I did not like this book-- too dark, too sexual, probably too deep for me. I am still trying to figure out why he feels he is half cockroach. Was he feeling that he is a pest (he spends time killing cockroaches in his apartment), that he has no worth, etc.? I did not like how he invaded people's houses and lives with no thought or care about their feelings or possessions. Hage is a VERY descriptive writer, perhaps too descriptive for me. I wouldn't recommend this book. Coackroach by Rawi Hage is hot fury and loathing and pride and bristling lust and disgust -- and bloody brilliant.I read his De Niro's Game previously, and loved it, but Cockroach is a whole other level of brilliant. I'd place this novel alongside works by Kafka and Dostoevsky and other such greats. It is searing, scarring. It bursts through the soft middle of much pleasant, storied CanLit with claws. It is not a nice book to read, you won't come away feeling good about the world or yourself or Canada. You won't love the characters or even the place they reside. It will knock you, unsettle and stagger your faith in all things.For me, Rawi Hage is Canada's greatest author. I can't wait to see what he'll do next.
What do You think about Cockroach. Rawi Hage (2009)?
Harrowing and unnerving. Kafka meets Dostoyevsky in the Canadian winter.
—Amanda
