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dunnadam's review
2.0
What do you say after reading this book?
There are moments of clarity, but they are few and far between. The sentences end without punctuation in the middle of a thought, characters ramble on for pages without knowing what they're talking about.
In the middle of it is glimpses of the former Williams and there are a few vignettes of brilliance, but really this book is too heavily shadowed by Williams stays in mental institutions to be coherent or relevant or readable.
The following passage I think illustrates what I'm saying:
"I have heard many people say they can't do almost anything alone but I have never heard a writer say that he can't write alone. In fact most writers I've known, despite my instinctive aversion to knowing others engaged in the same kind of existence, preferring to know painters and hustlers and practically anything but lawyers and persons who enforce law and others who have commitments to order, an exciting number of whom have recently been exposed as compulsive violators of the same
I know when a sentence is going on too long for the mental breath of a reader not to mention a writer so let me complete what I had started to say and leave it there and go on. I have never known a writer to say that he can't write alone. Now how is that for a simple declarative sentence?"
See there's moments, but then he starts talking to the reader about the difficulties of writing the book, and really, it can't go up from there.
Also for his first novel, having one guy pee into his lover's hands as a sexual kink on page three? Not the best idea.
I wondered how Williams, so well known, could have written a novel that was so not well known. I've read it and now I know.
There are moments of clarity, but they are few and far between. The sentences end without punctuation in the middle of a thought, characters ramble on for pages without knowing what they're talking about.
In the middle of it is glimpses of the former Williams and there are a few vignettes of brilliance, but really this book is too heavily shadowed by Williams stays in mental institutions to be coherent or relevant or readable.
The following passage I think illustrates what I'm saying:
"I have heard many people say they can't do almost anything alone but I have never heard a writer say that he can't write alone. In fact most writers I've known, despite my instinctive aversion to knowing others engaged in the same kind of existence, preferring to know painters and hustlers and practically anything but lawyers and persons who enforce law and others who have commitments to order, an exciting number of whom have recently been exposed as compulsive violators of the same
I know when a sentence is going on too long for the mental breath of a reader not to mention a writer so let me complete what I had started to say and leave it there and go on. I have never known a writer to say that he can't write alone. Now how is that for a simple declarative sentence?"
See there's moments, but then he starts talking to the reader about the difficulties of writing the book, and really, it can't go up from there.
Also for his first novel, having one guy pee into his lover's hands as a sexual kink on page three? Not the best idea.
I wondered how Williams, so well known, could have written a novel that was so not well known. I've read it and now I know.
corallig's review against another edition
2.5
"Ich glaube, sie hatte angenommen, nachdem Lance durch das Eis gebrochen war, würde ich mir außer ihr keine zweite Liebe zulegen. Aber ist das nicht eher eine Anmaßung als eine Annahme? Und meine kurze Pause des Nachdenkens endete, wo sie begonnen hatte, mit der einen feststehenden Tatsache, daß Lieben sich in die Quere kommen: das wenigstens war so klar und verwirrend für mich wie jedes Naturgesetz."
"Du hast dich in mein Leben eingebrannt, du wirst dich wieder herausbrennen, und ich werde ausgebrannt hinter dir zurückbleiben wie ein Dorf mit strohgedeckten Hütten, das du angesteckt und geplündert und verwüstet hast."
"Du hast dich in mein Leben eingebrannt, du wirst dich wieder herausbrennen, und ich werde ausgebrannt hinter dir zurückbleiben wie ein Dorf mit strohgedeckten Hütten, das du angesteckt und geplündert und verwüstet hast."
kian_kraemer's review against another edition
4.0
well, this beautiful mess of a book lives in my head rent-free now and i'm not sure yet if that's a good thing...
merricupofstars's review
dark
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
kian_kraemer's review against another edition
4.0
well, this beautiful mess of a book lives in my head rent-free now and i'm not sure yet if that's a good thing...
bribeatris's review against another edition
5.0
First book I ever read of Tennessee Williams and ADORED IT. Opened up my eyes to all of his works and how much I now love them
eriknoteric's review
2.0
Wow, who knew that when I picked up this book I was actually choosing to read Tennessee Williams' autobiographical novel? "Moise and the World of Reason" is one of William's rare forays into the novel genre, and such forays were rare, apparently, for a reason.
Telling the story of a failed gay writer and his interactions with a failed painter, both who live in Manhattan, Williams' novel grates against the normal tenets of literary writing by messing with sentence structure, paragraph ordering, and narrative story telling. Admittedly, many of the writing and formatting choices Williams makes in this book would translate beautifully played out on stage but in fact fall horribly flat (and make reading this book a real slog) when composed as prose. If anything, the writing of this novel proves that Williams was indeed the dramaturgical genius he has become in the canon.
And beyond the slog of reading the pretty choppy prose, the book itself is so clearly a retelling of Williams romantic failures, that reading it carries the same feeling of reading some famous person complain about how not-famous they are on social media.
But, with all this said, I can't help but wonder if this is one of those rare books I just simply didn't like despite it having true literary merit. And this is why this book is one of those rare books that I am giving a low rating to but encouraging you to still pick up.
Telling the story of a failed gay writer and his interactions with a failed painter, both who live in Manhattan, Williams' novel grates against the normal tenets of literary writing by messing with sentence structure, paragraph ordering, and narrative story telling. Admittedly, many of the writing and formatting choices Williams makes in this book would translate beautifully played out on stage but in fact fall horribly flat (and make reading this book a real slog) when composed as prose. If anything, the writing of this novel proves that Williams was indeed the dramaturgical genius he has become in the canon.
And beyond the slog of reading the pretty choppy prose, the book itself is so clearly a retelling of Williams romantic failures, that reading it carries the same feeling of reading some famous person complain about how not-famous they are on social media.
But, with all this said, I can't help but wonder if this is one of those rare books I just simply didn't like despite it having true literary merit. And this is why this book is one of those rare books that I am giving a low rating to but encouraging you to still pick up.
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