Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood; Youth; Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

5 reviews

okapipo's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Classism, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Medical content, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

m_sotos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.5

It is strange that in reading a memoir, I was left at the end with a very vague/incomplete sense of who the author and subject actually was. I read a review of the memoir that speaks about how Ditlevsen splits one person into two selves in the text: the self who writes and the one who exists in reality, and yet she’s unable to ever quite integrate those two selves. I think that’s a perfect summary of how reading this book feels. Despite being led through Ditlevsen’s reality from childhood to adulthood, I never really felt that I understood her own role in that reality. The brisk narration of big life events makes it seem as though she herself isn’t ever really experiencing anything to the fullest. Her life trajectory jumps from marriage to marriage quickly, just as it jumps around between various jobs, living situations, and friendships seemingly undifferentiatingly. Despite this, she’s clearly not a fully passive participant in her life (as we see also through the myriad of ways she takes charge of obtaining different drugs to uphold her opioid addiction). It’s a strange balance between Ditlevsen as the narrator controlling the presentation of her life retrospectively and seeming to pass through these same life events relatively unfeelingly as they happen. While I think the clipped, straightforward narration produces an interesting effect and (likely intentionally) speaks to the dulling impact of a perpetually unsatisfied existence, I ultimately prefer a bit more feeling for my own reading enjoyment!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and War

lghrndn's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Addiction

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, and Cancer

samarakroeger's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

miaaisha's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This trilogy is so beautifully written and translated, I think writing a review would diminish that. What I find so fascinating is how each book is written with such an untarnished point of view depending on the time period. It's also interesting that the third book lacks quotation marks which reminds me very much of Sally Rooney's writing style where the fluidity of things are reflected by it. My favourite of all three would definitely be Childhood. Though the other two were equally good, I just found the first one to be so important and poignant to the whole story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Toxic relationship

Minor: War, Pregnancy, and Infidelity