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Sympathy
An electrifying debut novel of obsessive love, family secrets, and the dangers of living our lives online
At twenty-three, Alice Hare leaves England for New York. She becomes fixated on Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in New York, whose life story has strange parallels to her own and whom she believes is her “internet twin.” What seems to Mizuko like a chance encounter with Alice is anything but—after all, in the age of connectivity, nothing is coincidence. Their subsequent relationship is doomed from the outset, exposing a tangle of lies and sexual encounters as three families across the globe collide, and the most ancient of questions—where do we come from—is answered just by searching online.
In its heady evocation of everything from Haruki Murakami to Patricia Highsmith to Edith Wharton, Sympathy is utterly original—a thrilling tale of obsession, doubling, blood ties, and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age.
At twenty-three, Alice Hare leaves England for New York. She becomes fixated on Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in New York, whose life story has strange parallels to her own and whom she believes is her “internet twin.” What seems to Mizuko like a chance encounter with Alice is anything but—after all, in the age of connectivity, nothing is coincidence. Their subsequent relationship is doomed from the outset, exposing a tangle of lies and sexual encounters as three families across the globe collide, and the most ancient of questions—where do we come from—is answered just by searching online.
In its heady evocation of everything from Haruki Murakami to Patricia Highsmith to Edith Wharton, Sympathy is utterly original—a thrilling tale of obsession, doubling, blood ties, and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 4, 2017
123 people are currently reading
4566 people want to read
About the author
Olivia Sudjic
4 books134 followersOlivia Sudjic was born in 1988 in London. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University where she was awarded the E.G. Harwood English Prize and made a Bateman Scholar. Her debut novel, ‘Sympathy’, will be published in 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (USA/Canada), ONE (UK), Kein & Aber (Germany), Minimum Fax (Italy) and Wydawnictwo Czarna Owca (Poland). She is one of The Observer’s ‘New Faces of Fiction’ for 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 176 reviews
January 3, 2017
I had to stop reading after this line: “It was the kind of nervous excitement that can sometimes cause me to pass wind, so I tightened everything and smiled at her.” I mean, I wasn’t really enjoying it before that moment, but...
April 9, 2017
A quarter of the way into this 400-page debut, we know that our narrator is an eccentric philosophy graduate named Alice Hare. We know that she was adopted; that her birth mother died when she was a baby, and her birth father was/is in prison; that she has a strained relationship with her adoptive mother, and that her adoptive father, a brilliant physicist, disappeared (possibly deserted the family, possibly committed suicide) when she was a child. We know Alice has lived in England, Japan, and New York City. We know she is obsessed with a slightly older woman, a writer called Mizuko Himura, whose social media accounts she tracks with the zeal of an addict; she also alludes to the two of them having had a relationship, although it appears to have come after the start of Alice's fixation. We know Mizuko is now in hospital, recovering from encephalitis.
But there are so many things we don't know, too. Whether Alice's obsession with Mizuko is a product of lust, envy, hatred, or some combination of the three. How/why she found her in the first place. Whether what ultimately afflicts Mizuko is a coincidence, or even real (Alice initially describes it as a parasite that may have wiped memories of her specifically from Mizuko's memory). Relatedly: to what extent Alice is telling the truth. To what extent Alice is a villain. And what is this novel; what is it about? At various points it seems to be: a Bildungsroman; a family saga about the shared elements of Alice and Mizuko's histories (absent fathers, combative mothers, a connection to Tokyo); an internet stalking thriller; an unreliable-narrator character study; a gently humorous portrait of wealthy hipsters in their Manhattan bubble; and literary fiction that bounces around ideas about physics, philosophy and mortality.
Sympathy does not give up its secrets easily. It's disorientating, hard work, a tangled knot of threads you have to unravel. I can imagine many readers finding it frustrating. I've seen it described in a few places as though it is a thriller, but that is very wide of the mark; it's meandering rather than propulsive. Sometimes a purpose threatens to emerge, only to vanish back into the morass. At one point Alice talks about mise en abyme – though, characteristically, she does not give the phrase, only its acronym and translation:
It was a French phrase meaning, in its literal sense, "placed into an abyss". Mizuko did her own version of this on her Instagram, taking a picture of herself holding the picture of herself, and again and again as the picture got smaller and smaller... When it occurs within a text, it gets to the point where everything becomes unstable, a loop that takes you back to where you started.
Sympathy itself may be seen as an example of mise en abyme. There are lives within lives, identities within identities – juxtaposition of digital and real personalities; stories families tell about themselves versus the truth. Alice describes the internet as a place where 'nothing stays private and nothing goes away... like the wave – the back catching up with the front.' While Mizuko lays her whole life bare on her continually-updated accounts, and uses her past as material for her fiction, Alice's monologue taunts us with the elusiveness of its author. Two significant aspects of Alice's identity – her race and sexuality – are hinted at and danced around but rarely addressed directly, even by the character herself, despite her penchant for overthinking. The narrative does indeed end up back where it started. After reading her story, what have we really learned about Alice?
I received an advance review copy of Sympathy from the publisher through Edelweiss.
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But there are so many things we don't know, too. Whether Alice's obsession with Mizuko is a product of lust, envy, hatred, or some combination of the three. How/why she found her in the first place. Whether what ultimately afflicts Mizuko is a coincidence, or even real (Alice initially describes it as a parasite that may have wiped memories of her specifically from Mizuko's memory). Relatedly: to what extent Alice is telling the truth. To what extent Alice is a villain. And what is this novel; what is it about? At various points it seems to be: a Bildungsroman; a family saga about the shared elements of Alice and Mizuko's histories (absent fathers, combative mothers, a connection to Tokyo); an internet stalking thriller; an unreliable-narrator character study; a gently humorous portrait of wealthy hipsters in their Manhattan bubble; and literary fiction that bounces around ideas about physics, philosophy and mortality.
Sympathy does not give up its secrets easily. It's disorientating, hard work, a tangled knot of threads you have to unravel. I can imagine many readers finding it frustrating. I've seen it described in a few places as though it is a thriller, but that is very wide of the mark; it's meandering rather than propulsive. Sometimes a purpose threatens to emerge, only to vanish back into the morass. At one point Alice talks about mise en abyme – though, characteristically, she does not give the phrase, only its acronym and translation:
It was a French phrase meaning, in its literal sense, "placed into an abyss". Mizuko did her own version of this on her Instagram, taking a picture of herself holding the picture of herself, and again and again as the picture got smaller and smaller... When it occurs within a text, it gets to the point where everything becomes unstable, a loop that takes you back to where you started.
Sympathy itself may be seen as an example of mise en abyme. There are lives within lives, identities within identities – juxtaposition of digital and real personalities; stories families tell about themselves versus the truth. Alice describes the internet as a place where 'nothing stays private and nothing goes away... like the wave – the back catching up with the front.' While Mizuko lays her whole life bare on her continually-updated accounts, and uses her past as material for her fiction, Alice's monologue taunts us with the elusiveness of its author. Two significant aspects of Alice's identity – her race and sexuality – are hinted at and danced around but rarely addressed directly, even by the character herself, despite her penchant for overthinking. The narrative does indeed end up back where it started. After reading her story, what have we really learned about Alice?
I received an advance review copy of Sympathy from the publisher through Edelweiss.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
July 9, 2017
A lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
I'm sure this is destined to top all the indie fiction lists this spring, and the publisher is selling this as a psychological thriller for fans of Murakami and others. So naturally, I grabbed this and was very much looking forward to it.
Simply put, this book is boring as hell. Overly flowery language, reminiscent of college-level creative writing, fills these pages with so much nothingness, my eyes tended to glaze over many times as I slogged through this book for two weeks.
The narrator is unlikable, which is an accomplishment, as she is barely given a life or personality. Background characters are confusing, with so many names and locations changing and none of it seeming to matter. I just don't understand if, how, or why I'm supposed to identify with anyone here. They all seem to be cynical, snobbish, millennial-cliches. And as a millennial myself, I can honestly say I have no interest in reading about these character's lives.
Somewhere in here, the narrative is supposedly a dark look at the dangers of putting our lives on social media. But I'll be damned, these people are too boring to bother stalking.
I'd be willing to bet this ends up on a lot of Best New Fiction lists, and Breakout Author features. But it's a hard pass for me.
I'm sure this is destined to top all the indie fiction lists this spring, and the publisher is selling this as a psychological thriller for fans of Murakami and others. So naturally, I grabbed this and was very much looking forward to it.
Simply put, this book is boring as hell. Overly flowery language, reminiscent of college-level creative writing, fills these pages with so much nothingness, my eyes tended to glaze over many times as I slogged through this book for two weeks.
The narrator is unlikable, which is an accomplishment, as she is barely given a life or personality. Background characters are confusing, with so many names and locations changing and none of it seeming to matter. I just don't understand if, how, or why I'm supposed to identify with anyone here. They all seem to be cynical, snobbish, millennial-cliches. And as a millennial myself, I can honestly say I have no interest in reading about these character's lives.
Somewhere in here, the narrative is supposedly a dark look at the dangers of putting our lives on social media. But I'll be damned, these people are too boring to bother stalking.
I'd be willing to bet this ends up on a lot of Best New Fiction lists, and Breakout Author features. But it's a hard pass for me.
April 5, 2017
I was asked to blurb this book but used the word 'mindfuck' in my blurb which apparently isn't kosher so I'll say it here. A COMPLETE MINDFUCK. Sort of suffocating. Thorough. Dark. As SNP says, "not for everyone, meaning it's for people who take great joy in telling you it's 'not for everyone'". Could it be for you?
(wow i don't remember writing this 'review' AT ALL)
(wow i don't remember writing this 'review' AT ALL)
May 22, 2017
I am always trying new stuff and often bailing. I second-guess myself: should I just stick to writers I like, writers closer to my own age? No way. This debut by Sudjic, 29, is one of the most exciting novels I've ever read. A tale of smartphones and anomie, adoption and obsession, being biracial and being a flâneuse, and much more: I snorted it as much as I read it. In sharp contrast to the biraciality of the obsessed-upon-one, Mizuko, the protagonist Alice's half-black identity was underexplored; otherwise, I loved this novel. Like a junky.
June 21, 2019
Reseña completa: http://elcaosliterario.blogspot.com/2...
Etiquetar a este libro en un único género sería algo bastante complicado. Podría decir que es lo más cercano a un thriller psicólogo; un libro de ficción independiente muy inquietante centrado en la obsesión y en la enfermedad mental que no dejará a nadie indiferente.
La primera duda que me surgió al leer este libro narrado por Alice, la protagonista, fue si estaba diciendo la verdad o hasta qué punto era una villana. Alice es, en definitiva, una narradora poco fiable. Su carácter es muy complejo y es bastante egoísta.
La trama es bastante confusa por el cambio constante de tiempo y lugar. Es desconcertante, oscuro y difícil de digerir, aunque esto no tiene por qué ser precisamente algo negativo, sino todo lo contrario, ya que la autora lo ha concebido de esta manera.
La pluma de la autora me gustó bastante porque sabe descender hasta el más mínimo detalle, algo que todavía engrandece más el nivel de confusión y oscuridad de esta novela.
Si estáis buscando una lectura diferente sobre la obsesión en redes sociales y que os haga pensar, este es el libro que necesitáis.
En resumen: una protagonista complicada, obsesiva y egoísta tejida con una narración desconcertante que atrapa por su oscuridad. Te gustará o la odiarás, sin término medio.
Etiquetar a este libro en un único género sería algo bastante complicado. Podría decir que es lo más cercano a un thriller psicólogo; un libro de ficción independiente muy inquietante centrado en la obsesión y en la enfermedad mental que no dejará a nadie indiferente.
La primera duda que me surgió al leer este libro narrado por Alice, la protagonista, fue si estaba diciendo la verdad o hasta qué punto era una villana. Alice es, en definitiva, una narradora poco fiable. Su carácter es muy complejo y es bastante egoísta.
La trama es bastante confusa por el cambio constante de tiempo y lugar. Es desconcertante, oscuro y difícil de digerir, aunque esto no tiene por qué ser precisamente algo negativo, sino todo lo contrario, ya que la autora lo ha concebido de esta manera.
La pluma de la autora me gustó bastante porque sabe descender hasta el más mínimo detalle, algo que todavía engrandece más el nivel de confusión y oscuridad de esta novela.
Si estáis buscando una lectura diferente sobre la obsesión en redes sociales y que os haga pensar, este es el libro que necesitáis.
En resumen: una protagonista complicada, obsesiva y egoísta tejida con una narración desconcertante que atrapa por su oscuridad. Te gustará o la odiarás, sin término medio.
March 30, 2018
Touted as the first great Instagram novel, it is a tale of sexual obsession, illusory online intimacy, digital stalking and paranoia on social media (think Talented Mr Ripley with a smart phone). The densely plotted narration plus constant switching of time and place, with regular digressions, make it difficult to digest, but well worth the effort - even if you need to read it twice to appreciate the wit and dark satire.
Reviewed for Whichbook.net
Reviewed for Whichbook.net
May 24, 2017
Sympathy is the captivating debut novel by Olivia Sudjic. It's one of my favorite novels of 2017. It's funny and unsettling at the same time. Sudjic has crafted a very disturbed character in Alice, but the whole time I was still rooting for her. Sympathy takes us to some very dark places, but with Alice's mesmeric narration, I was willing to follow it anywhere.
Alice Hare is twenty-three when she leaves England to visit her paternal grandmother in New York City. She's there to get her footing after college, following a period of profound uncertainty and mental anguish. Alice doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Until she finds Mizuko Himura, and her obsession with the Japanese writer gives her life purpose. Alice falls down a rabbit hole of Instagram, internet research, and carefully inserting herself into Mizuko's life. Alice is convinced that the other woman is her internet twin, her soulmate, as there are many similarities between their lives. What unfolds is a tale of the impact a person can have on other peoples' lives. It's scary and timely and thoroughly immersive.
Sympathy boasts great writing. Sudjic encapsulates feelings so well. She knows just how to capture the essence of things in her writing. There were so many times I was reading where I marveled at her ability to put things so perfectly, to describe things I'd experienced so well. Sympathy especially resonated with me because I related to it so much. It was an uncanny reading experience to be reading about Alice finding all these similarities between her and Mizuko, while I myself was identifying with Alice. This novel perfectly captures feelings of isolation, loneliness, and alienation. It makes you feel what it is to be an outsider, looking in.
Sympathy has so much going for it. It's a great portrait of the inner workings of a woman's mind. The story unfolds perfectly, with great use of foreshadowing. At times it's laugh-out-loud funny. At other times it's achingly sad, and it made me cry. It's very of the moment, with its exploration of social media and references to current events. It's a bildungsroman. While Sympathy is very unique, and there's really nothing like it, if I had to compare it to anything, I would compare it to The Bell Jar. As a portrait of mental illness, it's right up there with Plath's novel. I really admired how Sympathy boldly goes there with things that are often overlooked or left unsaid about women. It embraces the taboo, the real, and the raw.
I highly recommend Sympathy. It's a powerful novel that packs a real punch. I promise it's like nothing you've ever read. It's a haunting novel that will stay with me for a long time. I can't wait to see what Olivia Sudjic writes in the future. She's a great literary talent.
Alice Hare is twenty-three when she leaves England to visit her paternal grandmother in New York City. She's there to get her footing after college, following a period of profound uncertainty and mental anguish. Alice doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Until she finds Mizuko Himura, and her obsession with the Japanese writer gives her life purpose. Alice falls down a rabbit hole of Instagram, internet research, and carefully inserting herself into Mizuko's life. Alice is convinced that the other woman is her internet twin, her soulmate, as there are many similarities between their lives. What unfolds is a tale of the impact a person can have on other peoples' lives. It's scary and timely and thoroughly immersive.
Sympathy boasts great writing. Sudjic encapsulates feelings so well. She knows just how to capture the essence of things in her writing. There were so many times I was reading where I marveled at her ability to put things so perfectly, to describe things I'd experienced so well. Sympathy especially resonated with me because I related to it so much. It was an uncanny reading experience to be reading about Alice finding all these similarities between her and Mizuko, while I myself was identifying with Alice. This novel perfectly captures feelings of isolation, loneliness, and alienation. It makes you feel what it is to be an outsider, looking in.
Sympathy has so much going for it. It's a great portrait of the inner workings of a woman's mind. The story unfolds perfectly, with great use of foreshadowing. At times it's laugh-out-loud funny. At other times it's achingly sad, and it made me cry. It's very of the moment, with its exploration of social media and references to current events. It's a bildungsroman. While Sympathy is very unique, and there's really nothing like it, if I had to compare it to anything, I would compare it to The Bell Jar. As a portrait of mental illness, it's right up there with Plath's novel. I really admired how Sympathy boldly goes there with things that are often overlooked or left unsaid about women. It embraces the taboo, the real, and the raw.
I highly recommend Sympathy. It's a powerful novel that packs a real punch. I promise it's like nothing you've ever read. It's a haunting novel that will stay with me for a long time. I can't wait to see what Olivia Sudjic writes in the future. She's a great literary talent.
June 7, 2017
I gave up on this book.
I really, really wanted to like it, and the premise seemed fascinating. However, there are two issues:
Minor: the characters are introduced quickly or obliquely and in such a way that I was like "wait, who?" (The Price of Illusion also suffers from this issue. People, *pick a way you refer to characters and stick with it*).
Major: The plot synopsis is...off. The bulk of the book, from what I can tell, is about a young woman dealing with her failing grandmother and doing so by transferring her grief to an obsession with a cool older woman.
I tried to skim through the mid-section of the book that deals with the failing grandmother (because I DON'T CARE) but after about 30 pages I gave up and just gave up on the book.
My other complaint with this book is that it's written...jaggedly. It's unnerving and slippery. It's hard to understand exactly what's happening to characters and people come and go, time slips away, and one finds oneself in a stream of consciousness nightmare. Not my favorite kind of book to read, honestly.
It was like what I imagine being on heavy duty painkillers or psychotropic drugs would be like. I also wonder if English is a second language for this author or if this is translated, because passages are clunky and odd at times.
Overall...super promising blurb, ignore that. If you want to feel light headed and irritated by a book, this is your winner! /s
I really, really wanted to like it, and the premise seemed fascinating. However, there are two issues:
Minor: the characters are introduced quickly or obliquely and in such a way that I was like "wait, who?" (The Price of Illusion also suffers from this issue. People, *pick a way you refer to characters and stick with it*).
Major: The plot synopsis is...off. The bulk of the book, from what I can tell, is about a young woman dealing with her failing grandmother and doing so by transferring her grief to an obsession with a cool older woman.
I tried to skim through the mid-section of the book that deals with the failing grandmother (because I DON'T CARE) but after about 30 pages I gave up and just gave up on the book.
My other complaint with this book is that it's written...jaggedly. It's unnerving and slippery. It's hard to understand exactly what's happening to characters and people come and go, time slips away, and one finds oneself in a stream of consciousness nightmare. Not my favorite kind of book to read, honestly.
It was like what I imagine being on heavy duty painkillers or psychotropic drugs would be like. I also wonder if English is a second language for this author or if this is translated, because passages are clunky and odd at times.
Overall...super promising blurb, ignore that. If you want to feel light headed and irritated by a book, this is your winner! /s
August 20, 2017
I have decided that I no longer have to force myself to read books that I do not find appealing or attractive and I don't usually write reviews but I had to write for this one.
First of all, half a star for the cover and half a star for the summary. Both of whom were attractive enough to convince me to buy the book. As an Arab, English isnt my first language (and I am not weak in it, I spoke and wrote in English since I was 10 years old) and I read a lot of English books. This is the first time I feel like I am reading a book thats written in riddles. Babbling riddles that make no sense to me whatsoever and everything seems to be jumbled up. I had no sense of time with the character and also no idea how the character is. I felt everything came into each other and mixed up. I couldnt quite get a sense of the place too. It seemed too confusing for me I couldnt get past chapter 5.
The book was too metophorical to an extent it became a code in which I have to decipher. I have to read more than once to get what the author is getting to (her point).
I didnt enjoy it at all and it was (to me) an utter disappiontment.
First of all, half a star for the cover and half a star for the summary. Both of whom were attractive enough to convince me to buy the book. As an Arab, English isnt my first language (and I am not weak in it, I spoke and wrote in English since I was 10 years old) and I read a lot of English books. This is the first time I feel like I am reading a book thats written in riddles. Babbling riddles that make no sense to me whatsoever and everything seems to be jumbled up. I had no sense of time with the character and also no idea how the character is. I felt everything came into each other and mixed up. I couldnt quite get a sense of the place too. It seemed too confusing for me I couldnt get past chapter 5.
The book was too metophorical to an extent it became a code in which I have to decipher. I have to read more than once to get what the author is getting to (her point).
I didnt enjoy it at all and it was (to me) an utter disappiontment.
March 30, 2017
Meh. A rambling read that jumps back and forth through time as the main character outlines her obsession with an author in New York City.
I should add, my rating here is mostly because it wasn't a good fit for me. I came upon this one after hearing a review that led me to believe it would be right up my alley. The writing is overall good, though I did struggle in keeping the timeline straight. My biggest issue is personal preference - character driven stories generally are just not to my taste.
I should add, my rating here is mostly because it wasn't a good fit for me. I came upon this one after hearing a review that led me to believe it would be right up my alley. The writing is overall good, though I did struggle in keeping the timeline straight. My biggest issue is personal preference - character driven stories generally are just not to my taste.
May 23, 2017
Sympathy is virtually impossible to describe, I'm struggling to do so even to myself and it was a struggle I grappled with all the way through. In the end Sudjic's own narrator says it best when she characterises her tale as a “love story that is mostly made up, from memories that are mostly false, between people who were mainly not there.”
Alice Hare has never really known herself. Adopted as a baby she knows little of her birth parents except that her mother is dead and her father in prison. Her adoptive family also offers little stability, her mother telling and retelling, embellishing and rewriting the story of their history so often after her husband disappears that neither mother nor daughter have any real sense what is true. In an attempt to escape what feels like a vortex of uncertainty and parental neediness Alice relocates to New York and the home of her cancer-stricken grandmother Silvia.
As Alice attempts to find her way and herself in a new city and a new life, her perceptions and expectations constantly shaped by the "lives" she observes online she stumbles across Mizuko Himura, a Japanese heiress, freelance writer and constant user of social media. Alice becomes obsessed with the connections and parallels she comes to see between her history and Mizuko's. Parallels that take on increasingly irrational significance until she manages to engineer an entry into Mizuko's real life. This is stalking in the internet age and it is not pretty as Alice becomes increasingly obsessed, harnessing all the knowledge she has amassed online into manipulating Mizuko into friendship by aping her like, her opinions and playing to her character. Alice in an extremely complex and unsettling character, incredibly self-involved and yet almost entirely lacking in self-awareness and despite her disturbing penchant for manipulation she is almost endearingly naive to the fact that Mizuko's consciously-curated online identity is no more genuine than her own.
Despite Alice's flaws, her obsessive and possessive tendencies, her selfishness, her guile it is testament to Sudjic's talent that she somehow forces a little sympathy, unpicking these unpleasant characteristics in a way that reveals the sad fragility and vulnerability that underpin her neuroses.
The narrative structure is really quite mind-bogglingly clever. Alice's fragmentary, disjointed and unreliable reminiscences deliberately invoking those long, convoluted "rabbit-holes" (her name is no accident) with which anyone who has ever accidentally lost hours of their life to the internet will be disturbingly familiar. We follow Alice through many, often fascinating, digressions, from particle physics to the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the disappearance of flight MH370. These labyrinthine tangents draw us in an out of the main narrative forging unexpected connections and consequences that make Alice's bizarre focus on coincidences seem less and less absurd. Because Sympathy is all about our lives online and how the constant presence of undiluted, unsubstantiated data can potentially affect and warp our opinions, our thinking and our identities, you find yourself becoming just a little Alice.
Sympathy is an impressive, immersive and ultimately addictive experience, disorientating and irresistible and Olivia Sudjic is, without a doubt, a young author to watch.
Alice Hare has never really known herself. Adopted as a baby she knows little of her birth parents except that her mother is dead and her father in prison. Her adoptive family also offers little stability, her mother telling and retelling, embellishing and rewriting the story of their history so often after her husband disappears that neither mother nor daughter have any real sense what is true. In an attempt to escape what feels like a vortex of uncertainty and parental neediness Alice relocates to New York and the home of her cancer-stricken grandmother Silvia.
As Alice attempts to find her way and herself in a new city and a new life, her perceptions and expectations constantly shaped by the "lives" she observes online she stumbles across Mizuko Himura, a Japanese heiress, freelance writer and constant user of social media. Alice becomes obsessed with the connections and parallels she comes to see between her history and Mizuko's. Parallels that take on increasingly irrational significance until she manages to engineer an entry into Mizuko's real life. This is stalking in the internet age and it is not pretty as Alice becomes increasingly obsessed, harnessing all the knowledge she has amassed online into manipulating Mizuko into friendship by aping her like, her opinions and playing to her character. Alice in an extremely complex and unsettling character, incredibly self-involved and yet almost entirely lacking in self-awareness and despite her disturbing penchant for manipulation she is almost endearingly naive to the fact that Mizuko's consciously-curated online identity is no more genuine than her own.
Despite Alice's flaws, her obsessive and possessive tendencies, her selfishness, her guile it is testament to Sudjic's talent that she somehow forces a little sympathy, unpicking these unpleasant characteristics in a way that reveals the sad fragility and vulnerability that underpin her neuroses.
The narrative structure is really quite mind-bogglingly clever. Alice's fragmentary, disjointed and unreliable reminiscences deliberately invoking those long, convoluted "rabbit-holes" (her name is no accident) with which anyone who has ever accidentally lost hours of their life to the internet will be disturbingly familiar. We follow Alice through many, often fascinating, digressions, from particle physics to the 2011 Japanese tsunami to the disappearance of flight MH370. These labyrinthine tangents draw us in an out of the main narrative forging unexpected connections and consequences that make Alice's bizarre focus on coincidences seem less and less absurd. Because Sympathy is all about our lives online and how the constant presence of undiluted, unsubstantiated data can potentially affect and warp our opinions, our thinking and our identities, you find yourself becoming just a little Alice.
Sympathy is an impressive, immersive and ultimately addictive experience, disorientating and irresistible and Olivia Sudjic is, without a doubt, a young author to watch.
June 4, 2017
I may be Gen X but I loved this millennial novel about ennui, obsession and connection. Sudjic does not reveal her secrets easily and I enjoyed the effort of deciphering a delightfully unreliable narrator as well as the filtered digital versions of the main characters. There is a subtle quality to the storytelling that is quietly compelling. I worry that I sometimes make too much of generational differences but then I read a book like this and am illuminated. 'I could tell she was about to launch into one of her Internet speeches. I knew the gist by now. My generation, her generation, blah blah blah, Armageddon.'
June 9, 2017
Really disappointing -characters don't have to be at all likeable for me to enjoy a book but these characters are so one dimensional and totally not engaging in the slightest. Gave up around page 250; the book's premise of "stalking in the internet age" seems woefully oversold - this book is more about adoption, a dying grandmother in New York and some other hastily introduced characters whose names and place in the story it is a genuine struggle to remember. The main character, Alice, is so dull that when another character said her name I honestly forgot who they were referring to for a moment. So, so dull.
February 2, 2023
Olivia Sudjic is just perfect isn't she, go two author ! I loved this!
May 30, 2017
3.5 Stars.
This debut novel makes me really excited for what Sudjic will write next. There were parts of it that didn't work for me, but others that deeply resonated.
Twenty-three year old Alice Hare moves from London to New York City to stay with an old relative and seek necessary change in her empty life. While there, she becomes infatuated with an older woman named Mizuko, whom she stalks online until ultimately arranging an encounter. Alice gradually works her way into Mizuko's life and the lives of the people around her, desperate for a connection that may not actually be there.
Sudjic's voice is extremely clever, brimming with dry humor and smart insights. Her characters are compelling, her dialogue is excellent. Where I struggled was with the pacing and the narrative. In fact, I think this would have worked better as a leaner novel with more focus.
Thematically, Sudjic has a lot of interesting things to say about a modern culture in which everything about anyone is available at our fingertips. How does this affect intimacy and connection? Does it help fill the void or merely deepen it?
Lots of exciting stuff here. With better editing, it could have been truly great.
This debut novel makes me really excited for what Sudjic will write next. There were parts of it that didn't work for me, but others that deeply resonated.
Twenty-three year old Alice Hare moves from London to New York City to stay with an old relative and seek necessary change in her empty life. While there, she becomes infatuated with an older woman named Mizuko, whom she stalks online until ultimately arranging an encounter. Alice gradually works her way into Mizuko's life and the lives of the people around her, desperate for a connection that may not actually be there.
Sudjic's voice is extremely clever, brimming with dry humor and smart insights. Her characters are compelling, her dialogue is excellent. Where I struggled was with the pacing and the narrative. In fact, I think this would have worked better as a leaner novel with more focus.
Thematically, Sudjic has a lot of interesting things to say about a modern culture in which everything about anyone is available at our fingertips. How does this affect intimacy and connection? Does it help fill the void or merely deepen it?
Lots of exciting stuff here. With better editing, it could have been truly great.
April 22, 2022
Uzalud sam se toliko radovala. Bilo bi mnogo upečatljivije da je bilo kraće (i smislenije).
Imamo nepouzdanu naratorku koja nas vodi od jedne do druge priče, od ovih do onih ljudi, i o kojoj suštinski ništa ne saznamo do kraja. Da li je luda, usamljena, zla, nevoljena... Možda je sve, a i Olivia Sudjic je htela svašta, ali meni nije ništa isporučila. Želim joj da se drži Asylum Road stila i tematike 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Imamo nepouzdanu naratorku koja nas vodi od jedne do druge priče, od ovih do onih ljudi, i o kojoj suštinski ništa ne saznamo do kraja. Da li je luda, usamljena, zla, nevoljena... Možda je sve, a i Olivia Sudjic je htela svašta, ali meni nije ništa isporučila. Želim joj da se drži Asylum Road stila i tematike 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
July 19, 2017
30% good, 70% damp petulance. 2.5.
May 8, 2017
Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic is a so-so overwritten novel focusing on obsession, stalking, and social media.
Alice Hare, 23, travels from England to NYC to stay with her ill grandmother. Even before she met her, Alice is obsessed with Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in NYC who teaches creative writing at Columbia. Alice's fantasies and thoughts are fueled by her desire to meet and establish the relationship she knows she is supposed to have with Mizuko. Alice stalkes her and manages to meet her in person via a social media clue mentioning a coffee shop, and proceeds to tests boundaries with her relationship with Mizuko.
I could go on with the description, but honestly, I don't like the novel enough to spend more time on this. The narrative jumps around in time, without building a sense of continuity or some identifying theme that allows the readers knowledge to grow with each chapter. The novel is over-long and slow paced, but still feels so disjointed that it wasn't a pleasure as much as it was a chore to keep reading. Additionally I didn't care for any of the characters. If you are going to throw a long, muddled, over-written plot at me with all sorts of obsessive narcissistic social media obsessed characters, at least give me one person to care about. By the end of this novel I was just celebrating the fact that it was over. It is given the so-so rating simply for the final third of the novel.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Alice Hare, 23, travels from England to NYC to stay with her ill grandmother. Even before she met her, Alice is obsessed with Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in NYC who teaches creative writing at Columbia. Alice's fantasies and thoughts are fueled by her desire to meet and establish the relationship she knows she is supposed to have with Mizuko. Alice stalkes her and manages to meet her in person via a social media clue mentioning a coffee shop, and proceeds to tests boundaries with her relationship with Mizuko.
I could go on with the description, but honestly, I don't like the novel enough to spend more time on this. The narrative jumps around in time, without building a sense of continuity or some identifying theme that allows the readers knowledge to grow with each chapter. The novel is over-long and slow paced, but still feels so disjointed that it wasn't a pleasure as much as it was a chore to keep reading. Additionally I didn't care for any of the characters. If you are going to throw a long, muddled, over-written plot at me with all sorts of obsessive narcissistic social media obsessed characters, at least give me one person to care about. By the end of this novel I was just celebrating the fact that it was over. It is given the so-so rating simply for the final third of the novel.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
April 17, 2017
Interesting complex book about obsession. Interesting points to consider:
* How obsessive cyber-stalking at some level has taken on a normative cast, Alice takes it a step further than we might do in our day-to-day, but anyone who has ever Facebook/Instagram stalked someone can relate
* In Alice's obsession with Mizuko, sex is almost beside the point. She feels desire for *something* physical to happen but you never quite get the feeling that Alice would know what to do if it progressed. Alice's (un)stated sexual preference is beside the point.
* We can do really horrible things in the name of "love". Alice's abandonment of Silvia in her last days is unforgivable and yet, in context, understandable.
* If you liked this I would recommend The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud or What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. They focus on older women, but the obsessive spirit is still there.
* How obsessive cyber-stalking at some level has taken on a normative cast, Alice takes it a step further than we might do in our day-to-day, but anyone who has ever Facebook/Instagram stalked someone can relate
* In Alice's obsession with Mizuko, sex is almost beside the point. She feels desire for *something* physical to happen but you never quite get the feeling that Alice would know what to do if it progressed. Alice's (un)stated sexual preference is beside the point.
* We can do really horrible things in the name of "love". Alice's abandonment of Silvia in her last days is unforgivable and yet, in context, understandable.
* If you liked this I would recommend The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud or What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. They focus on older women, but the obsessive spirit is still there.
July 12, 2017
“I wouldn’t mind being a pawn, if only I might join.”
Billed as ‘an electrifying novel’ for the digital age, I was intrigued by the premise of this book but am afraid I found it too much like hard work. On the face of it, Sympathy is the story of Alice Hare who leaves England and her adoptive mother to go and live with her grandmother in New York. There, she becomes fixated on a Japanese writer, Mizuko Himura.
“When we met, we were both online constantly. In fact, I would say I was only online constantly because she was, and I was monitoring her usage. For her, the Internet was primarily a tool of self-promotion and reinforcement for her multiple selves while for me it became a tool designed for the sole purpose of observing her. It was the only way I could have been brave enough to approach her in real life, having dissected the pictorial equivalent of her DNA in advance.”
I don’t mind a challenging read and I don’t discard a book simply because it’s weird. I don’t even mind inaccessible - provided one feels that the effort one puts into it will be repaid. Here, I did not. It could well be that this opaque novel came along at the wrong time for me, that I simply wasn’t in the mood for it. At the outset, the author quotes Alice (in Wonderland, presumably): “I wouldn’t mind being a pawn, if only I might join.” That’s kind of how I felt about this book.
Billed as ‘an electrifying novel’ for the digital age, I was intrigued by the premise of this book but am afraid I found it too much like hard work. On the face of it, Sympathy is the story of Alice Hare who leaves England and her adoptive mother to go and live with her grandmother in New York. There, she becomes fixated on a Japanese writer, Mizuko Himura.
“When we met, we were both online constantly. In fact, I would say I was only online constantly because she was, and I was monitoring her usage. For her, the Internet was primarily a tool of self-promotion and reinforcement for her multiple selves while for me it became a tool designed for the sole purpose of observing her. It was the only way I could have been brave enough to approach her in real life, having dissected the pictorial equivalent of her DNA in advance.”
I don’t mind a challenging read and I don’t discard a book simply because it’s weird. I don’t even mind inaccessible - provided one feels that the effort one puts into it will be repaid. Here, I did not. It could well be that this opaque novel came along at the wrong time for me, that I simply wasn’t in the mood for it. At the outset, the author quotes Alice (in Wonderland, presumably): “I wouldn’t mind being a pawn, if only I might join.” That’s kind of how I felt about this book.
June 8, 2017
Creepy as fuck! This book made me glad I don't use Instagram. It was fun reading about such a mental, immoral female character, in the vein of Ben Lerner's "Leaving the Atocha Station." I enjoyed the dark-ass ending too. The grandmother stuff bored me (why was so much time spent on it?) but once she gets into full stalker mode that's when the book gets going in terms of dirty fun. I think the part where she wanked on the bathroom floor was my favorite. Is this book maybe a wee bit fetishistic about Japan, tho? It reads like a "greatest hits" of Japan that someone would encounter on a three-week holiday (not that I know diddly myself): ... ancient metaphorical fable about the moon, check ... explanation of the term "gaijin" ... "quirky" facts like the space in houses where shoes are kept .. the tsunami as a destructive chaotic force, but omg look at how the Japanese can rebuild, such a resilient people... IDK, what do I know. Ultimately, I don't know if I can recommend this book, but I personally enjoyed it because sometimes I just like to read a book that makes me tsk-tsk at someone's behavior, like the cranky old cow that I am.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2018
Oh wow that was a TERRIBLE book.
Tbh I feel a bit cheated by it, because the premise is super interesting and something exactly for me, but then I read it and got so bored ad disappointed it's actually painfull.
The bulrb tells ypu that this book is about obsession in digital age, but don't be fooled by it. It's about dull protagonist that has no purpose in life so she moves from UK to US, takes "care" (or maybe just lives with, hard to tell) her failing grandmother, meets this cool older woman and starts obsessivly reading her instagram captions.
I don't know, maybe my freak tollerance is extremely high but that book is not creepy AT ALL.
It's just annpying. The main character is dull, the other characters are not particulary important for the plot - they're just thrown into it just to be forgotten 5 pages after that, the plot is all over the place.
The writing is awful, dialogues are cringe.
I found myself skimming lots of time, because i couldn't be bothered to read it properly.
Tbh I feel a bit cheated by it, because the premise is super interesting and something exactly for me, but then I read it and got so bored ad disappointed it's actually painfull.
The bulrb tells ypu that this book is about obsession in digital age, but don't be fooled by it. It's about dull protagonist that has no purpose in life so she moves from UK to US, takes "care" (or maybe just lives with, hard to tell) her failing grandmother, meets this cool older woman and starts obsessivly reading her instagram captions.
I don't know, maybe my freak tollerance is extremely high but that book is not creepy AT ALL.
It's just annpying. The main character is dull, the other characters are not particulary important for the plot - they're just thrown into it just to be forgotten 5 pages after that, the plot is all over the place.
The writing is awful, dialogues are cringe.
I found myself skimming lots of time, because i couldn't be bothered to read it properly.
June 7, 2017
I had high hopes based on some reviews but was disappointed. As I finished, I realized that I didn't care what happened to any of the characters.
January 21, 2018
Ammetto che era partito bene.
Poi però boh, la storia si è sfilacciata a livelli improbabili.
Difficile dare un senso al plot narrativo in mezzo ad una quantità assurda di situazioni inutili.
Non c’è nulla di thriller (non che sia un male).
Molto poco di psicologico.
A tratti annoia, inizi a chiederti quanto manca alla fine del capitolo.
Il rapporto tra Alice e Mizuko non è indagato come ci si aspetterebbe.
Alice è spesso (quasi sempre) irritante.
E allora perché 3 stelle?
Be’, in certi momenti mi ha fatto pensare di potermi sorprendere.
Olivia è giovane.
La voglia che mi ha messo di andare a Morningside Heights.
E all’inizio dell’anno non si può esser troppo cattivi. [64/100]
Ho rivissuto questo ricordo quasi ogni giorno. Così tante volte che non so più se è successo davvero, quel preciso momento, iperreale, che squarcia in due tutte le cose. Quando ritorno lei si inclina su di me, chiude gli occhi e allunga il collo, scoprendo la gola con la testa buttata all’indietro così che il suo naso sfiora quasi la punta del mio. Osservo la pelle sottile delle palpebre e vedo gli occhi muoversi al di sotto, chiedendomi se sta immaginando altre persone in altri luoghi invece di me e del posto in cui si trova in questo momento. Quando li riapre, l’espressione confusa perché non l’ho baciata, le chiedo se vuole altro vino, e lei lentamente mi tira via dalla bocca una ciocca dei suoi capelli mentre cerco di parlare, dolce ma strana – il lieve pizzicorio nella bocca mentre i suoi capelli scivolano via. Ci siamo, penso, è questo il momento. Il manuale l’aveva predetto. E da questo momento in poi, io cado.
Poi però boh, la storia si è sfilacciata a livelli improbabili.
Difficile dare un senso al plot narrativo in mezzo ad una quantità assurda di situazioni inutili.
Non c’è nulla di thriller (non che sia un male).
Molto poco di psicologico.
A tratti annoia, inizi a chiederti quanto manca alla fine del capitolo.
Il rapporto tra Alice e Mizuko non è indagato come ci si aspetterebbe.
Alice è spesso (quasi sempre) irritante.
E allora perché 3 stelle?
Be’, in certi momenti mi ha fatto pensare di potermi sorprendere.
Olivia è giovane.
La voglia che mi ha messo di andare a Morningside Heights.
E all’inizio dell’anno non si può esser troppo cattivi. [64/100]
Ho rivissuto questo ricordo quasi ogni giorno. Così tante volte che non so più se è successo davvero, quel preciso momento, iperreale, che squarcia in due tutte le cose. Quando ritorno lei si inclina su di me, chiude gli occhi e allunga il collo, scoprendo la gola con la testa buttata all’indietro così che il suo naso sfiora quasi la punta del mio. Osservo la pelle sottile delle palpebre e vedo gli occhi muoversi al di sotto, chiedendomi se sta immaginando altre persone in altri luoghi invece di me e del posto in cui si trova in questo momento. Quando li riapre, l’espressione confusa perché non l’ho baciata, le chiedo se vuole altro vino, e lei lentamente mi tira via dalla bocca una ciocca dei suoi capelli mentre cerco di parlare, dolce ma strana – il lieve pizzicorio nella bocca mentre i suoi capelli scivolano via. Ci siamo, penso, è questo il momento. Il manuale l’aveva predetto. E da questo momento in poi, io cado.
July 15, 2020
I actually really enjoyed this - the very start does it a disservice, I was pretty skeptics about whether it would use the quite clunky Instagram device all the way through.. def worth getting over this and reading.
September 4, 2017
I read countless raving reviews about Sudjic and her novel, Sympathy, I was so sure I'd love it that I bought the hardback. Tonight marks 200 pages in, and this is the second attempt at getting into the plot-line which doesn't feel so much like a plot-line at all but a confusing, jumbled mess. I typically read for an hour before bed and this book has left me anxious and irritated most nights. Characters and time don't follow any order, and the lack of any chronological progression is mind-boggling. I've had to turn back many times to remind myself who is who, meanwhile I'm wondering if anything will ever happen in this book. The lengthy, rambling descriptions of Mizuko become so, so boring. In fact, every character is absolutely dull. I also cannot believe this book is listed as a 'thriller' - it is not thrilling in the slightest. I've decided to admit defeat with this novel, but I do have sympathy for the poor souls who attempted to de-tangle this confusing mindfuck of a plot-line. I give up.
June 18, 2018
Really, really strong creepy literary thriller that doesn't quite stick the landing. Moving forwards and backwards in time in a disconnected, algorithmic way, we follow Alice's obsession with instagram celebrity and dilettante heiress Misuko in New York. What (chronologically) begins as a fairly harmless desire to emulate and be near becomes a duel for dominance and an all-consuming desire for control. Sudjic observes the intricacies and rituals of social media very well, for example an observation that when in company playing with your mobile phone means you don't have to make conversation.
Alice is a strong protagonist, and her passive objectification by men is nicely skewered her (Orientalist) objectification of Misuko. Sudjic is great at recognising the nature of infatuation, in which the object of one's desire is thought to possess qualities that aren't there.
I found the ending a bit of a let down. It wasn't super clear what had happened. But in all, a well done and interesting thriller, written well.
Alice is a strong protagonist, and her passive objectification by men is nicely skewered her (Orientalist) objectification of Misuko. Sudjic is great at recognising the nature of infatuation, in which the object of one's desire is thought to possess qualities that aren't there.
I found the ending a bit of a let down. It wasn't super clear what had happened. But in all, a well done and interesting thriller, written well.
March 22, 2017
3.5ish. So many parallels to 'Harmless Like You' - which I adored. And this? Not as much. This is one of those cases when I feel like it's a debut made up of all the books she wants to write in one. A lot going on, so many ideas. Theoretical physics, identity, belonging, obsession, the digital age, coming of age, culture, etc etc. And a very airy ending. I also feel the technology element wasn't weaved in that seamlessly. Every now and then I felt a sentence was telling me - 'Oh yeah, mention Instagram!' Enjoyable, but I can't help but read it as a second rate 'Harmless Like You'. Maybe if I had read this first I would have loved it more. It is a well written, interesting character study but in my opinion, not an entirely original concept, and the execution leaves room for improvement.
April 11, 2017
What an utterly original debut novel! So current in this digital age, the book follows 23-year-old Alice Hare as she attempts to discover her lineage and, more importantly, how it shapes her destiny. A "chance" encounter with Internet sensation Mizuko whom she believes is her spiritual "twin" reveals her obsessions and her desires to fit in and find a deeper meaning in an age where everyone is connected by digital devices. Her connection to her aging grandmother, though a bit depressing, reveals her devotion and fondness for this woman to whom she is tied through birth. I was entranced by this novel as it follows Alice's relationships and reveals what it is like to grow up as a "digital native" in this internet-obsessed society.
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