Pure Colour

A Novel

De: Sheila Heti

Narrado por: Sheila Heti

Pure Colour is a galaxy of an audiobook: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.

Here we are, just living in the first draft of Creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart.

In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal—to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Strange but beautiful

I had to work to get into
This book but it was worth it. Thanks

Glorious

I laughed I wept I gasped I had chills, i stopped in the middle of the street to write down lines that resonated, it was a compact experience of truth and beauty that found me in a moment of fragility and made me feel stronger, thank you Sheila for sharing your beautiful soul with us.

loved it

strongly connected with the father daughter narrative, and felt an incisive mind was collecting thoughts. felt didactic and myopic at times though

Enlightening for Some, Tedious for Others

Sheila Heti manages to tell the story of the life of an incredibly average woman and find deep spiritual and philosophical meaning in her mundanity. This book isn’t for everyone, and it isn’t even really for me. It felt very much like a “stream of consciousness” as another review put it. A lot of ideas about life and god and love are explored, and anyone who is interested in those things and can read a more abstract novel would likely enjoy this.
There were a couple moment during the listen that made me wince. One was about halfway through when Mira’s father dies and his soul enters her being. The author describes this transition as….an ejaculation?? She does this not only once but multiple times in different ways, but somehow the word ejaculation is used at least 4 times throughout a shockingly short period of time. She even says she feels the warmth like…you know. Now I’m not a prude but I just have to ask myself why this was a deliberate choice Heti made, maybe I’m not seeing it the way she intended. There are other instances of very sexual analogies being made despite the book being entirely non sexual, so I wonder if this is serving as some kind of thematic device or if it’s just provocative to grab our attention.
Overall this was a short read that tries to tackle very complex ideas in a unique format that doesn’t follow the traditional structure of storytelling. I am glad I read this although it didn’t speak to me in the ways it did other readers, that’s okay!! Sheila Heti is clearly a great writer and I look forward to seeing what she works on in the future

Nothing else like it

I enjoyed every word of this spellbinding work of utter creativity. I found myself saying out loud. “How did she do this???” while listening.. She narrates very well, too! LOVED IT!