from solid to liquid, and the person you once touched runs over your skin, now in sheets down your back, and you may bathe, may sink, may drown in the memory, but your fingers cannot hold it.”, “How often is immense sadness mistaken for courage?”, “You are mine. Leaving three sisters and myself in a cou. The A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by … Had he stared into her pupils he would have emerged, bewildered and blinking, on the far side of the earth. But no life is a line, and hers was an uneven orbit around a dark star, a moth circling a dead bulb, searching for the light it once held.”, “A lizard fucks a crab and nine months later a turtle pops out. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is receiving marvelous reviews and accolades from other authors. But no matter how many ways she dismembered and quantified the body lying beside her, she couldn't say how many years the girl would wait before she married, if at all, or how many children she would have, if any; and between the creation of this body and its end lay the mystery the girl would spend her life solving.”, “What parts had she discarded for the sake of her sanity? Find books like A Constellation of Vital Phenomena from the world’s largest community of readers. As life pulled some of the sisters away from the story they became really lost with their focus and had to leave the coulee and return back to read this at another time. I look forward to more from this author. Their human spirit shines through like the grass that grows in the cracks of a sidewalk. A hundred trillion cells that died and were replaced, again and again. The writing was beautiful. Good thing for me that it's about others because what Marra described in this book sounded awful. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is such a book. The story takes place in worn torn Chechny and flashes back over the characters lives during 5 precious days. Young and old, ethnic Russians and Chechen Muslims, the characters' lives intersect in such a way that they cannot hate each other with the intensity prescribed by their ancestors. Russian politics and regional dynamics were deemphasized, though, so it was somewhat generically about any oppressed, occupied state. We all know, as William Tecumseh Sherman once noted, that “War is Hell!” Later, Jean-Paul Sartre concluded that “Hell is other people.” It therefore stands to reason that war is other people. Thanks! I loved this book and did not want it to end. It's called evolution.”, “It’s stupid. The novel isn’t so much about the wars in Chechnya per se as how individuals relate to each other when law and order has been perverted out of all recognition and they only have their own moral compass as a guide. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle’s inaugural John Leonard Prize and the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction, as well as the inaugural 2014 Carla Furstenberg Cohen Fiction Award. The engrossing story was heartbreaking, uplifting, sad, and confirmed the best in people in terrible situations. After reading the blurb, I knew this is going to be a sad story but what I didn’t know was that it was going to be this disappointing. I haven't read what GR friends have said about this book--I'm coming to it a little later than most--which made it all the more of a pleasure. Taking place in war-ravaged Chechnya across a decade, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a … To say this was an excellent book would be an understatement. Life is valued by the governing powers as cheaply as in the Nazi concentration camps. One hundred billion cerebral neurons. Anthony Marra bypasses the facts and figures and takes us directly into the lives of ordinary people trying to make a meaningful existence amid the rubble and death and ongoing violence. I have just seen that people post to Goodreaders the request for recommendations of similar books. Anthony Marra’s debut novel is one of them, and it does indeed call to mind an astronomical marvel. I loved this book! I have a few small quibbles, the first being the over reliance on coincidence after coincidence. At the … We all found our comfy spot to read this and were drawn into this densely vivid heavy in-depth plot that demanded our full attention. All A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is one of the most accomplished and affecting books I've read in a very long time, though it isn't perfect. I am in awe; Anthony Marra has a rare gift with words. In A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, "a constellation of vital phenomena" is a definition provided in a Soviet-Era medical dictionary for what word? Khassan: I started off lost in a coulee reading A Constellation of Vital Phenomena with seven of my Traveling Sisters and some of us really got lost in this story. ANTHONY MARRA is the winner of a Whiting Award, Pushcart Prize, and the Narrative Prize. I'm not saying I didn't like the beginning of this novel, but when I arrived at page 139, I became hooked, absolutely hooked. To say this was an excellent book would be an understatement. It begins with the horror of a father, Dokka, taken violently away by the Feds during the middle of the night. Try Prime Hello, Sign in Account & Lists Account Sign in Account & Lists Returns & Orders Try Prime Cart. I haven't read what GR friends have said about this book--I'm coming to it a little later than most--which made it all the more of a pleasure. But inside us there is a word we cannot pronounce and that is who we are.”, “Life: a constellation of vital phenomena—organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation.”, National Book Award Nominee for Fiction (2013), New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award Nominee (2014), Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction (2014), California Book Award for First Fiction (Gold) (2013), PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2014), Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Fiction (2014), National Book Critics Circle Award for John Leonard Prize (2013), The Athens Prize for Literature - Περιοδικό (δέ)κατα (2014), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2014), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2013). Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Anthony Marra’s Chechnya is every bit as bleak and brutal as the post-apocalyptic world Cormac McCarthy creates in The Road. As well as being the most cleverly structured novel I’ve read all year A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon also features some of the most memorable characters. The passage (actually one long sentence) is about a younger brother along with his family (whom the readers never see again) at the village doctor's (a better artist than he is a doctor) to describe his 'disappeared' older brother in order for the doctor to draw his portrait. Forty-six chromosomes. We all know, as William Tecumseh Sherman once noted, that “War is Hell!” Later, Jean-Paul Sartre concluded that “Hell is other people.” It therefore stands to reason that war is other people. answer this When a character of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena … She is found by Akhmed, the neighbouring doctor, who makes it his mission to ensure her safety and leads her to the one remaining hospital where he delivers her to the doctor, Sonja. but it made me think really? There are maps to show you how to get to the place where you want to be but no maps that show you how to get to the time when you want to be.”, “Entire years had passed when he was rich enough in time to disregard the loose change of a minute, but now he obsessed over each one, this minute, the next minute, the one following, all of which were different terms for the same illusion.”, “You are a coward,' she said, and with that one word wrote a denunciation, a biography, and a prophecy.”, “Nothing, she now knew, could be defined in exclusion, and every bug, pencil, and grass blade was a dictionary in itself, requiring the definitions of all things to fulfill its own.”, “Happiness came in moments of unpredictable loveliness.”, “As someone whose days were defined by the ten thousand ways a human can hurt, she needed, now and then, to remember that the nervous system didn't exist exclusively to feel pain.”, “Don't insult me. We got chopped off fingers, burned down houses, torture-induced ratting, and a whole host of other atrocities. Wishing I could read this again for the first time. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Nonetheless, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" proves that if anything, it's better, more beautiful and necessary to keep trying." Seven meters of small intestines. It begins with the horror of a father, Dokka, taken violently away by the Feds during the middle of the night. To see what your friends thought of this book. But inside us there is a word we cannot pronounce and that is who we are.” … Oh, what a joy to read a fully-realized, beautifully written, totally engrossing novel. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra, describes the tragic lives of displaced peoples in the aftermath of the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is set against the tangle of wars, occupations and insurgencies that have racked Chechnya since the early 1990s. --Emily M. Keeler, "The Globe and Mail" "Some good novels … “Life: a constellation of vital phenomena—organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation.” War and its aftermath, lives and their destruction, land and its carnage, and the people who are left behind to try to pick up the pieces of lives trying to hold on to something… See all 13 questions about A Constellation of Vital Phenomena…, A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, Allah's Mountains: The Battle for Chechnya, New Edition, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra - 4 stars, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Next Big Challenge? In this haunting … This is not a light read and be prepared to be drawn in emotionally. So many glowing reviews made me think that it was going to be a book that I would going to remember for a very very long time, that too in a good way. The engrossing story was heartbreaking, uplifting, sad, and confirmed the best in people in terrible sit. We’d love your help. I give it 5 stars. No, never, not at all.”, “There was a time when she had indulged in the hypothetical for hours a day, plotting the map that had led her here. What had she cut from herself? 2013. Every now and then, a book comes along that restores my faith in the future of the novel all over again. He saves his 8 year old daughter, Haava, by forcing her out into the black of night with her already packed suitcase. The story traces the character's lives and the moral choices they have made in their struggle to survive. In "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" Anothy Marra puts the lie to that myth. The second war had its roots in the First Chechen War (aka the War in Chechnya). A Constellation of Vital Phenomena A Novel (Book) : Marra, Anthony : 2004, a snow-covered village in Chechnya: Eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the … A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is the 2013 debut novel by American author Anthony Marra.The story, told from an omniscient point of view, begins one morning in 2004 in the small … The history of ethnic strife in Chechnya is long and confusing. Let me know what book you'll like me to review next. 2013 Indie Next -- Starred Review (*) But when Akhmed slid the finished portrait across the desk and the family saw the shape of that beloved nose, the air would flee the room, replaced by the miracle of recognition as mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, and cousin found in that nose the son, brother, nephew, and cousin that had been, would have been, could have been, and they might race after the possibility like cartoon characters dashing off a cliff, held by the certainty of the road until they looked down -- and plummeted is the word used by the youngest brother who, at the age of sixteen, is tired of being the youngest and hopes his older brother will return for many reasons, not least so he will marry and have a child and the youngest brother will no longer be youngest; that youngest brother, the one who has nothing to say about the nose because he remembers his older brother's nose and doesn't need the nose to mean what his parents need it to mean, is the one who six months later would be disappeared in the back of a truck, as his older brother was, who would know the Landfill through his blindfold and gag by the rich scent of clay, as his older brother had known, whose fingers would be wound with the electrical wires that had welded to his older brother's bones, who would stand above a mass grave his brother had dug and would fall in it as his older brother had, though taking six more minutes and four more bullets to die, would be buried an arm's length of dirt above his brother and whose bones would find over time those of his older brother, and so, at that indeterminate point in the future, answer his mother's prayer that her boys find each other, wherever they go; that younger brother would have a smile on his face and the silliest thought in his skull a minute before the first bullet would break it, thinking of how that day six months earlier, when they all went to have his older brother's portrait made, he should have had his made, too, because now his parents would have to make another trip, and he hoped they would, hoped they would because even if he knew his older brother's nose, he hadn't been prepared to see it, and seeing that nose, there, on the page, the density of loss it engendered, the unbelievable ache of loving and not having surrounded him, strong enough to toss him, as his brother had, into the summer lake, but there was nothing but air, and he'd believed that plummet was as close as they would ever come again, and with the first gunshot one brother fell within arms' reach of the other, and with the fifth shot the blindfold dissolved and the light it blocked became forever, and on the kitchen wall of his parents' house his portrait hangs within arm's reach of his older brother's, and his mother spends whole afternoons staring at them, praying that they find each other, wherever they go.”. 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