on May 23, i read my first piece of writing by sally rooney.
now, less than two weeks later, i've read both her books, her two short stories, the essayon May 23, i read my first piece of writing by sally rooney.
now, less than two weeks later, i've read both her books, her two short stories, the essay that launched her career, and a handful of her profiles.
i'm not sure what i'm going to do with my life now but i'm not all that excited about it.
(to give a bit of an actual review: this was my least favorite rooney i've read, and all that can be chalked up to how short it was. the brilliant writing was still there, but there didn't seem to be enough time for me to develop the connection i always feel to her very human characters. i didn't have that problem with her other short story, Mr Salary, but that also felt like a microcosm of Conversations with Friends, which i adore.)
(sally rooney please write another book.)
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me, chanting: more sally rooney. more sally rooney. more sally rooney....more
i will officially read absolutely anything Sally Rooney writes. luckily she wrote short stoSally Rooney i love you
that's it. that's the review
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i will officially read absolutely anything Sally Rooney writes. luckily she wrote short stories so i don't have to try to scrounge up her grocery lists yet...more
please......for the love of all that is good and holy....stop making me read books for school
especially when I don't have time to read non-school bookplease......for the love of all that is good and holy....stop making me read books for school
especially when I don't have time to read non-school books. it's just upsetting.
I don't normally find certain writing styles hard to read, at least not to an extent that it's off-putting, but this...hoo boy. this one was a toughie.
also there was a weird treatment of whiteness in this. like, recognition that imperialism is bad, but also a concept that a wealthy white woman is able to step away from her privilege and operate totally outside of the processes of globalization. which, uh, no.
bottom line: this was unpleasant!!! and I just forced myself through half of it in a sitting!!! and I am exhausted, emotionally and physically!! that is all....more
anyway, i looooved the beginning of this book, and then began to hate it once it used its sole female chI FINISHED A BOOK!!
if school books even count.
anyway, i looooved the beginning of this book, and then began to hate it once it used its sole female character as a manic pixie dream girl-esque object for the forwarding of the protagonist's character arc, and then continued to hate it (with an ever-growing hatred) once that only became truer.
tragic, because the ending of this was so cool. if only all that sexism didn't get in the way.
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of COURSE when I FINALLY have a singular SECOND to read I have to spend it on BOOKS I am ASSIGNED for SCHOOL...more
the fact that this two hundred-page book took me 2 weeks to read is basically a review in and of itself.
I really wanted to like this book, which is bathe fact that this two hundred-page book took me 2 weeks to read is basically a review in and of itself.
I really wanted to like this book, which is based on a true story so horrifying and unbelievable and real that it would be ridiculous if it were never fictionalized. but I just couldn't. for so many little, basically-me-being-nitpicky reasons (including the writing style and the structure and the fact that all the characters were introduced at once in a very similar fashion so that I could never get a real grasp of who anybody was) but mainly for One Big Reason. and that reason is this:
why the hell is a man telling this story?
quick TW before we get into the synopsis: sexual assault, drugging, domestic violence
this is about a true event in the Mennonite colony of Manitoba, in Bolivia. for years, women were being knocked unconscious with animal tranquilizers and sexually assaulted during the night. this included young children.
the book follows the Mennonite women's meetings to determine whether they should stay in the colony, or leave. this should be wrenching and gripping and gruesome and disturbing. and it is some of those things, sometimes.
but the continual distraction (and detraction) from all of that for me was this: THIS STORY IS NARRATED BY A MAN.
the women of Molotschna (the colony) are illiterate, so this story is constructed as the minutes of a meeting. which are written by a man. a man who continually interjects his stupid male gaze into the stupid narrative and reduced the whole thing. the power of these women's story was interrupted by a man who fancies himself in love with them, who must randomly consider his own masculinity, who cannot shut the f*ck up for one f*cking second about exposed ankles and uncovered hair and fashionably rolled socks.
this is a FICTIONALIZED RETELLING. and I just cannot think of a reason why the author would have to make the choice to reduce the women's power over their own story in this way.
bottom line: the fact that a book that is shorter than some of my school notebooks managed to get this far under my skin says it all.
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if this book was any more visually reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, it'd be called, like, The Maidservant's Fable
I mean seriously, oh my god! It's funny. Flora (our protagonist) is a feminist queen of getting sh*t done and not taking anything fTHIS BOOK RULES!!!!
I mean seriously, oh my god! It's funny. Flora (our protagonist) is a feminist queen of getting sh*t done and not taking anything from any man ever in the history of time. All the characters are hilarious. The language and voice are unreal. I want to live inside this book!!!!!
Well, just kidding. All of my trying-to-move-in-and-permanently-inhabit-a-fictional-world energies are currently taken up by the film Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again (2018). I am really tryna become Lily James as a young Meryl Streep Donna. I am purely certain that I could handle the whole Sam situation much better and end up with him in the end but also still get with Harry and Bill in the interval.
SOMEONE TALK ABOUT MAMMA MIA WITH ME I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH I LOVE IT.
But the book! I love the book, too.
Bottom line: Stella Gibbons you are a goddess among men and this book is DOPE AS HELL. Sorry it's the only thing you're remembered for in spite of a long and productive career as a novelist but also can you blame reading audiences the world over??? This is good sh*t....more
WHY WOULD A CLASS EVER ASSIGN ME TO READ THE THIRD BOOK IN A SERIES WITHOUT HAVING READ THE FIRST TWO. WHY.
Even if they work as standalones. I am stilWHY WOULD A CLASS EVER ASSIGN ME TO READ THE THIRD BOOK IN A SERIES WITHOUT HAVING READ THE FIRST TWO. WHY.
Even if they work as standalones. I am still a bookworm at heart and I have a moral compass for god's sake.
Anyway this was fine. I had to force myself to read it in less than 24 hours (because I did not plan this well) and that was less than ideal and included a binge reading session from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and the font was smaller than I would have liked but I didn't hate it.
Also I didn't really like it?? Probably closer to dislike if I had to choose my side.
Wow my brain is dead when did I lose my ability to not need sleep I cannot form sentences so now seems like a good time to type up some assigned homework sentences about this book am I right. Oh man my brain feels like a marshmallow.
Bottom line: I have basically zero opinions on this. So. Dope that it's for class and I'll have to spend the next 1.5 weeks making some up....more
it perfectly straddled the line between chick lit and literary fiction. it had a protagonist who should've been brWHAT DO I EVEN SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK.
it perfectly straddled the line between chick lit and literary fiction. it had a protagonist who should've been bratty and unlikable and bleh, and instead was so understandable and endearing. it only had SIX CHAPTERS, WHICH IS INSANE, but still read easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. (kinda.) it was funny and sad and happy and angry and angering. all of the characters (of which there were M A N Y) felt full and human and flawed and still likable. (except michel.) the descriptions are so lush and real and beautiful. i love this writer's style.
overall, this book seemed to barely have a plot, seems mostly to be just following someone's like, and then you hit the last fifty pages and you're like oh, wow. the development arc, and the mourning arc, and the narrative arc - all of the arcs! they're all great.
at times this could be dry and hard to get through. there were some moments when i was really like GUYS!!! YOU WHOLE FAMILY!!! GET YOURSELVES TOGETHER!!! it wasn't a perfect read, but i did like it so so much. i hope a lot of people read this book.
bottom line: i feel like all these characters are people that populate my real life??? so i'm going to need the author to figure out how to write them into existence, otherwise it's about to get pretty lonely around here.
thanks so so much to bloomsbury for providing me a copy! ...more
(I know I usually lightly censor myself, but if you can't handle the word "fuck" without the asterisk instead ofWhat the fuck is this supposed to be?
(I know I usually lightly censor myself, but if you can't handle the word "fuck" without the asterisk instead of the u then you definitely can't handle this book.)
The main character of this book manipulates girls into having sex with him. When discussing the fact that women have varied sexual preferences, he dismisses the concept of an entire gender not being identical sexually: "[L]adies, have a conference and decide." He fantasizes about coercing women into nudity with promises of painting them. He judges and rates women whose exes have posted their private photos online out of rage at their rejection (revenge porn). He mocks and scourges women who are as sexually active as himself, including by calling his partner a slut when their relationship goes awry.
This book explores sexual situations that lack outright or enthusiastic consent, the gender double standard of promiscuity, and the unrealistic, objectifying, even inhuman expectations porn creates in men without outright condemning any of it.
This book needs to be longer, or fuller, or...better.
Maybe I'm the asshat for thinking that this book needed to be outright with its themes (how unliterary! Can't make the author do all the work!), but when the themes are this relevant and damaging and rarely denounced...well, fucking sue me for wanting an author to do some goddamn denouncing.
Thanks to Bloomsbury for the signed ARC. My favorite publisher....more
I mean, this may be just me, but “early-to-mid-twentieth century mystery about train crime” doesn’t exaI’m pretty astounded by how much fun this was.
I mean, this may be just me, but “early-to-mid-twentieth century mystery about train crime” doesn’t exactly scream nonstop thrill ride. But here we are!
I’m also not sure why it took me so long to write this review (two months, to be exact, so actually not that long for me but still) but again, here we are.
I don’t actually really want to say much on this book, which is astounding in its own right because my number one hobby is making up various excuses for me to wax romantic on various subjects and generally listen to myself.
But! In this case, that would be bad. Because a lot of the rad-ness of this book is due to the twist, but the Last Thing I Ever Want To Do is spoil this twist for you. Maybe this book will not sound fun because of my saintly consideration of your twist enjoyment, but you should just tuck away in your head that it’s completely cool ok???
Let’s discuss the very limited number of things I won’t feel bad about disclosing.
For one thing, the way this is constructed is very fun?? It takes you through the thought process of Hercule Poirot (Extremely Cool Belgian Detective - capitalized due to its being his official, government-ordained title) as he analyzes the sitch. So it kind of feels like you’re a detective too, and if that’s not the dream I don’t know what is.
If you can look me in the eyes (but please don’t, I’d like to keep these relationships strictly internet-based thanks) and tell me you wouldn’t drop everything immediately in order to become a detective and/or international spy full time, you are not someone I’m interested in knowing thanks.
Agatha Christie’s writing style is also really sharp and clean (which I can detect but nevereverever apply to myself, apparently). That’s probably why her books aged so well. This one definitely did, at least.
I think some people were rubbed the wrong way (horrific expression my apologies) by the constant discussion of race/nationality as an inherent and generalized part of people’s individual psychology. That would’ve upset me, probably, if it weren’t applied to e v e r y b o d y. Like, if white people got the easy way out, one, what else would be new, and two, that would be the worst ever.
Instead, every point of origin mentioned (Africa, England, America, France) is given its own psychoanalytic significance. Which is honestly interesting to read about, if only from a historical standpoint.
Are you guys proud of me for how well I remembered this book after two months??? I am visibly prouder of myself for remembering three things about a novel I genuinely enjoyed than most scientists are after major breakthroughs.
Which is incredibly on-brand for me.
Bottom line: Quick fun historical well-written! I could’ve replaced this whole review with those adjectives and been much more convincing.
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THAT WAS AMAZING THAT WAS AMAZING THAT WAS AMAZING!
(I hope you read that in Aziz Ansari's voice. Reevaluate your life if otherwise.)
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