Scan barcode
josheroony's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
callmeash_94's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-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
3.75
astoldbysyd's review against another edition
4.0
"What happened to you, what happened?" he says. "Something bad must have happened to make you like this."
"One thing? It wasn't one thing. It took years. It was a slow process."
:(
"One thing? It wasn't one thing. It took years. It was a slow process."
:(
fcty's review against another edition
4.0
tbh i think i need to re-read this another time because i wasn’t in the right headspace for this, but i still found myself enthralled by Rhys’s prose
aahana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
elfs29's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Rhys’ prose is mesmerising for all the ways she so closely captures what happens inside a woman’s head. Sophia felt desperately and devastatingly real to me, almost immediately, and I couldn’t bear to tear my eyes away from her because it just felt so important that she be seen. Glimpses of hope amidst desolate loss, glimpses of humanity amidst the almost collapse of it, Sophia’s story, never linear and always heartbreaking, was moving and scarily real.
I am trying hard to be like you. I know I don’t succeed, but look how hard I try. Three hours to choose a hat; every morning an hour and a half trying to make myself look like everybody else. Every word I say has chains around its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights. Since I was born, hasn’t every word I’ve said, every thought I’ve thought, everything I’ve done, been tied up, weighted, chained? And mind you, I know that with all this I don’t succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well. Think — and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.
I am trying hard to be like you. I know I don’t succeed, but look how hard I try. Three hours to choose a hat; every morning an hour and a half trying to make myself look like everybody else. Every word I say has chains around its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights. Since I was born, hasn’t every word I’ve said, every thought I’ve thought, everything I’ve done, been tied up, weighted, chained? And mind you, I know that with all this I don’t succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well. Think — and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.
kbkittyb's review against another edition
2.0
This book has me puzzled, it's both clear as crystal and yet murky at the same time. I am both confused and 100% certain.
All the same, I actually enjoyed it. Modernist literature isn't usually my 'thing' but this one worked. As readers, we still got the opportunity to get to know the characters, which is a rare treat in modernist novels.
Unbelievably sad. And yet weirdly I am left with a feeling of hope...if only slight. (Not in men though, this really was the final nail in that particular coffin.)
I can't say this was an 'enjoyable' read but I think it was a necessary one.
The issues arising from this story are as valid today as they were then. Profound. This one will stick with me...
*There are many elements in this novel that can cause distress. So please look up trigger warnings before reading*
All the same, I actually enjoyed it. Modernist literature isn't usually my 'thing' but this one worked. As readers, we still got the opportunity to get to know the characters, which is a rare treat in modernist novels.
Unbelievably sad. And yet weirdly I am left with a feeling of hope...if only slight. (Not in men though, this really was the final nail in that particular coffin.)
I can't say this was an 'enjoyable' read but I think it was a necessary one.
The issues arising from this story are as valid today as they were then. Profound. This one will stick with me...
*There are many elements in this novel that can cause distress. So please look up trigger warnings before reading*
andriawrites's review against another edition
4.0
This is the book Henry Miller would have written if he were a woman. Some might say Jean Rhys' character is the female equivalent of Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer, but Jean Rhys is probably the better writer. History has somehow seemed to put her in the third row, rather than the first, when it comes to roman a clef novels set in Paris. Her descriptions of Paris are absolutely divine and her story about a female character living on her own, doing whatever she wants in Paris is such a breath of fresh air in the vast male-centric literature that we're excessively exposed to. Loved her lyrical writing and the way Rhys unabashedly represents a female character who has guts and who is flawed, adventurous and totally human and relatable.
saintakim's review against another edition
4.0
Didn't finish it, it was too sad and too stark. But I got my fill.
It is so well written and hypnotic how much its language and rythmes are contemporary to us. Maybe I'm too weak because of my situation. I'm living and roaming in the very same Parisian streets this poor fool was slowing destroying herself, some bars are still there but now as expensive restaurants. Like Rhys it is my home because it is my truest place but I'm also a foreigner.
There's not much left of Rhys's Paris and what is still with us is enshrined like some Entre Deux Guerres Disneyland. Yet, everyone that has been miserable, in the need of forgetting oneself or even dealing with the ghosts of one's dreams and potential in those neighborhoods, be it has a riverain or a visitor, has felt through themselves the same beat that flows in the pages of Rhys.
As a "book guy" I feel I should be more competently about this book. Honestly, I could. But I love books because sometimes you meet something like this one, and you just want to shut up and enjoy the October sun in Luxembourg.
It is so well written and hypnotic how much its language and rythmes are contemporary to us. Maybe I'm too weak because of my situation. I'm living and roaming in the very same Parisian streets this poor fool was slowing destroying herself, some bars are still there but now as expensive restaurants. Like Rhys it is my home because it is my truest place but I'm also a foreigner.
There's not much left of Rhys's Paris and what is still with us is enshrined like some Entre Deux Guerres Disneyland. Yet, everyone that has been miserable, in the need of forgetting oneself or even dealing with the ghosts of one's dreams and potential in those neighborhoods, be it has a riverain or a visitor, has felt through themselves the same beat that flows in the pages of Rhys.
As a "book guy" I feel I should be more competently about this book. Honestly, I could. But I love books because sometimes you meet something like this one, and you just want to shut up and enjoy the October sun in Luxembourg.