Bronwyn
Man, I love everything about this book.
There's a line in Parrott's son's afterword that I misread - well not misread, but mistook what he meant - that people drink in Ex-Wife. He meant literally (there's so much drinking), but I mean it in that I just drank this in. It reads so easy and is so real. I loved watching Pat grow over the course of the book. Her loves and losses are just so well done.
Pat's story (and apparently a lot of Ursula's) reminded me of bits of Our Spoons Came From Woolworths, but then it turns into something else. It's like The Best of Everything in the nightlife and friendships. Add in some of the feel of Gatsby.
I figured I'd like this since it ticks off so many of my boxes, but man did I love it. And maybe I'm just in an emotional state, but the second to last chapter had me tearing up. It's all so good.
I heard of this through McNally Editions and from the Lost Ladies of Lit podcast (one of my favorites! Everyone should listen to them) and it sounded fascinating. And it is very good. It's also hard to read sometimes. Mara is trapped in a marriage she wants out of. Red (Bettina) has had issues with her own relationships in the past, but also wants to be inconspicuous. These two young women (Red is only almost twenty at the beginning) are both terrible but you also kind of root for them. Red is abusive in the narrative present and in her recollections of Mara. Mara is flighty and doesn't know how to handle things. I'm glad I read this, and I would recommend it, but it's hard going at some points.
You really can't go wrong with Elizabeth Taylor. This was so good. Almost nothing ended how I wanted, but that's life isn't it? Everyone felt very real, though some of the dialog was a bit much sometimes. I really felt like I knew this place and people. I liked that it was the old part of town, and so kept the amount of people down but didn't feel forced. Just a lovely book (plus some deception... but cest la vie).
This was really bizarre, but I liked it. Lately I've just been diving into books figuring that if I bought them, I thought I'd like them, so why need the synopsis again. I remembered that this was a Russian dystopia but that was about it.
It's a sort of future/post-apocalyptic Russia, where people have mutations (Consequences) and eat and use mainly mice. Books are sort of forbidden? But the leader passes things off as having written them himself. It's super bizarre but a love letter to books and knowledge and against authoritarianism, I think? Its not really about the Slynx though! I wanted a threat from without, but I guess the point is of the threat within. The writing is really interesting and really funny at some times and beautiful at others. I enjoyed it but I feel like I didn't quite get it. I'll keep saying it, you can't go wrong with NYRB Classics.
Overall this was really interesting! I don't know where I first heard of The Souls - maybe a book about Sargent, or the BYTs and the Coterie - but I'm glad I finally found a copy of this and read it. I definitely got bogged down in all the political stuff, but the early years and then the WWI parts were really interesting.
I read Stoner years ago (need to reread) and loved it so wanted to read more Williams. This was interesting and quite different. I love a good “one day” book and this is that. Arthur's dealings, or not dealings, with trauma and alcohol are difficult sometimes. The surreality of the beginning (and even before the beginning - that cover!) was an apt way to start because the whole book felt a bit like a dream. (The interview at the end with Williams' widow was a good addition too.)
Overall I really enjoyed this! I knew of most of the people (sorry to Elsa, Alberto, and Kenneth) but really enjoyed these brief biographies. Some people were given more time than others, but it was all interesting and a of jumping off point if you want to learn about them. I need to read more of these men and women, though!
Hoo boy. This was a ride. I felt very confused a lot of the time, but it all came together really well. There's so much going on, though, and it did take a little too long to come together, that it's only four stars to Gideon's five, but I'm still really enjoying these. I'm going to take a break before Nona, as this was very long.
I fully admit I'm not big into 19th century American literature. Of these people, I've read a little Hawthorne and Alcott. I am, however, interested in group bios and these communities of writers/intellectuals that pop up (which is discussed briefly at the beginning of this book) - so much so that I bought this twice at the used bookstore and so gave a copy to my mom.
This was really interesting. I liked the, fairly, chronological approach. I didn't even mind that some things are mentioned multiple times because the focus is on a different person. I wish this had maybe a bit more depth, but overall I really enjoyed this. Maybe now I'll finally get to some of these other authors/writings.
Sometimes you need to read out of your comfort zone, and if you're lucky it's good. Holy cow this was so good. I loved Gideon and her drive. Harrow was awful and annoying and amazing. Most of the other necromancers and their cavaliers were really interesting - some blended together a bit for me though. The whole idea is just so amazing, I kept thinking “how did someone think of this?!” I am so excited to continue the series!
My thought that NYRBs are worth reading even if it's not your thing, continues. I'm not big on these sort of travel/adventure stories, but I'm glad I read this. Orm and his adventures were really interesting to read about. I loved meeting all the different people he met. So, while not my thing, still worth reading.
This book was so long guys... Not really, it's about 300 pages, but it felt so long. There's a good story in here, this just isn't quite it.
Some things are so over-explained, others aren't explained enough. No one is super interesting, but I still wanted to find out how it worked out, but even that was pretty anticlimactic.
We're given things out of order so we can make connections between things, but then its like “psych! That's not actually connected”. Why have one of the characters weirdly spelled name be almost like another's last name if it doesn't mean anything? Also, lots of weird missing words/letters that I think was supposed to seem conversational?, but just felt weird. I feel like this really needed an editor to tighten up the story.
I will say that I found the whole Lady Midday thing really interesting and I'm interested in more of the Eastern European folklore, and the whole early filmmaking in Canada angle too!, but this was just... meh.
I feel like if I just put this quote from the introduction it'll pretty well suffice: “Comyns wants to catch her readers off guard, and so charming daffiness runs right alongside frank and understated evocations of what it was like to be young, female, and crushingly poor.”
Seriously though, this book is so charming and easy to read, but what you're reading about is just heartbreaking. I loved Sophia even when she's being young and stupid. The book is sort of framed as she's telling her story to a friend, and you really feel like that friend. I loved this. I own one other Comyns, but I'll definitely be looking out for more of her. She's fabulous.
I didn't always get on with Mortimer's writing style, but overall I think I liked this? I'm glad to have read it at any rate. Some of the chapters or Ruth's internal monologues felt a bit odd to me. But the rest of it is well done. It's definitely the abortion novel, isn't it? And for that I do think it's good it's back in print, especially now that we're back (in some states) to these days and circumstances.
Holy cow. Trite to say, I know, but everyone should read this. For a while it was a pretty typical family saga, which I like, but there's an undercurrent of unease. And then it hits. I don't even really know how to talk about this.
Feuchtwanger wrote this in ‘33 and yet it feels like it must have been written later. When people say no one knew what was going on this book shows the lie of that. A few chapters in the last section are a bit of an info dump, but they don't read that way, showing Feuchtwanger's skill. They're hard to read, but they show what people knew. Other parts show how easy it was for people to dismiss what was happening.
Between this and Manja by Anna Gmeyner (published in ‘39) there really can't be any believing that people didn't know what was happening. Like today, it's easy for those not affected to ignore what's going on. But people know. We should all know better. We can't let these things keep happening.
This was really interesting. It's really just a bunch of scenes in our narrator's life in this “dystopian” England, rather than a cohesive story. There's an uncomfortable undercurrent to the whole, but hope as well.
We don't really know our narrator, don't know if they're a man or a woman, but it doesn't ultimately matter, but we know they write and love books and their friends. The friends are artists of various sorts. And who They are isn't clear either. They want conformity and don't want all the art. But who and why, we don't know.
I wish we had a bit more context for what was going on - it was a little too sparse in some ways - but there's something interesting in being able to come up with your own ideas about what's going on here. For such a sparse book there's a lot to consider. (The writing is gorgeous, too, which helps.)
Because of the way I read this (audiobook along with the text) I got a foreword by Carmen Maria Machado and an afterword by Lucy Scholes. There's some overlap in what they talk about, but both have insights the other doesn't mention. You can't go wrong with either version I think. I'm so glad McNally Editions is publishing “lost” books like this.
This was so simple and well done. I wasn't always quite sure what was going on, what Bridget's deal was. It was more Hen's story as told by Bridge and once I realized that it was easier to get on with. The title is perfect; how many of us have these kinds of phantoms, parents, grandparents, whomever. The end was really well done and I got a bit choked up. There's quite a bit of Hen in my grandmother I think, and reading about her in those moments was a lot.
I waffled between four and five stars, but I think five is appropriate. It's a beautifully told story about the difficulties of family, of mothers and daughters. It can be hard to read, but it's so worth it if you do.
This was really enjoyable. It's very much of the British women's books that I like, plus the “sliding doors” aspect which I also really like. Claudia is really interesting and I loved seeing the similarities and differences in the different versions of her. I'm glad to have read this and I'm glad the British Library is working to put these books back into circulation.
Overall this was very good, just not quite what it set out to be I think. It's too detailed in some areas and too thin in others. I'm not entirely sure why these four people were picked though. Eliot makes sense, but all I can figure it Goldstein just liked the other three enough that he wanted to include them. Still, this was interesting and I'm glad I read it. I think I'd recommend Constellation of Genius by Kevin Jackson over this if someone was interested in 1922.
