Adeline
Literary historical novel told as a museum exhibit, it follows the life of Kitty, an American woman from her birth at the beginning of the 20th century to her death just before the other millennium.
This was such a quirky little book ! I read it in one sitting and it quite a page turning fast paced biographical story.
This explores not only the life of a woman in the early 20th century woman’s life but also how she was viewed by her entourage, exploring themes of social expectations, patriarchy, beauty standards, family, objectification of women, etc with a nuanced and tender portrayal of the main character that came across as quirky but not without depth.
The plot being light and straightforward, the main attraction of this book for me as an ex-student of art history was the narrative style made of essentially museum explanation cards (with a few passages written like a traditional novel).
The author did such a great job infusing artistic and academic vocabulary and writing into a biographical story.
I also liked the surrealist atmosphere of the story that was exacerbated by that particular narrative style.
While there was no illustrations (maybe because of copyright laws?), I would have liked to see some, as to make the reading experience even more like a museum catalogue.
Overall a quick and quirky book, a traditional story told throughout a very creative narrative style.
Literary historical novel told as a museum exhibit, it follows the life of Kitty, an American woman from her birth at the beginning of the 20th century to her death just before the other millennium.
This was such a quirky little book ! I read it in one sitting and it quite a page turning fast paced biographical story.
This explores not only the life of a woman in the early 20th century woman’s life but also how she was viewed by her entourage, exploring themes of social expectations, patriarchy, beauty standards, family, objectification of women, etc with a nuanced and tender portrayal of the main character that came across as quirky but not without depth.
The plot being light and straightforward, the main attraction of this book for me as an ex-student of art history was the narrative style made of essentially museum explanation cards (with a few passages written like a traditional novel).
The author did such a great job infusing artistic and academic vocabulary and writing into a biographical story.
I also liked the surrealist atmosphere of the story that was exacerbated by that particular narrative style.
While there was no illustrations (maybe because of copyright laws?), I would have liked to see some, as to make the reading experience even more like a museum catalogue.
Overall a quick and quirky book, a traditional story told throughout a very creative narrative style.