Sterling Karat Gold
Author: Isabel Waidner
Published by: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Pages: 340
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★★★
Published by: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Pages: 340
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★★★
Sterling is arrested one morning without having done anything wrong. Plunged into a terrifying and nonsensical world, Sterling – with the help of their three best friends – must defy bullfighters, football players and time-travelling spaceships in order to exonerate themselves and to hold the powers that be to account.
Sterling Karat Gold is Kafka’s The Trial written for the era of gaslighting – a surreal inquiry into the real effects of state violence on gender-nonconforming, working class and black bodies.
Following the Goldsmiths Prize-nominated We Are Made of Diamond Stuff, Isabel Waidner’s latest novel proposes community, inventiveness and the stubborn refusal to lie low as antidotes against marginalisation and towards better futures.
Sterling Karat Gold is Kafka’s The Trial written for the era of gaslighting – a surreal inquiry into the real effects of state violence on gender-nonconforming, working class and black bodies.
Following the Goldsmiths Prize-nominated We Are Made of Diamond Stuff, Isabel Waidner’s latest novel proposes community, inventiveness and the stubborn refusal to lie low as antidotes against marginalisation and towards better futures.
My thoughts:
Sterling Karat Gold was selected as the July book for a queer reading group I attend in Bath, and it is unlike anything I’ve read before.
Isabel Waidner has invented such a unique style of writing, a mixture of social commentary, wildly creative imagery and strange humour. The book takes a zany, surrealist route in exploring issues of racial, sexual, and class oppression in modern day Britain. It is a tough one to review because almost the whole book is surrealist, though it allows your imagination free reign to run wild.
Admittedly, it took me quite a while to get my head around the metaphors and writing style. The prose is very modern and intriguing, but I found it a little bit grating and forceful at times.
Basically, the book is about Sterling Beckenbaur, a non-binary immigrant. Sterling is assaulted for no other reason than the perception of his being queer and after defending himself he is then charged by the people for doing so. Rather than a fist fight, it’s a bull fight—Sterling the bull. What actually ‘happens’ stops becoming grounded in the concrete details connecting with absurd elements and transitions.
With nods to popular culture moments, Sterling Karat Gold also contains sections about Beach Boys cover art, miniature animals and (if I understood correctly), features a time travelling spaceship and a homage to Kafka’s trial. The time travel parts are genius! But be warned, this is not a science-fiction novel. Like Kafka’s The Trial, the situation Sterling finds themselves in is one that is equally absurd and yet has very dark undertones.
In parts it is also fun and funny despite the serious undertones. I don't think I really am the ideal audience for this book, but once I’d allowed myself to just go with it, I was gripped enough to keep reading until the end.
Many parts of the book were very well written, and I was pleased when some components that seemed superfluous came back around to make sense later, but overall, I think I felt far too outside the story with all its whacky insanity to really get invested. It’s no easy task to categorise Sterling Karat Gold, because it is so wacky, playful and bizarre. It was refreshing to read something out of my comfort zone. Reading it was an experience.
Overall reaction:
Sterling Karat Gold was selected as the July book for a queer reading group I attend in Bath, and it is unlike anything I’ve read before.
Isabel Waidner has invented such a unique style of writing, a mixture of social commentary, wildly creative imagery and strange humour. The book takes a zany, surrealist route in exploring issues of racial, sexual, and class oppression in modern day Britain. It is a tough one to review because almost the whole book is surrealist, though it allows your imagination free reign to run wild.
Admittedly, it took me quite a while to get my head around the metaphors and writing style. The prose is very modern and intriguing, but I found it a little bit grating and forceful at times.
Basically, the book is about Sterling Beckenbaur, a non-binary immigrant. Sterling is assaulted for no other reason than the perception of his being queer and after defending himself he is then charged by the people for doing so. Rather than a fist fight, it’s a bull fight—Sterling the bull. What actually ‘happens’ stops becoming grounded in the concrete details connecting with absurd elements and transitions.
With nods to popular culture moments, Sterling Karat Gold also contains sections about Beach Boys cover art, miniature animals and (if I understood correctly), features a time travelling spaceship and a homage to Kafka’s trial. The time travel parts are genius! But be warned, this is not a science-fiction novel. Like Kafka’s The Trial, the situation Sterling finds themselves in is one that is equally absurd and yet has very dark undertones.
In parts it is also fun and funny despite the serious undertones. I don't think I really am the ideal audience for this book, but once I’d allowed myself to just go with it, I was gripped enough to keep reading until the end.
Many parts of the book were very well written, and I was pleased when some components that seemed superfluous came back around to make sense later, but overall, I think I felt far too outside the story with all its whacky insanity to really get invested. It’s no easy task to categorise Sterling Karat Gold, because it is so wacky, playful and bizarre. It was refreshing to read something out of my comfort zone. Reading it was an experience.
Overall reaction:
