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clody89's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
3.5
pewterwolf's review against another edition
4.0
Review Taken From The Pewter Wolf
Set after the First World War, Yves is a troubled man. From old money but fallen on hard times, he goes on holiday to Hendaye. While there, he meets an old friend and his wife, Denise. There's a spark between them and their affair begins.
But summer turns to autumn and they both return to Paris. Denise becomes driven by desire and suspension and Yves doesn't know how to express his love to her and is begin to feel suffocated by her love, while struggling with money issues. He asks Denise to leave him be to figure it all out.
This is where the misunderstanding takes place, and the events that follow could destroy their love...
To find out that this was Irene Nemirovsky's debut novel and she wrote this when she was 21 is a huge shock as, while only 164 pages long, this book was well-established in my opinion.
I found this book fascinating as it showed how different the culture between France at the time this book was written and modern day has changed and how a affair can start and dissolve, like this book did.
My only fault is the main characters. While I do like both Yves and Denise, I found as the book goes on, I got frustrated with them. With Denise, I found her slowly becoming too much so I understood why Yves felt suffocated. However, I got annoyed with Yves because he wouldn't speak to her. I understood his logic - it's very much male pride - but there were times I wanted to shake him because of it.
But I enjoyed it the more because of this. Irene made it more interesting because it wasn't a "pretty" affair - it started nice and romantic but it turned, and I liked how Irene wrote and I liked how the translation never felt jarring, which is something I usually have when I read translation.
But I enjoyed myself reading this and I can't wait to read more of Irene Nemirovsky!
Set after the First World War, Yves is a troubled man. From old money but fallen on hard times, he goes on holiday to Hendaye. While there, he meets an old friend and his wife, Denise. There's a spark between them and their affair begins.
But summer turns to autumn and they both return to Paris. Denise becomes driven by desire and suspension and Yves doesn't know how to express his love to her and is begin to feel suffocated by her love, while struggling with money issues. He asks Denise to leave him be to figure it all out.
This is where the misunderstanding takes place, and the events that follow could destroy their love...
To find out that this was Irene Nemirovsky's debut novel and she wrote this when she was 21 is a huge shock as, while only 164 pages long, this book was well-established in my opinion.
I found this book fascinating as it showed how different the culture between France at the time this book was written and modern day has changed and how a affair can start and dissolve, like this book did.
My only fault is the main characters. While I do like both Yves and Denise, I found as the book goes on, I got frustrated with them. With Denise, I found her slowly becoming too much so I understood why Yves felt suffocated. However, I got annoyed with Yves because he wouldn't speak to her. I understood his logic - it's very much male pride - but there were times I wanted to shake him because of it.
But I enjoyed it the more because of this. Irene made it more interesting because it wasn't a "pretty" affair - it started nice and romantic but it turned, and I liked how Irene wrote and I liked how the translation never felt jarring, which is something I usually have when I read translation.
But I enjoyed myself reading this and I can't wait to read more of Irene Nemirovsky!
elena_1902's review against another edition
3.0
Genuinamente si vede che il primo scritto dell’autrice ma al contempo si vede anche quanto fosse promettente
margaret21's review against another edition
2.0
The best I can find to say about this book is that it's short and easily whizzed through. I've enjoyed other Nemirovsky works that I've read, and as this is her first, written when she was only 21, I'm prepared to let her off this dull little book. It concerns a young man who through no fault of his own no longer has a family fortune and is obliged to work. He meets and falls in love with a young married woman of his own class. Their differing expectations of life and his experience of war means their affair is doomed from the outset. This book charts its unhappy progress. I can't really find anything else to say about it.
sonjah's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mariavazquezsolaun's review against another edition
3.0
El malentendido es la primera novela de Irène Nemirovsky, una autora que llevaba años en mi lista de pendientes y que me encantará tachar. Podría haber ocurrido que por ser El malentendido su primera novela y tratar un tema que, a priori, no me resultaba atractivo, la idea de empezar por esta hubiera terminado siendo un fracaso pero, para mi sorpresa, no ha sido así.
#Elmalentendido versa sobre la historia de amor de Denise e Yves, un viejo amigo del marido de Denise con quien coinciden en unas vacaciones a Hendaya. Un amor tímido e inocente en sus comienzos que no tarda en transformarse en otro egoísta y obsesivo.
La diferencia de clases, el egoísmo con el que ambos abordan la relación en una determinada etapa y las expectativas, ay esas expectativas, acaban provocando malentendidos en la pareja y haciéndolos desgraciados. Y es la forma de abordar estos malentendidos y la capacidad de dotar a los personajes de esa intensidad emocional que los caracteriza lo que más me ha sorprendido de la autora. Me pregunto cómo puede alguien con 23 años escribir algo de tal intensidad y tan bien dibujado, ¿cómo?
La novela, en poco mas de 150 páginas, aborda muchos temas claves para entender a cada uno de sus personajes, como la pérdida de estatus, las infidelidades "consentidas", el papel de la mujer en el matrimonio, la soledad o ese querer ver en el otro lo que necesitamos y no lo que es.
Tengo que reconocer que los personajes me han sacado de quicio por momentos; él por su pasividad y por su orgullo, y ella por esa obsesión enfermiza con la que entiende esta relación. Estás leyendo la historia y estás preguntándote, pero ¿en qué compensa? ¿qué están haciendo? ¿por qué no hablan? Luego te das cuenta que cosas similares pasan en la vida real y que nuestros sentimientos y la forma de abordarlos no ha cambiado tanto desde que se escribiera esta novela en 1926.
Con ganas de seguir explorando la obra de la autora.
#Elmalentendido versa sobre la historia de amor de Denise e Yves, un viejo amigo del marido de Denise con quien coinciden en unas vacaciones a Hendaya. Un amor tímido e inocente en sus comienzos que no tarda en transformarse en otro egoísta y obsesivo.
La diferencia de clases, el egoísmo con el que ambos abordan la relación en una determinada etapa y las expectativas, ay esas expectativas, acaban provocando malentendidos en la pareja y haciéndolos desgraciados. Y es la forma de abordar estos malentendidos y la capacidad de dotar a los personajes de esa intensidad emocional que los caracteriza lo que más me ha sorprendido de la autora. Me pregunto cómo puede alguien con 23 años escribir algo de tal intensidad y tan bien dibujado, ¿cómo?
La novela, en poco mas de 150 páginas, aborda muchos temas claves para entender a cada uno de sus personajes, como la pérdida de estatus, las infidelidades "consentidas", el papel de la mujer en el matrimonio, la soledad o ese querer ver en el otro lo que necesitamos y no lo que es.
Tengo que reconocer que los personajes me han sacado de quicio por momentos; él por su pasividad y por su orgullo, y ella por esa obsesión enfermiza con la que entiende esta relación. Estás leyendo la historia y estás preguntándote, pero ¿en qué compensa? ¿qué están haciendo? ¿por qué no hablan? Luego te das cuenta que cosas similares pasan en la vida real y que nuestros sentimientos y la forma de abordarlos no ha cambiado tanto desde que se escribiera esta novela en 1926.
Con ganas de seguir explorando la obra de la autora.
justinm's review against another edition
4.0
In her first novel, only republished after her success with David Golder, Irène takes a stab at describing the joys and woes of love and relationships. The story is that of Yves Harteloup and Denise Jessaint. Yves, a once rich boy is now a poor man who, unlike his interest Denise, has to work for a living. Denise whiles away her hours in a marriage of convenience but after meeting Yves at holiday in Hendaye they both fall passionately in love with each other. On their return to Paris, however, the season changes as they both return to their normal lives. Denise almost goes mad with the fact that her lover presents a brick wall of emotion, and their relationship depends on the few hours of the working week in which they are both free to see each other.
The Misunderstanding is by time, not hard to read. The chapters are short and the book amounts to little over 150 pages. In fact, if you were as captivated as I was, you can easily finish it in a day. But reading about the relationship between Yves and Denise, for me at least, pulled at something inside me. The 'emotional ambivalence', as the blurb describes Yves state of mind, sometimes describes my own. The worrying, the sickness, the happiness of love - Némirovsky skill for capturing these aspects of relationships is something I haven't found from any other writer so far. In any case, there was also something more, something I don't know if I could even describe - perhaps it was the realness of the atmosphere even though this book was written so long ago. I guess that's why her works are considered classics of the sort; they capture something universal and eternal.
The Misunderstanding is by time, not hard to read. The chapters are short and the book amounts to little over 150 pages. In fact, if you were as captivated as I was, you can easily finish it in a day. But reading about the relationship between Yves and Denise, for me at least, pulled at something inside me. The 'emotional ambivalence', as the blurb describes Yves state of mind, sometimes describes my own. The worrying, the sickness, the happiness of love - Némirovsky skill for capturing these aspects of relationships is something I haven't found from any other writer so far. In any case, there was also something more, something I don't know if I could even describe - perhaps it was the realness of the atmosphere even though this book was written so long ago. I guess that's why her works are considered classics of the sort; they capture something universal and eternal.
gaiazaini's review against another edition
3.0
«Ecco, è finita... Io non lo sapevo che era quella, la felicità... E ora è finita...».
wafa's review against another edition
3.0
I was always waiting for something exciting to happen. But somehow it didn't. I'm not saying that I didn't like this book. In fact, I enjoyed reading it but there is just nothing much to tell about it. Yves and Denise were never meant to be.