Weadee
3.75 - I don't really know what to say about this one. I liked a lot of it, but it was hard to get through because I didn't want to read it anymore but also didn't want to DNF. I don't know. It was just exhausting and I struggled. Maybe it to Nao's credit that the emotional strain of their marriage was palpable enough to convince me to never get married or have children, but I don't really think that was the point. I admired her exploration of grief in this absurd, bizarro way (half the book is filled with them “walking their fish” or trying to empty out the ocean) and I loved the writing style but anytime the husband and wife (Ethos and Catholic) interacted, I became more frustrated with Catholic's behaviour towards her husband than immersed in the picture of their grief. I became so annoyed with her over 75 pages that by the time the narrative switched to her POV I didn't want to read anything she said. People that deal with their pain by hurting everyone around them will never not frustrate me. Especially when they hurt the one person carrying the pain with them.
When I started this collection at the beginning of April I thought it would be an assortment of naturalist poems that would keep me company as I welcomed the spring. While it's kept me company in some capacity, the content was a bit different. Rather than exploring the natural world, Freeman instead examines its relationship to lives spent in it. I don't know if that's what made it hard for me at the start, but when I went back and revisited some of the poems tonight, keeping that in mind made a noticeable difference. I enjoyed it :)
Favourite poems were:
Yard Dogs
The Green Tram
Icicles
Without
Still
Sailing and
Signs
“We are tired of living under this tyranny. We cannot endure that our women and children are taken away and dealt with by the white savages. We shall make war. . . . We know that we shall die, but we want to die. We want to die.”
I would not have finished this book if not for the stories of William Henry Sheppard, George Washington Williams, Roger Cassment and E.D. Morel. I trudged through the endless pages of the numbered dead. the unnumbered dead. the severed hands, mutilated bodies. burned villages and tortured African natives if only to find some relief. As if seeing King Leopold die a second death through the book would satisfy me in the end. It didn't.
King Leopold's ghost is just as real as he was. The chief mass murderer himself knows he won't rest in peace for crimes he committed on this earth so he roams around haunting Congolese people to this day. As if genocide wasn't enough!!! If you don't believe me just go to the end of the book where Hochschild details how, as the country finally began taking its first steps of independence, the CIA (under Eisenhower) shot the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo, cut up his body and dissolved it in acid to prevent Patrice Lumumba from becoming a symbol.
How much of the 20th century was built on the corpses of tens of millions of Africans? Congo went from a population of roughly 20 million people before the arrival of Leopold to roughly 10 million at his death ten years later. I just get so frustrated and tired and discouraged reading about the imperialist history on the continent that it takes everything in me to keep reading and searching to learn more. For once I just wanted to find a glimpse of the stories of the people who fought against.
Maybe that's why this book is different. Thoroughly researched and handled with tremendous care, Adam Hochschild was committed to showing the efforts of the people who did bring the problem of Congo to the international stage. If crimes go on and on, the only solace is the people who still go to great lengths to fight it.
I'd recommend this book to anyone
4.5
This book had everything I love about classic fantasy novels. Definitely not an epic but a soft tale filled with riddles & rhymes, talking cats, witty dialogue, a whimsical quest, a prince and of course, a unicorn!! The writing was so beautiful too and had a satisfying end :')
It's written just as you would expect any fairy tale to be written but never felt silly or childish. In a way it reminded me of the Little Prince. Nothing makes logical “sense” but I really like that. Peter Beagle essentially creates this world and plops us in it without explaining anything LOL.
We just start off with this unicorn who lives in a lilac wood. There's no world building, backstory or established rules. Even the magician doesn't understand his own magic The mythology is mixed up with all sorts of other fables and at one point Robin Hood even appears. Honestly anyone who likes The Princess Bride would enjoy this. I would read it again.
Not 5 stars but don't get me wrong! I really did enjoy this. I'm not sure why but something is stopping me from giving it a 5 so it's gonna sit here.
Final note: Also can I just say, I love when characters know they're in a fairy tale and give us great dialogue like this:
“They deserve their fate, they deserve worse. To leave a child out in the snow-“ “Well if they hadn't, he couldn't have grown up to be a prince. Haven't you been in a fairy tale before?”
“We are in a fairy tale, and must go where it goes.”
“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.”
wowow this book was really something else. I loved it :)) I even recommended it to my dad (who essentially only reads non-fiction,) so that should tell you enough. I just want to talk about this book with someone
set in 90s post-colonial Nigeria, the book portrays the massive tragedy of a family alongside the unraveling of a nation. all told from the perspective of the youngest brother, 9-year-old Benjamin. it scratched every itch in my body and is the perfect combination of west African storytelling, folklore, politics, and coming-of-age/boyhood. extremely well done on all fronts.
the narrative voice of this author. wow. it's immensely haunting and mythical and captured me from the start. not a single breath was wasted and Obioma pushed the story til the very end. it seriously did not even let up at the last sentence. what a thrilling finish. I cried.
the misfortune that befalls the boys and the disintegration of the lives around them was difficult to read but I think that's a testament to how well everything was crafted. the backdrop of Akure. the genuine family dynamics. the pacing. the deft lyrical prose. all brilliant. the biggest strength of this book was its characters and because so much hinges on our relationship with them as well as their distinct grief, Obioma wisely pours into them, then allows us to see what happens when they are broken and agony leaks out. there is much to be mulled over
a great read :)))) probably somewhere between 4.5 and 5 stars but giving it a 5 because I will support this man!!!!!
I know I'm a selfish reader, but this book took more out of me than it could ever give back.
Maybe it's my fault for constantly returning to books that take me through so much emotional turmoil but always at the end of them, I await (and get) my gratification. The moment where our heroine says “reader, I married him,” and you pause for a moment, close your eyes and smile because, despite the hardship, all is well. This book was anything but.
I can't tell whether I should commend Lucy for having such a steadfast spirit or pity her for the way that steadfastness was more often than not, simply some form of hopeless self-restraint. It was her (perhaps rightful) cynicism that I struggled with the most. Hers was a character to accept all forms of torment as her cross to bear in this life. Never asking or hoping for anything more. There was not one time she did not resolutely drink her cup down to the dregs. I could not but grieve as I watched.
Charlotte Brontë has this way of painting a perfect picture of reticence, but with Lucy, it becomes so difficult because she shies away from you just as much as she does the others. I finished the book less than an hour ago and I could tell you more about any other character than I could her. She's a withdrawn, doleful little creature that you want to love but aren't allowed to. She assumes you won't care.
Can you blame Lucy for her inability to trust or receive love? Is it wrong to think she should yet hope? I really don't know and truthfully, I don't think she knows either.
4 stars because it hurt my heart and 500 pages of that is too much. Most passages are highlighted though so I will at least give Villette that
Since I do not have it in me to read the same text 3 different times (sorry) I've decided to take the liberty of “marking as read” after going through the standard text. Maybe I'll read the additional poems later.
This edition is long but it's definitely worth it for the glossary, maps and time charts of Ancient Orient if you're into that. Regardless, the epic itself is short enough to read in one go if you have some time to spare and entertaining enough to keep you engaged. It's a great story!
Other than that, I don't really feel entitled to judge recovered poems by the same standards you would apply to any other epic work....but I feel like Andrew George's translation also played a role in how it read? You gotta hand it to him. This man took great pains to stay faithful to the original work (indicating all lacunae and ellipses etc.) but it made for a less fluent read. While I can appreciate having a good foundation, at times it became tasking; especially considering I'm not an academic!
This book is a solid 3-3.5 for me. Maybe a 3.7 if you're rating the performances from the audiobook.
I was a little disappointed with how the book panned out. As far as the story goes, Sea of Tranquility didn't bring anything new or meaningful to the table for me to engage with :( And while that isn't a problem in and of itself, it lacked emotional and character depth to make up for it. It's a shame that we spend TEN chapters getting to know a character, only for him to be dropped for the rest of the book.
As simple as the book was, there were enough times I found myself confused. I'll admit that sometimes the questions I get stuck on are ones that are irrelevant, but its hard to suspend my disbelief when a book practically surrounds a decision that in my view, makes no sense if we know nothing about this character. Why does Gespery save Olive? Up until that point he's essentially asocial and there's no indication that he's a sensitive or emotional person. I'm not disagreeing with his decision, but there's not enough for me to buy it (especially considering his supposed dedication to his new line of work!!) We don't even see him wrestle. On top of that, the anomaly only exists because Gespery went back in time to investigate said anomaly. But why would he go back to investigate if the anomaly hadn't already existed? I'll let you get away with not explaining time travel, but I need you to explain that.
The book should've just been on Edwin.
4.5
i enjoyed this one quite a bit. was a very clever book coupled with interestingly woven relationships and witty dialogue. the characters really hold everything together. once or twice the book is a little confusing (like the first few pages) but if you allow yourself to stop trying to “solve” it and sit through the discomfort, the puzzle starts to come together on its own. will have to revisit this one.
there are so many ways to take this book apart but i think this quote does it best:
“What I do when it distresses me that there's something I can't remember, is...I imagine that whatever it is I've forgotten is folded close to me, like a sleeping bird.What kind of bird? Elisabeth said.A wild bird, Daniel said. Any kind. You'll know what kind when it happens. Then, what I do is, I just hold it there, without holding it too tight, and I let it sleep. And that's that.”
:)
Good Lord, I don't know when I'll stop crying. This book broke me in so many pieces. It was so awfully tragic yet enduringly sweet. Sue Bridehead has become my new favourite literary heroine even though I fear that I'll lead myself down the same path of suffering.
It was the the last half of the book that undid me
I don't have many thoughts to add to the book and I do not think anything I could say would do it justice so here are some of my favourite quotes instead. Hopefully they'll convince you to read it :)
(Narrator)
“To Paradise the happy seat of man,His journey's end and our beginning woe.”
(Satan)
“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” “So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;Evil be thou my good;”“Farewell happy fields,Where joy forever dwells: hail, horrors!”“Me miserable! Which way shall I flyInfinite wrath and infinite despair?Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;“The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
(Adam)
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clayTo mould me man? Did I solicit theeFrom darkness to promote me?” — also quoted in Frankenstein
(Raphael)
“Freely we serve,Because we freely love, as in our willTo love or not; in this we stand or fall.”“God made thee perfect, not immutable;”
✨And my favourite passage of all✨:
(God the Son)
“Behold me then, me for him, life for lifeI offer; on me let thine anger fall; Account me man: I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly dieWell pleased: on me let death wreak all his rage;”
(God the Father)
So man, as is most just,Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die,And dying rise, and rising with him raiseHis brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.So Heavenly love shall outdo Hellish hate,Giving to death, and dying to redeem,So dearly to redeem what Hellish hateSo easily destroyed, and still destroysIn those who, when they may, accept not grace.
Random notes: This was difficult to get through but it's not impossible. The poetry can be read in several ways but I found the fastest and most enjoyable way was walking around reciting the poetry out loud to myself, the trees and anyone who would listen. Switching to the audiobook was also helpful for especially dense passages. Honestly, like 85% of the references went over my head and I got through it fine but if that really bothers you (or if you're a nerd or something) there are dozens of annotated versions out there. I was just here for the poetry ✌️. It's also very similar to a play and once you start really imagining it on stage, it flows quiet nicely.
-Book III was amazing.
-God the Son was my favourite character
-Abdiels insults to Satan should be taught in sunday school
3.5 - My rating is not based solely on how much I enjoyed the book because if it were, I would probably make it lower. I did not like it.
I love reading sad books and the idea of reading about her “decent into madness” intrigued me. I've heard so much about The Bell Jar and about how painfully accurate Plath's depiction of mental illness is, so I guess I was kind of hoping that I would find some parts of myself tucked away in the book and that it would be close to my heart. I was wrong. I felt disappointed at best, and at worst, like I finally aught to kill myself because that's supposedly the only thing that makes mental illness real. Disliking the book this much makes me feel like I have some sort of internalized phobia.
First of all, I just really did not like Esther :/ it feels awfully insensitive to say because I know this book is semi-autobiographical and Plath really did struggle, but Esther was insufferable. I mean, mann, I did not like her even before her breakdown but at least once she became depressed I felt a bit more empathy.
I get it. Being a women in the 1950s was hard and not everyone wants to get married or have a baby but why is that a reason to look down on those who do? In fact she looks down on nearly every single women/female companion in this book, it's ridiculous. In her eyes everyone is either boring, shallow, stupid or inferior. Even her mother! I could not understand for the life of me why she hated her mother so much. Even when she TRIED, nothing she did was ever good enough.
On top of that, I don't think having depression is an excuse to be racist or act like you are superior to other classes or ethnicities. I'm not even exaggerating, it made me feel like the book was set in the 30s. People continually defend the racist elements of this book as a product of the time blah blah blah and yes, I agree that those terms were common usage, but my annoyance came with her comparisons. Why is it every time she described herself as ugly, there just had to be a reference to some ethnicity. I do not think those descriptions were justified in the context or even good.
For example, there's a part where she writes
“I noticed a big smudgy-eyed Chinese women staring idiotically into my face. It was only me of course. I was appalled to see how wrinkled and used-up I looked.”
or when Doreen mentions that a guy is from Peru, Esther says “they're ugly as Aztecs.”
Like??? It left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was literally no need for it either. Comments like those would come out of nowhere and irked me. You can write a book where the character calls someone a Nigger a million times for all I care but don't go and expect me to sympathize.
Of course, the poignancy of The Bell Jar comes from the fact that Sylvia Plath successfully commits suicide a decade later, but even Esther's view of depression frustrated me too. Countless times she undermines the plight of other women in the ward because no one else could possiblyyyyy be struggling. Of course we're all more privy to our own struggles, but at some point you have to realize other people are hiding their issues just as well as you. Should I stop taking medication so I'll finally descend into madness and kill myself to prove I'm as sick as you? Of course not, that's ridiculous, yet time after time the book could not seem to get away from this proverbial hierarchy where Esther was judge, jury and executioner.
And it frustrates me because Sylvia Plath is an excellent writer and I did enjoy her prose. There were parts of the book that were lovely to read like her visit to her father's grave or her walk along the beach. I just wish more of the book could have been like that but evidently I wouldn't have complained this much if it was.