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marinacka17's review against another edition
3.0
"Il n'y a pas d'amours stériles. Toutes les précautions n'y font rien. Quand je te quitte, j'ai au fond de moi ma douleur, comme une espèce d'horrible enfant."
daybreak's review against another edition
3.0
This is one of those book you either love or hate.
I was really tempted to give this 4 stars but the reading experience was generally not that great so 3.
First off the bad. The writing of Marguerite Yourcenar here is dreamy. It's ethereal. This is supposed to be good except that like everything "onirique", like every dream, it feels fleeting, it feels within reach while escaping your grasp at the same time. Some people like that. I don't. Though the writing is indeed wonderful at times, I would much rather a more rooted story/writing. For some parts of the book, I was confused, trying to understand what point the author was trying to make, what exactly she was going for. This felt like reading my notebooks : things that made sense to me but that people would not necessarily understand. I got the impression here that I was in the head of Marguerite Yourcenar trying to make sense of what she meant. Some stuff I understood, some I did not.
Maybe it's my fault though. Maybe I should give this another shot in a year or two.
As for the good, two stories were absolutely wonderful! Léna ou le secret and Clytemnestre où le crime. These two really felt like stories, not just fleeting wisps of beauty. And they were really good stories too. Especially Clytemnestre's. It depicts the life of women in ancient times so beatifully : how women were just from beginning to end shaped for men. It was absolutely riveting. Incredible writing + good story? That's faultless for me!
All in all it was pretty good. I kind of feel bad giving it 3. Maybe I should change that. Enfin...
I was really tempted to give this 4 stars but the reading experience was generally not that great so 3.
First off the bad. The writing of Marguerite Yourcenar here is dreamy. It's ethereal. This is supposed to be good except that like everything "onirique", like every dream, it feels fleeting, it feels within reach while escaping your grasp at the same time. Some people like that. I don't. Though the writing is indeed wonderful at times, I would much rather a more rooted story/writing. For some parts of the book, I was confused, trying to understand what point the author was trying to make, what exactly she was going for. This felt like reading my notebooks : things that made sense to me but that people would not necessarily understand. I got the impression here that I was in the head of Marguerite Yourcenar trying to make sense of what she meant. Some stuff I understood, some I did not.
Maybe it's my fault though. Maybe I should give this another shot in a year or two.
As for the good, two stories were absolutely wonderful! Léna ou le secret and Clytemnestre où le crime. These two really felt like stories, not just fleeting wisps of beauty. And they were really good stories too. Especially Clytemnestre's. It depicts the life of women in ancient times so beatifully : how women were just from beginning to end shaped for men. It was absolutely riveting. Incredible writing + good story? That's faultless for me!
All in all it was pretty good. I kind of feel bad giving it 3. Maybe I should change that. Enfin...
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