Camilla Grudova

Children of Paradise

you know what? hell yeah. this was weird and kind of gross in some parts (i never want to hear about pickled eggs again) but it was incredibly atmospheric, and the cinema seemed so viscerally real. this book loosely feels like a mix of all’s well (awad) and perfume (süskind).

Eva Ströberg

Children of Paradise - Camilla Grudova
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Film nerds unite! 
This book feels like a train crash that you know you’re not supposed to watch but your eyes are glued to the spot, and can’t look away. I find the story ambiguous but I can’t stop reading. Grudova writes excellently describing Paradise, a decrepit cinema that used to once exhibit grandeur in some nondescript city.
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The “children” as you might guessed are the workers. Those staffs that are running the background, those you usually ignore while you handout your tickets to be ripped before entering the dark cave of almost another world entirely.
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It’s a sad story about how the mighty have fallen, how people just want the shiny new things now, how nobody appreciate the classics anymore. Who cares about Marvel film when you can watch a Pasolini masterpiece? 
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Grudova writes in details, it makes you feel like you are in there, hulking with the staff in the dark room, wishing away that you are somewhere else, in the fantasy world showing on the big screen while cursing the customers in discreet
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“It would be so easy to bolt the entrance doors and fire exits, and shoot everyone”
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Probably you would get a new perspective next time you visit your neighbourhood cineplex 👀
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Children of Paradise

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