the country of ice cream star summary
THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR takes place 85 years after a mysterious illness has wiped out much of the world's population. Evac door slam loud behind, and I run out where Driver strifing on the yellow boy. He now decides he will bring her to Europe to use her as propaganda on behalf of the Russians, which the rest of the world looks unfavorably upon for their brutality in Africa, South America, and the United States. the first mind-blowing thing is the language, that will or will not be challenging to you depending on the kind of mind you have, and on how easily you adapt to different sounds and grammatical constructions (i am not particularly good at either of th0se, so the language remained a bit challenging for me, though only to the extent that it slowed me down a little). Maybe I need to find a better word than “love”. An excellent dystopian novel; one of the best I have read in years (IMHO). The Country of Ice Cream Star Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to “The Country of Ice Cream Star is a bold, ballsy, ambitious novel that will get you thinking (and talking) differently about literature and the world.” — Tweed's “[An] incredibly ambitious linguistic undertaking, yet Newman manages to maintain the consistency of this dialect over the novel’s nearly 600 pages. there is no doubt that sandra newman in a genius. He has long sought to merge with El Mayor, leader of the Lowells, in order to better defend against the Armies during the frequent wars that break out. Even stranger, for a leftie who watched the cold war end, is that the Russians are the villains again, cunning and vicious. Genre: Author: In the aftermath of a devastating plague, a fearless young heroine embarks on a dangerous and surprising journey to save her world in this brilliantly inventive dystopian thriller, told in bold and fierce language, from a remarkable literary talent. A lesson from Thunderdome: Let there be no post-apocalyptic future without its mangled pidgin. Life expectancy now hovers around twenty years thanks to this plague, known formally as WAKS and colloquially as posies. Sandra Newman – The Country of Ice Cream Star. Get The Country of Ice Cream Star from Amazon.com. A sprawling and complicated plot then takes Ice Cream Star to familiar communities in her vicinity, full of friends and foes, and eventually into what used to be New York and Washington DC. The setting is America long after a pandemic wiped out much of the population, including nearly all white people. The Country of Ice Cream Star. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Also, Pasha Roo! Kept me up late into the night wondering just how or even IF Ice Cream Star was going to succeed in her quest to save her Sengle people. He and Ice work to urge the Marias to join with Quantico, a warrior city of young Marines. there is no doubt that sandra newman in a genius. If you’re going into this novel thinking … I found this book recommended for me because I had read and loved Station Eleven, which is also a post-apocalyptic concept. “All great works start with mistake. While in Quantico, Ice speaks with a Russian prisoner named Razin, whom she says she will protect if he can get her the cure. Ice Cream Star's country is the "Nighted States," 80 years after a deadly epidemic (and possibly a nuclear conflict) triggers a mass evacuation. In the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her nomadic tribe live off of the detritus of a crumbled civilization. The virus appears to persist, however --- virtually no one survives past the age of 18 or 19 without succumbing to a deadly illness called "posey." Life expectancy now hovers around twenty years thanks to this plague, known formally as WAKS and colloquially as posies. I catch and hold one stride away, beside Jermaine and Asha who … Tweed's. I could not help but put Putin’s face on one character. The whole book is written in dialect. However, Ice and her people live in a tense peace with the Nat Mass Armies, a tribe of warrior-minded people. Ice is believed to be the latest incarnation of Mary, so she is elevated to rule Marias and its four-hundred-thousand people. Simply put, this book is beautiful. by Ecco. (You can read the opening. The world-building is based on Ice Cream Star’s voice, as her community use a distinctive slangy dialect borrowing liberally from French. I mean, let's just call it what it is: postapocalyptic ebonics written by a white woman. The Country of Ice Cream Star is a bold, ballsy, ambitious novel that will get you thinking (and talking) differently about literature and the world. This is unheard of to Ice and her people because most die in their early twenties. The conceit of The Country of Ice Cream Star is top-drawer sci-fi, and the plot is rich. [Perhaps the author also lost interest in that, as there was no resolution to it. What starts out as a difficult but interesting language and fate-of-the-earth thought experiment becomes, by turns, a poetic journey into the depths of human depravity and the heights of human love and compassion, told with the same intelligence and fearlessness the author bestows upon her heroine. I am at a complete loss regarding its total lack of splash. The Country of Ice Cream Star Apocalyptic Cause: A plague that killed for generations, wiping out practically everyone over the age of 20. ‘The Country of Ice Cream Star’ has an interesting combination of genre characteristics: the 15-year old first person narration of YA and the experimental linguistic world-building of literary sci-fi. The 15-year-old heroine of Ms. Newman’s coming dystopian novel, “The Country of Ice Cream Star,” has “certain crucial differences,” Ms. Newman says. The titular protagonist lives a nomadic life of hunting and scav. everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Country of Ice Cream Star. The main protagonist is 15 yr old Ice Cream Star. With Marias under her control, Ice heads south to make a treaty with the Marines of Quantico. 0 likes. When her brother begins showing signs of the disease, Ice Cream Star sets off on a bold journey to find this cure. I just came across this at work. Lifting a page from Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker, with which it shares numerous similarities, Newman’s (The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done, 2003, etc.) As the book begins, she comes across a white man who she decides not to kill and discovers that her brother has the deadly plague. Because Razin has survived, he has sent on ten cures to New York. Simply put, this book is beautiful. regardless of its ease, the language of this book is absolutely mesmerizing: it is intensely lyrical (at some point i wondered whether i was willing to go so far as to declare the whole thing a long prose poem), it is incredibly inventive, it seems to me to present a respectable linguistic coherence and perhaps some pidginization (french seems to be an influence), and is very, very funny. As they move south, the Nat Mass Armies warriors pursue. The future evoked in The Country of Ice Cream Star, the resonant epic by Sandra Newman (right), is one you would not wish on your worst enemy, let alone your great-grandchildren. 4 reviews. This story is fantastic - so many twists and turns. Complicating the situation is that Ice is in love with Mamadou, the NewKing of the Armies. It took me a little while to get used to, and might be more challenging if you know no French. The majority of the characters are under the age of 18, because generally around that time a plague like disease strikes them and they die. This book be wolfen. In the detritus of this generation of post-apocalyptic literature Sandra Newman's. As much as I loved the beginning of the book, the world-building, the made-up language and Ice Cream herself, the aspects I disliked just took over the longer I read. Theirs is a world of children; before reaching the age of twenty, they all die of a mysterious disease they call Posies-- a plague that has killed for generations. To see what your friends thought of this book, I'm surprised at how many people found the language difficult -- I loved it, and stopped thinking about it within a few pages. Pasha, who is white, is striking to Ice and everyone else because they are black. What's the consensus? Also, Pasha Roo! It takes a lot to offend me, but the "dialect"? Sandra Newman likes, I think, to play with readers. Does the dialect in it get annoying? I got to the end of what, 600 pages? She begins sleeping with El Mayor, convincing him and most of the Lowells to join forces with the Sengles and move south. i haven't read her other books, but this one is just mind-blowing. He settles on ten cures. It looks DOPE. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman. ), it just doesn’t make anything obvious. I stumble in the elevator, thinking of that moon rain. While the details are never provided, Ice concludes her story by saying that she was able to bring the cure to everyone in the Nighted States, to save them all. I cannot overstate how much I loved this book. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY DEC 22, 2014 Should I continue, or just give up? The author's commentary on the world's religions as seen through Ice Cream's eyes 100 years in the future makes for terrifying reading. It is through her conversations with Pasha that Ice learns he is a scout for the Russian Federation’s operations in America, and that the Russians have a cure for the disease. It adheres to a number of the devices that have enlivened many young adult franchises. This book astounded me from the opening sentences, when I discovered the story is written in an invented dialect of English that doesn't yet exist but could after generations of language evolution. Now he is desperate to do so. It is truly amazing." In fact, it ended up giving the book a wonderful texture that I think would have been difficult to achieve otherwise. I can't believe there are only white women reading & reviewing this (not that I'm helping by adding to them)? The Country of Ice Cream Star Is a 2014 post-apocalyptic novel by Sandra Newman. The City of Marias is a theocracy ruled by twelve apostles. Like “BE A FOOLISHNESS OF LIFE, HOW WE FORGET OUR HURTS IN sleep—like they unmade there, taken back into the time before. An alliance is made. Then experiences like Sandra Newman’s ambitious The Country of Ice Cream Star come along to challenge the status quo, displaying an astounding amount of care and craft for illustrating such a ruined society. ‘The Country of Ice Cream Star’ has an interesting combination of genre characteristics: the 15-year old first person narration of YA and the experimental linguistic world-building of literary sci-fi. The Armies are stopped and executed by the Marianos, soldiers from the City of Marias, formerly New York City. (The plot, throughout, is like a mechanical rabbit a. Sandra Newman likes, I think, to play with readers. The ending is beautiful. On that same canvas—hero, blight, quest—Sandra Newman presents The Country of Ice Cream Star. This is most noticeable in the silly middle, when Ice Cream unwillingly enacts a makeover fantasy and discovers under it a plot so byzantine she gets bored. Ice tasks herself with two causes: saving her people and saving her brother. This was such an interesting book for me. This book be wolfen. Set several decades into the future, Ice grows up with her brother in what was formerly the United States of America, now called the “Nighted States.” Most people in the country speak in stunted and fragmented English, including Ice. The author's commentary on the world's religions as seen through Ice Cream's eyes 100 years in the future makes for terrifying reading. Ice Cream, known as Ice, sets out to find a cure for the disease that kills everyone before the age of twenty-one. While out scavenging through Sleeper homes –the houses and properties of people who fled to Europe when the disease first broke out –Ice and her people discover a man named Pasha. Order our The Country of Ice Cream Star Study Guide, Section 1: In Massa, Tober 2 – Vember 1, Chapters 1 – 15, Section 2: In Massa, Tober 2 – Vember 1, Chapters 16 – 30, Section 3: In Massa, Tober 2 – Vember 1, Chapter 3 – Through Bandon Woods, Vember 1 – 28, Chapter 45, Section 4: Through Bandon Woods, Vember 1 – 28, Chapter 46 – Of Godding in Marias, Vember 28 – Cember 25, Chapter 60, Section 5: Of Godding in Marias, Vember 28 – Cember 25, Chapter 61 – The War at Quantico, Cember 26 – January 6, Chapter 75, teaching or studying The Country of Ice Cream Star. That is not to say there isn’t world-building (there is! Does it dull the intensity of certain moments? I don't want to beat a dead horse, but in the spirit of fulfilling my pledge to post a review regarding a book I received as an early copy from Random House Canada, through the Goodreads contest, I will do just that. Read an Excerpt From ‘The Country of Ice Cream Star’ By Sandra Newman Feb. 3, 2015 1:50 pm ET Chapter One. Ice and Pasha continue to warm toward one another, with Pasha confessing that in the past, he was a ruthless killer for the Russians, and murdered the mother of his daughter when she did not try to protect their daughter from being raped during a war. The Country of Ice Cream Star Sandra Newman. “The Country of Ice Cream Star," a novel by Sandra Newman, is the story of fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star. Stunni. My Trouble Its Beginning: Tober 2. The population of the United States has been wiped out by plague, and all that remains is a society of dark-skinned children who for eighty years have survived by foraging for Chef Boyardee and Patagonia parkas in the homes of the long-dead. I didn't find this book to have as much nuance, and since I couldn't help but compare, The Country of Ice Cream Star kind of fell flat for me. Overview (No Spoilers): The Country of Ice Cream Star was a wonderfully crafted, ingenious read, which wholeheartedly earns its perfect score based on the truly original and creative narrative. I can't in good conscience give the book any kind of rating as just couldn't get through it. Now I be running to this roo, the day of driver’s cough. Originally from the shores of the Chespea Water (the former Chesapeake Bay), Ice and her tribe –the Sengles –have moved to Massa Wood, formerly the western part of the state of Massachusetts. This is most noticeable in the silly middle, when Ice Cream unwillingly enacts a makeover fantasy and discovers under it a plot so byzantine she gets bored. Kept me up late into the night wondering just how or even IF Ice Cream Star was going to succeed in her quest to save her Sengle people. In the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her people survive by scavenging in the detritus of an abandoned civilization. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman is one of those books that dumps you in a world completely foreign to your own, and leaves you to figure it out as the story progresses. The Country of Ice Cream Star is a beautifully crafted masterpiece. See all 7 questions about The Country of Ice Cream Star…, Goodreads Picks For Tournament of Books 2016, The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great 2015 Book Preview I - Spring and Summer, A Top Goodreads Reviewer Picks Her 26 Indie Books of the Season. What Was Lost: Adults, major cities, birth control. “The Country of Ice Cream Star” is written from the point of view of a 15 year old girl whose name is taken from a Friendly’s restaurant sign and set in a dystopian future where everyone is afflicted with a disease which the narrator refers to as posies.This affliction causes … She gives us Ice Cream, one of the best fictional companions ever, and all the conventions and clichés of the dystopian adventure, and then shoots those conventions past normal, past absurd, past transcendence, letting them fall in ashes. When I first started it, honestly, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to read it the way it was written using the language as spoken by Ice Cream Star and her people. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. The Country of Ice Cream Star. My name be Ice Cream Fifteen Star and this be the tale of how I bring the cure to all the Nighted States, save every poory children, short for life. Oh my goodness I REALLY LIKED THIS! It is quite mature in many of its themes; however, Newman pulls it off with a level of cohesion and sophistication that just floors me. Just let it wash over you. All the stars. In the final battle, the Russian Federation easily defeats the combined armies of Quantico and Marias. “The Country of Ice Cream Star” is in many ways a classic story, craftily retold and made contemporary. Quantico is made up of the former areas of southern Maryland, Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia. There is not a word out of place; there is not a detail that is unnecessary. The titular protagonist lives a nomadic life of hunting and scavenging with a group of friends and relatives. Then all pains flash to memory, and every cruelty be fresh.” ― Sandra Newman, The Country of Ice Cream Star. ― Sandra Newman, The Country of Ice Cream Star. A 600+ page novel written in an author-invented pigeon English. Five Stars. And while I can appreciate how much effort Newman put into coming up with her own language essentially, I often got lost trying to decipher this language and trying to figure out what was going on in the book, let alone what the characters were saying. I’ve never read anything like it. Obsessed with this book right now. Wow. "Wonderfully inventive, The Country of Ice Cream Star pulls you into a world of betrayal, loyalty, desire and war. This Study Guide consists of approximately 54 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - The vernacular took a little getting used to, but it's worth it. The main protagonist is 15 yr old Ice Cream Star. The majority of the characters are under the age of 18, because generally around that time a plague like disease strikes them and they die. Ice is captured. We wake in stupid innocence. The rhythm is great, though. It would have been. Welcome back. I feel really bad about this review, but essentially, I couldn't force myself through the book.