Garrett
“For it is a deep and human truth that most souls upon the earth are not at ease unless they find themselves safe in the hands of a force far greater than themselves.”
“She smiles at the version of herself at that time of pain, so young that she believed she could die of love. Foolish creature, old Marie would say to that child. Open your hands and let your life go. It has never been yours to do with what you will.”
Probably at least the fifth time I've read this since the fall of 2002 — still as beautiful as ever. One passage in particular leaps out at me and, in truth, always has, but given the last 10 months has new resonance:
“There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.”
Book Club 2016
To me, The Girls was pretty much Cutis Sittenfeld's Prep (the only book I have ever thrown away), just with better prose. It's a fair exploration into the psyche of a teenage girl, but Cline does so much to protect her main character that there are no stakes: any sense of drama around Evie is empty. She can leave the ranch at any time so there are ultimately no stakes to her being there past the exploration of her teenage ennui. Even the framing device of her older self looking back on her near-miss with this Manson-esque cult is so devoid of point of view and can be summed up, basically, by, “oops oh well?” Again, don't get me wrong, Emma Cline can WRITE – she just doesn't have much to say.
