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bluelilyblue's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
baby_vamp's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
raulbime's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
This is my second Rhys book, and like the first I'd read, The Quartet, it centres a British woman stranded in Paris and financially dependent on her lovers. Julia, like Marya before her, is down on her luck, and spends the little money she receives on drink and clothes.
Because of this vulnerable position, and what she claims as failing in life on both a social and economic level, she plunges into a state of utter despair. Unlike Marya before her though Julia returns to London–on a whim–where she confronts the reality of her dying mother and judging family.
When the family reunites we meet Julia’s sister Norah. Antithetical to Julia in every way, she’s the dutiful daughter that remained to care and look after their ill mother while Julia drifted abroad. This conflict where Norah represents sacrifice and duty, and Julia whose representation would be best left to her own words: “If all good, respectable people had one face, I'd spit in it.” reminded me of the wonderful Munro short story “The Peace of Utrecht”, which also has two sisters with one who stayed home and cared for their mother while the other left, only Julia doesn’t return home married and with children, but alone, poor, and mentally and physically exhausted. The characterization of these two sisters as well as that final argument where Norah and Julia finally reveal their true feelings to each other was just brilliant.
Reading this I felt that the depictions of illness, despair, and death read simple yet true. Just as with the first book she shows what Austen did too, the importance given to money and (heterosexual) marriage in society, and how much they define and shape humanness, status, and survival. Only while much had changed in the century that separates Austen and Rhys, and both being very different individuals and artists. Rhys's protagonists however drift and are desperate, find themselves in the margins and alienated, not deemed respectable, suffering since they yearn for the security such status promises while they lack it. Rhys still maintains great control over her material, and I'm glad that I'm reading her novels chronologically since one can trace the development in her writing from the first one, which was also quite good, to this one.
This is my second Rhys book, and like the first I'd read, The Quartet, it centres a British woman stranded in Paris and financially dependent on her lovers. Julia, like Marya before her, is down on her luck, and spends the little money she receives on drink and clothes.
Because of this vulnerable position, and what she claims as failing in life on both a social and economic level, she plunges into a state of utter despair. Unlike Marya before her though Julia returns to London–on a whim–where she confronts the reality of her dying mother and judging family.
When the family reunites we meet Julia’s sister Norah. Antithetical to Julia in every way, she’s the dutiful daughter that remained to care and look after their ill mother while Julia drifted abroad. This conflict where Norah represents sacrifice and duty, and Julia whose representation would be best left to her own words: “If all good, respectable people had one face, I'd spit in it.” reminded me of the wonderful Munro short story “The Peace of Utrecht”, which also has two sisters with one who stayed home and cared for their mother while the other left, only Julia doesn’t return home married and with children, but alone, poor, and mentally and physically exhausted. The characterization of these two sisters as well as that final argument where Norah and Julia finally reveal their true feelings to each other was just brilliant.
Reading this I felt that the depictions of illness, despair, and death read simple yet true. Just as with the first book she shows what Austen did too, the importance given to money and (heterosexual) marriage in society, and how much they define and shape humanness, status, and survival. Only while much had changed in the century that separates Austen and Rhys, and both being very different individuals and artists. Rhys's protagonists however drift and are desperate, find themselves in the margins and alienated, not deemed respectable, suffering since they yearn for the security such status promises while they lack it. Rhys still maintains great control over her material, and I'm glad that I'm reading her novels chronologically since one can trace the development in her writing from the first one, which was also quite good, to this one.
lisahopevierra's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Another J. Rhys I should read again
jake_powell's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully conveys a mood, a noir early 20th century Paris full of nightcaps and false faced decorum that the protagonist is tired of playing along with. Bleakly picturesque, and I felt transported.
lerawr's review
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0