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kurpjukaste's review against another edition
2.0
pat tas, ka šī grāmata ir tikai 150 lappušu gara, nespēj mani mierināt un pamest to kaut kur ap 50. Tik garlaicīgu stāstu es nebiju gaidījusi.
EDIT: grāmata ir izlasīta. Baigi putrainais franču romāns. Tā kā man nebija vēlēšanās iedziļināties garajos aprakstos, viegli pāršļūcu pāri, tādēļ detaļas īsti neuztvēru. Varbūt der mierīgam vakaram, kad nenāk miegs, bet negribas baigi iespringt uz garajiem gabaliem.
EDIT: grāmata ir izlasīta. Baigi putrainais franču romāns. Tā kā man nebija vēlēšanās iedziļināties garajos aprakstos, viegli pāršļūcu pāri, tādēļ detaļas īsti neuztvēru. Varbūt der mierīgam vakaram, kad nenāk miegs, bet negribas baigi iespringt uz garajiem gabaliem.
majkaem's review against another edition
4.0
Útla kniha, ktorá v sebe však nesie krásny, miestami dojímavý príbeh dvoch ľudí s rozličnými životnými príbehmi.
Aj keď by sa nám mohlo zdať, podľa názvu knihy, že hlavnou postavou bude žena, sme na omyle. Príbeh je najmä o mladom spisovateľovi, ktorý sa dostane do malej, bohomzabudnutej dediny na Sibíri, kde spozná Veru, ženu, ktorá čakala. Vera čaká na svojho snúbenca, ktorý sa nevrátil z vojny a čaká ho už 30 rokov.
Autor krásne opisuje prostredie a miestami satiricky popisuje obdobie v ktorom žijú. Prv chcel vytvoriť reportáž o miestnych zvykoch a tradíciách ale nakoniec ho „zradilo“ jeho srdce a pomaly sa snaží priblížiť k Vere, ktorá ho priťahuje svojou krásou a citlivosťou.
Bolo skvelé pozorovať nezlomnosť miestnych žien a ich bojovnosť aj po tom, čo im muži umreli vo vojne. Kniha je plná vnútorných monológov hlavnej postavy a tak sa môžeme pozerať na to, ako nad jednotlivými situáciami rozmýšľa.
Aj keď by sa nám mohlo zdať, podľa názvu knihy, že hlavnou postavou bude žena, sme na omyle. Príbeh je najmä o mladom spisovateľovi, ktorý sa dostane do malej, bohomzabudnutej dediny na Sibíri, kde spozná Veru, ženu, ktorá čakala. Vera čaká na svojho snúbenca, ktorý sa nevrátil z vojny a čaká ho už 30 rokov.
Autor krásne opisuje prostredie a miestami satiricky popisuje obdobie v ktorom žijú. Prv chcel vytvoriť reportáž o miestnych zvykoch a tradíciách ale nakoniec ho „zradilo“ jeho srdce a pomaly sa snaží priblížiť k Vere, ktorá ho priťahuje svojou krásou a citlivosťou.
Bolo skvelé pozorovať nezlomnosť miestnych žien a ich bojovnosť aj po tom, čo im muži umreli vo vojne. Kniha je plná vnútorných monológov hlavnej postavy a tak sa môžeme pozerať na to, ako nad jednotlivými situáciami rozmýšľa.
coulthardy's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
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
3.25
jessrock's review against another edition
3.0
The Woman Who Waited takes place in a remote Russian village that has been all but abandoned in the years following WWII. With all the men having gone off to war and the younger people having long ago fled for better lives, the town is made up almost exclusively of elderly women - and one younger one who has stayed to look after them. The tale is that her sweetheart swore he would come back for her, and that she's still waiting for him to come back - thirty years later. A young man half her age comes to this remote village to do research for a book he's writing, but finds himself fascinated by this woman and keeps extending his stay to try to learn more about her, falling in love with her in the process. He eventually discovers that there is more to her than the myth that has been built up around her, which only deepens his fascination, as he tries to understand her true reasons for staying behind in a village everyone else has abandoned.
deea_bks's review against another edition
4.0
4.5*
I just love Makine's writing style and I feel the need to re-visit his really beautiful prose every now and then. There is a lot of dreamy melancholy concentrated in his pages and there are also extremely wonderful descriptions (although I can't say that I care much for descriptions in books) of the Russian whiteness of snow and frost! And although not long after having read his pages I forget much of the story, I always remember the feeling I had while reading it (because it is so intense!).
I just love Makine's writing style and I feel the need to re-visit his really beautiful prose every now and then. There is a lot of dreamy melancholy concentrated in his pages and there are also extremely wonderful descriptions (although I can't say that I care much for descriptions in books) of the Russian whiteness of snow and frost! And although not long after having read his pages I forget much of the story, I always remember the feeling I had while reading it (because it is so intense!).
mdsnyderjr's review against another edition
1.0
I hated this book. The story was awful, the writing was awful. This might be the worst book I've ever read. The only reason I finished it was because it came highly recommended and I kept hoping at some point it might actually get better.
fionaw81's review against another edition
4.0
All the way through this book I couldn't decide if I loved it or hated it. I put it down when I had finished and I still couldn't decide. A day later I realise that I have been thinking about it a lot and the more that I ponder it the more that I see it for the artful piece of writing that it is.
In 1970's Leningrad we meet our unnamed narrator. He is 26 years old and spends his evening socialising in the 'Wigwam', a club where subversive intellectuals and artists meet in a celebration of bad poetry and indiscriminate sex. In an attempt to find himself he goes to stay in a remote village to research old customs and folklore and to find material for the satire he wishes to write. There he meets the enigmatic, Vera and he becomes intrigued by her story. Vera, we learn, had said goodbye to her fiancé at the age of 16 and learned he was missing in action shortly afterwards. Thirty years later when our narrator meets her she is still waiting for him to come home. The story follows our narrator's attempts to both unravel the mystery of this woman and to win her affections.
I didn't immediately fall in love with this book and in large part I think that was because I really disliked the character narrating the story. He is arrogant and a narcissist, passing off his attempts to seduce Vera as for her own good, necessary to break her free from what he perceives as a life unfilled. He tells himself that he is coming to the village to learn about the culture of those who remain there but he is closed minded to their customs - unable to understand them and unwilling to learn. He sees himself as this enlightened soul who is observing the remnants of History and he feels sorry for those that he perceives as stuck in a backward past and feels himself to be of a different generation, more enlightened, embodying modernity.
But the more I reflect on the character the more I realise that he is the perfect partner to Vera's quiet conviction in her life choices. Our narrator sees Vera as someone to feel sorry for, wasting her life waiting for the man she loved when in his world the sensible thing to do would be to move on and find another but she is far from the picture he has painted of her. She is resourceful, educated and in perfect step with her own wants and needs. Each time he thinks that he has her figured out she surprises him; at every turn she defies his attempts to explain and contain her. And he is drawn to her exactly because she is the embodiment of everything modern society wishes to reject and underneath his cynicism that's what he wants too. In short, Makine's character studies are perfect, both characters are achingly well drawn.
This is a book that has so many layers - a love story, a character observation, a bitingly sharp observation of a post war country seeking it's identity in just the same way as our narrator is. It's a fairly short read with not one word of Makine's beautiful writing wasted. The descriptions of the bawdy yet hollow meetings of the Wigwam group juxtaposed against the peaceful and poetic, if sometimes heartbreaking, descriptions of life in this rural Russian village create a feeling of otherworldliness in Makine's writing. Themes around the cost of war and the loss of the old are laid bare for us to chew over. This is a piece of writing that will stay with me for a while.
In 1970's Leningrad we meet our unnamed narrator. He is 26 years old and spends his evening socialising in the 'Wigwam', a club where subversive intellectuals and artists meet in a celebration of bad poetry and indiscriminate sex. In an attempt to find himself he goes to stay in a remote village to research old customs and folklore and to find material for the satire he wishes to write. There he meets the enigmatic, Vera and he becomes intrigued by her story. Vera, we learn, had said goodbye to her fiancé at the age of 16 and learned he was missing in action shortly afterwards. Thirty years later when our narrator meets her she is still waiting for him to come home. The story follows our narrator's attempts to both unravel the mystery of this woman and to win her affections.
I didn't immediately fall in love with this book and in large part I think that was because I really disliked the character narrating the story. He is arrogant and a narcissist, passing off his attempts to seduce Vera as for her own good, necessary to break her free from what he perceives as a life unfilled. He tells himself that he is coming to the village to learn about the culture of those who remain there but he is closed minded to their customs - unable to understand them and unwilling to learn. He sees himself as this enlightened soul who is observing the remnants of History and he feels sorry for those that he perceives as stuck in a backward past and feels himself to be of a different generation, more enlightened, embodying modernity.
But the more I reflect on the character the more I realise that he is the perfect partner to Vera's quiet conviction in her life choices. Our narrator sees Vera as someone to feel sorry for, wasting her life waiting for the man she loved when in his world the sensible thing to do would be to move on and find another but she is far from the picture he has painted of her. She is resourceful, educated and in perfect step with her own wants and needs. Each time he thinks that he has her figured out she surprises him; at every turn she defies his attempts to explain and contain her. And he is drawn to her exactly because she is the embodiment of everything modern society wishes to reject and underneath his cynicism that's what he wants too. In short, Makine's character studies are perfect, both characters are achingly well drawn.
This is a book that has so many layers - a love story, a character observation, a bitingly sharp observation of a post war country seeking it's identity in just the same way as our narrator is. It's a fairly short read with not one word of Makine's beautiful writing wasted. The descriptions of the bawdy yet hollow meetings of the Wigwam group juxtaposed against the peaceful and poetic, if sometimes heartbreaking, descriptions of life in this rural Russian village create a feeling of otherworldliness in Makine's writing. Themes around the cost of war and the loss of the old are laid bare for us to chew over. This is a piece of writing that will stay with me for a while.
poetryrose's review against another edition
4.0
An absolutely beautifully written story that carried me through at it's own pace, not mine, made me slow my steps and look around, though there was in fact so very little actually happening.
rhonaea's review against another edition
4.0
Thoroughly intriguing characters; both the narrator and Vera - the woman who waited. It is beautifully crafted and eloquently related tale of intense devotion. I'm always fascinated but the lure of translated works which offer the reader a chance to experience not only the sense of place and different cultures, but also the strange sense of experiencing linguistic description from another perspective. Well worth seeking this little treasure out!