Tiffany read and liked Taylor's review of Written on the Body:

"Simply put, this is the story of someone (man or woman, who knows? My guess is man, but it doesn't really matter) who is in love with a woman named Louise. They have to overcome a series of hurdles, such as their relationships with other people and a...more Simply put, this is the story of someone (man or woman, who knows? My guess is man, but it doesn't really matter) who is in love with a woman named Louise. They have to overcome a series of hurdles, such as their relationships with other people and a terminal disease.

It's a very quick read - I blazed through this in about 2-3 days of reading on the subway. A quick reader could probably finish in one day of dedicated reading. However, despite how easy it is to read, it's also a little overwhelming. The language is so pretty, so flowery, so ornate, that I found myself tiring of it rather quickly. I love beautiful language as much as the next person, but this was just too much, too over the top. I wanted medium, she gave me well done. Part of the reason I read it so fast is because I just wanted it to be over with. Not because I didn't like it, just because it was way too flowery, too sweet.

I could've done with the first 110 or whatever pages as the entire novel and been completely satisfied. I ran out of interest about 3/4 the way through when she started describing each part of the woman's body with 2 page passages. I know that's supposed to be the heart of the novel, but after a couple sections, it was just so damn boring - I started skimming them. It got more interesting when the story picked up again, but I saw little point to that addition to the plot.

If you like flowery, delicate writing, you'll eat this up, but in terms of an overall solid body of work, The Passion is better.(less) "

Tiffany added a quote:
"Unhappiness is selfish, grief is selfish. For whom are the tears?" — Jeanette Winterson

Tiffany added a quote:
"Destiny is a worrying concept. I don't want to be fated, I want to choose." — Jeanette Winterson

Tiffany read and liked Kay's review of The Sun Also Rises:

"If This Book Weren't Famous, Most People Wouldn't Like It

And with good reason. If I were Hemingway's English teacher (or anyone's any kind of teacher) I'd say, "This reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Where are your descripti...more If This Book Weren't Famous, Most People Wouldn't Like It

And with good reason. If I were Hemingway's English teacher (or anyone's any kind of teacher) I'd say, "This reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Where are your descriptions, where is the emotion??"
And he would say something like, "The lack of complex descriptions helps focus on the complexities and emptiness of the characters' lives, and the emotion is there, it's only just beneath the surface, struggling to be free!"
And I'd say, "OK, I'll move ya from a C to C+."

Basically The Sun Also Rises shows that Hemingway liked bullfights a lot more than most of the people reading his books, and that he was vain but also hated himself. While the characters are wittily funny from time to time, the whole thing doesn't hold a candle to, I don't know, Seinfeld. Without being told, "Ah yes, this is about the true character of America!" you'd think it was just a drab romance novel with more subtleties than most.
Speaking of, how was this about America? It was more about America's elite. Most Americans in 1926 weren't hanging out in France and Spain, moaning about their lives. They were hanging out in America, trying to make it. You know, without dying. Pretentious, with poor descriptions and transparent characters (I can give a character a subtle injury too and have it pain him, does that make me amazing?), The Sun Also Rises is one of the most overrated books I've ever read. It always has been, and always will be, a book loved by that very same crowd: the literary elite. And, you know, people they tell to like it. I'd rather read a 1926 newspaper.(less) "