“Songs from the Other Side of the Wall” is the story of a young woman remembering her past. For an 18 year-old, she’s done a lot, but now she has to decide what she’s going to do next.
Szandi, short for Szandrine, is an 18 year-old artist, living in Budapest with Yang, her lover and fellow artist. Szandi gets a letter from a friend of her late father and starts thinking about the family business, a vineyard. She feels pulled between going back home to help with the business and staying in the city with Yang.
The story is told in first person, present tense which gives it a sense of immediacy. The writing is clean and the pages are short, which makes it fairly quick to read. Much of the story, at least until page 64, is Szandi’s memories. She begins thinking about her past, remembering when her mother left them, a band she played with, a woman she had been in love with, and where she was the night when Romania joined the European Union. Her backstory is filled in through these stories and she becomes a solid character. She does seem to have seen and done a lot with her 18 years.
Unfortunately, I found the plot got bogged down after awhile. What started out as a story became a character study, with lots of backstory but little actual story. I gave up after 64 pages because I got tired of reading about people Szandi used to know, and used to love. There was too much retrospection and introspection and not enough information about her choices. I found myself reading a few pages at a time and coming back, hoping something would happen or she would remember the vineyard. The stories were interesting but I wanted to know more about her present, and her choices.
If you like character studies, this could be your cup or tea. If you’re looking for a straightforward story, this may be a disappointment.
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