He never seems to steal anything of value, though, mostly he breaks into homes and apartments so he can see what that person's life is like, take personal objects of little or no monetary value, and eat food from their fridge. After he marks someone and follows them home, he waits until the right moment and goes in. This last skill is one he puts to use as a thief. Although he often attempts to kill them, he also sees himself as one of them – small, resilient, and able to get in anywhere. The narrator lives in a filthy apartment crawling with roaches. Rather, because the entire novel is narrated from the perspective of the unnamed man, we spend the whole book in his head, rocked around by his sudden mood shifts and frequently unsure if what he's telling us is real. But the therapy sessions, which are usually brief, are hardly the most revealing sections of the book. As a condition of his release he has to see a therapist once a week, and it's through those brief meetings that we learn about his past.

We learn early on that he has recently been released from a psych ward, where he was placed after trying to hang himself in the park. That was the case with Rawi Hage's Cockroach.Ĭockroach is set in Montreal in the winter and it follows the story of an unnamed narrator who is an immigrant from an unnamed country. On the rare occasion, though, I realize that the discomfort is intentional, and even if I don't particularly enjoy the main character, I still become a little attached. Generally, though, I slog through and either it gets better and I'm glad I did, or I never quite connect but I finish nonetheless. That said, every once in a while I start a book and think Oh shoot, this is not what I want to be reading. Usually, that's not a problem because I'm a pretty quick reader and I'm pretty choosey about what I read. I try really hard not to give up on a book once I've started it.

Various positions by martha schabas