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curlyb's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
cdeane61's review
4.0
The language and the prose is stunning, and the story line is compelling also.
Loved looking up the paintings as she spoke of them and brought them into the story.
Will have to look into her other works.
Loved looking up the paintings as she spoke of them and brought them into the story.
Will have to look into her other works.
almaliest's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
i have never before read something similar.
this unusual novel celebrates a slowness and introversion of thought, balanced by the protagonist’s keen eye for her surroundings and people. i enjoyed this deepdive into the atmosphere of museums from an unique perspective. Maries reflections are at times fascinating, and rich in knowledge on art. loved the themes of destruction and creation/protection, which seem to connect all aspects of the novel. this drawing of parallels is done by marie a lot as well, especially between historical events regarding the art in the museum and her personal life or political issues as well.
still the novel is at times agonisingly slow, so you have to be in the right mood and pretty much all characters are insufferable.
this unusual novel celebrates a slowness and introversion of thought, balanced by the protagonist’s keen eye for her surroundings and people. i enjoyed this deepdive into the atmosphere of museums from an unique perspective. Maries reflections are at times fascinating, and rich in knowledge on art. loved the themes of destruction and creation/protection, which seem to connect all aspects of the novel. this drawing of parallels is done by marie a lot as well, especially between historical events regarding the art in the museum and her personal life or political issues as well.
still the novel is at times agonisingly slow, so you have to be in the right mood and pretty much all characters are insufferable.
syds_malaika's review
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.5
shanviolinlove's review
5.0
Astounding novel. I have been reflecting on why it slowed my reading pace so significantly; I usually read through books twice its length in half the time. For one thing, there are no throwaway sentences, rare among novels. For another, Chloe Aridjis writes poetry in her prose, careful and elegant observations that deeply probe the surface level. In Chapter Six, she considers angles, literal and figurative, that took place during a significant event in the story; in other places, she considers the decay of art--of everything--and how art was meant to create something out of chaos, only to succumb to chaos in the end.
The heroine, Marie, is weird. She picks up a stagnant job for that very reason--and sticks with it for nine years! She paints landscapes in eggshells, scouring London for art supplies to capture specific shades and textures, and then mounts dead moths into them. She likes peeking into taxidermy shops. She was in love with a man who owned the skull of a 12-year-old boy from the 1800s. Her love life, on that note, is even lonelier than Emily Dickinson's. She is fascinated by the mundane and the macabre, much like the entirety of this novel. Were I to sum up the plot, it would fit in a sentence. So much is happening within interiority--Marie recalls different people in her life, the odds and ends of their lives. It's a novel that reflects the pace of someone whose vocation is spent watching others, a vocation that allows for infinite amounts of think-space. She recalls her great-grandfather, a fellow art museum guard, who once witnessed an aggressive act by a suffragette, and Marie constantly returns to this memory she herself does not actually possess. The dynamic juxtaposed against her passive, undisturbing life. Until it gets disturbed, but even then, the novel takes its time getting there.
This is definitely not a story for everyone, and I can easily see how someone looking to be engaged in a plot would grow fatigued by how long it takes for a plot point to occur. (Indeed, the book flap describes an event that doesn't actually occur until three quarters into the novel.) But if you're looking for something quietly interesting, unsettling even in its simplicity, check this one out. I found myself reading it slowly, sometimes only a chapter at a time--not my usual--but enjoying myself to the very end.
The heroine, Marie, is weird. She picks up a stagnant job for that very reason--and sticks with it for nine years! She paints landscapes in eggshells, scouring London for art supplies to capture specific shades and textures, and then mounts dead moths into them. She likes peeking into taxidermy shops. She was in love with a man who owned the skull of a 12-year-old boy from the 1800s. Her love life, on that note, is even lonelier than Emily Dickinson's. She is fascinated by the mundane and the macabre, much like the entirety of this novel. Were I to sum up the plot, it would fit in a sentence. So much is happening within interiority--Marie recalls different people in her life, the odds and ends of their lives. It's a novel that reflects the pace of someone whose vocation is spent watching others, a vocation that allows for infinite amounts of think-space. She recalls her great-grandfather, a fellow art museum guard, who once witnessed an aggressive act by a suffragette, and Marie constantly returns to this memory she herself does not actually possess. The dynamic juxtaposed against her passive, undisturbing life. Until it gets disturbed, but even then, the novel takes its time getting there.
This is definitely not a story for everyone, and I can easily see how someone looking to be engaged in a plot would grow fatigued by how long it takes for a plot point to occur. (Indeed, the book flap describes an event that doesn't actually occur until three quarters into the novel.) But if you're looking for something quietly interesting, unsettling even in its simplicity, check this one out. I found myself reading it slowly, sometimes only a chapter at a time--not my usual--but enjoying myself to the very end.
ksusanna's review
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand there’s some beautiful prose and I can tell the writer is skillful and whatnot, but I was also just bored out of my mind for most of it
lola425's review
3.0
I felt like the book had promise that it didn't fulfill. The writing was lovely, but I felt that it was a trifle dull. I just didn't engage with Marie at all, felt that the Jane and Lucian storyline could have been more developed. Didn't see how they were relevant to the story except as foils to highlight Marie's character (Jane) or to shed (a very little) light on her past (Lucian). The whole thing felt stalled to me.
marginaliant's review
3.0
Lovely prose in parts (I’m a sucker for someone just waxing poetic about art, obviously) but ultimately that could not save it because nothing happens in this book. It’s a series of disconnected vignettes that do not add up to anything effective or moving.
kmhoover's review
4.0
“Since her last visit I had thought many times about how a painting went from being a thing of beauty to a thing of decaying beauty to a thing of decay.”