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indigovazvezda's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-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
gorecki's review
3.0
There’s a song I love titled “Thirteen Thirty Five” by Dillon. It goes like this:
“For you I found a cell
On the top floor of a prison
Just enough space for you to fit your feet in”
And I kept thinking about it while reading The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge.
Love has many forms and manifests itself in many different ways. There is passionate, transformational & platonic love. Love that makes you want to care for someone, or that makes the world seem bigger or smaller or just right. Love that sets you free. And then there’s love’s ugly little sister - suffocating love. The Dressmaker is about the latter.
This is the story of Rita, a 17-year old girl raised by her two aunts, a dressmaker and a factory worker, after her mother’s death. This family’s world is small: it consists of a room full of old family furniture that is one of the dressmaker Nellie’s biggest concerns, her sister Marge who has missed out on love with one husband dead and a man who courted her scared away by her sister and brother. So little Rita who grows up as their cherished possession. “Our Rita”, they call her. She’s not even her own, but treated very much as one of the pieces of furniture locked up in their room. So it’s no wonder things go wrong when she goes out with her complete ignorance of the outside world and meets an American soldier.
The problem with suffocating love is that it doesn’t follow a natural trajectory. It’s not “natural”, hence it’s forced into the moulds and shapes of its source and when things don’t go according to plan, it all gets very ugly very quickly. Suffocating love is like being tied to a wall with chains: you’re allowed to move only to the extent your chain allows you. And while you can break out, tearing those chains from the walls can cause cracks and bring the whole cell tumbling down on your head. Maybe you can get out unscathed, but you could also get smashed by the falling ceiling.
Bainbridge builds a cell that’s full of anticipation of imminent doom. It’s like a McCuller’s novel where there’s a level of uncertainty lurking under the story and you feel it will collapse any second. And it does. And you don’t know if you’re relieved or shaken.
“For you I found a cell
On the top floor of a prison
Just enough space for you to fit your feet in”
And I kept thinking about it while reading The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge.
Love has many forms and manifests itself in many different ways. There is passionate, transformational & platonic love. Love that makes you want to care for someone, or that makes the world seem bigger or smaller or just right. Love that sets you free. And then there’s love’s ugly little sister - suffocating love. The Dressmaker is about the latter.
This is the story of Rita, a 17-year old girl raised by her two aunts, a dressmaker and a factory worker, after her mother’s death. This family’s world is small: it consists of a room full of old family furniture that is one of the dressmaker Nellie’s biggest concerns, her sister Marge who has missed out on love with one husband dead and a man who courted her scared away by her sister and brother. So little Rita who grows up as their cherished possession. “Our Rita”, they call her. She’s not even her own, but treated very much as one of the pieces of furniture locked up in their room. So it’s no wonder things go wrong when she goes out with her complete ignorance of the outside world and meets an American soldier.
The problem with suffocating love is that it doesn’t follow a natural trajectory. It’s not “natural”, hence it’s forced into the moulds and shapes of its source and when things don’t go according to plan, it all gets very ugly very quickly. Suffocating love is like being tied to a wall with chains: you’re allowed to move only to the extent your chain allows you. And while you can break out, tearing those chains from the walls can cause cracks and bring the whole cell tumbling down on your head. Maybe you can get out unscathed, but you could also get smashed by the falling ceiling.
Bainbridge builds a cell that’s full of anticipation of imminent doom. It’s like a McCuller’s novel where there’s a level of uncertainty lurking under the story and you feel it will collapse any second. And it does. And you don’t know if you’re relieved or shaken.
impla77's review against another edition
slow-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
1.75
literally.. what?? are these people capable of acting like humans
liamriley1987's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
habmsm's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
3.5
melwyk's review
2.0
Bleak. Depressing, claustrophobic, hopeless. And shocking racist language which nobody seems to mention in any of the reviews I've seen but which stained the whole book for me. Ick.
myszuna's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5