It Is Wood, It Is Stone: A Novel Gabriella Burnham Pdf Summary
With sharp, gorgeous prose, It Is Wood, It Is Stone takes place over the course of a year in São Paulo, Brazil, in which two women’s lives intersect.
Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved to São Paulo, with her husband, Dennis, who has accepted a yearlong professorship. As Dennis submerges himself in his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda’s unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda’s home than Linda can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda’s instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way.
An exquisite debut novel by young Brazilian American author Gabriella Burnham, It Is Wood, It Is Stone is about women whose romantic and subversive entanglements reflect on class and colorism, sexuality, and complex, divisive histories.
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It Is Wood It Is Stone: A Novel Gabriella Burnham Review
H. Zeytunt
5.0 out of 5 stars A mental & emotional journey with Linda to Brazil as she learns about herself in a new world
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020
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A great read for the weekend at the lake or for a long train ride home. Or these days, if you miss actual travel, a good mental getaway to Brazil with a young woman and her husband as they embark on a pivotal journey, both literal and metaphorical, in their respective lives.
You will find yourself quickly immersed in Linda’s introspection and experience as she hesitantly embarks on a trip to a very different place made possible by her husband’s teaching career. Her journey is more than physical, as she surveys who she is, what she wants, and how she wants to live her life. Written from Linda’s eyes and addressed to her husband, she opens herself up to us to tell a candid story rich with contemplation, emotion, awakening, guilt, growth, and journey.
Burnham writes with poignant metaphors and tells Linda’s story, and the stories of those impactful characters that surround her, with graceful ease, tapping directly into the main character’s psyche. The writing is somewhere between prose and poetry, and it elegantly manages to balance the “what” and the emotion of “how” with the feeling and contemplation of “why?” It is an episodic extract of the bigger story of Linda’s life and awakening as a young woman finding herself in a new world. Really enjoyed the nuanced social commentary implied by Linda’s interactions with those she relates to as well those she feels very different from. For example, the irony in some of her experiences alongside the Provost’s wife is palpable only to her and the reader, reinforcing a bond with the audience. This is a story you will go back to from time-to-time, and with each reading you will better understand Linda and yourself, as we often do when we recollect and reflect on pivotal experiences in life’s journey
Penelope Simpson
2.0 out of 5 stars Grasping at straws
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2020
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The main character was likeable but I was disappointed overall. I never felt the place-could not get a sense of São Paulo. Did not believe how it unfolded nor could relate to her.
E. Sylvia Simpson
VINE VOICE
3.0 out of 5 stars Didn’t Get Into the Story
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2021
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What’s this? )
From the glowing reviews, I expected an interesting, well written story. Unfortunately, after reading the first chapter and putting the book down, I felt hesitant to pick it up and move forward with it.
It’s not because of any lack of adeptness with the English language; to the contrary, the book reads easily, without noticeable grammatical or spelling errors, and with some poetic flourishes here and there. It’s because of the banal characters, who seem like two-dimensional caricatures of white people on vacation.
The beginning of the story is written in first person, which I found annoying until I realized the voice was intended to be that of an English-language-speaking female. She comes across as a vapid person who feels estranged from her relationship with an English-language-speaking male who is more in love with his vacation than he is with the English-language-speaking female.
Despite this, they attempt to “make love” and then decide it’s too hot to do anything except eat some rice and beans, and then microwave the leftovers later.
At the end of the chapter, we are informed that everything in their lives changes when “Marta” arrives on the scene … which, apparently, happens in chapter two.
The book is well-written enough that, if I had time to read into the next chapter, I probably would have at least tried to be interested. However; I have other things to do than to read novels and, after accomplishing at least some of those things, I thought about the story and wondered … hmm … do I really want to know anything more about these people in this story? The answer, for me, is actually no.
The characters in this story are so predictable and average, I am reminded of the lyrics from a classic Beatles song of the last century: “it’s a dirty story of a dirty man and his clinging wife who doesn’t understand, based on a novel by a man named Lear and I need a job so I wanna be a paperback writer.”
At this point, I give a good, solid “meh” to these characters. If you like easy-to-read books with not-very-likable protagonists, this may be the book for you. As for me, I may revisit this review if I choose to revisit the book in the future. If not, I give it an average rating. Nicer, more believable characters, and a better story line in the first chapter, may have offered some enticement to keep reading. At this point, it’s hard for me to believe “Marta” is really enough to save this book. If she is, well, good for her.
This review represents my opinion, on the date(s) it was written, of a free product from Amazon Vine Program.
About Gabriella Burnham Author of It Is Wood It Is Stone: A Novel Gabriella Burnham Pdf Book
Gabriella Burnham is the Author of It Is Wood It Is Stone: A Novel Gabriella Burnham Pdf Book, dual citizen of the United States and Brazil, she lived in São Paulo as a child and most of her family still lives there today. Gabriella holds an MFA in creative writing from The Writer’s Foundry at St. Joseph’s College and has been awarded fellowships to MacDowell and Yaddo. She has worked as a reporter, a creative writing teacher, and in immigration law. It Is Wood, It Is Stone is her first novel.
It Is Wood It Is Stone: A Novel Gabriella Burnham pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : One World (July 28, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1984855832
- ISBN-13 : 978-1984855831
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.8 x 0.84 x 8.53 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #991,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,629 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction
- #8,624 in Women’s Domestic Life Fiction
- #18,102 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 3.8 out of 5 stars 150 ratings
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