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v_aria_ble's review against another edition
challenging
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
junosdaughter's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Maggie Laurence is a mother to a lot of the literary fiction girls out there today and they don’t even know it. This novel is hilarious, simple but well-crafted. Rachel’s inner dialogue is startlingly authentic, so much so that I was shocked seeing this described as “a woman hovering on the brink of madness” in the introduction because this is literally just girlhood to me.
She becomes a fool for love, after spending her entire life disgusted by the “fools” of the world; those who wear emotions on their sleeves, those who wear unflattering clothes, those who aren’t conscious of sticking out, those who do not make their every decision in life to align seamlessly with the world around them. Rachel tells herself she could never be like them, it would be a jest of God to ever end up in a similar way. Then, she meets a man. For the first time in her life, she has an outlet for the emotions she keeps locked away. For the first time, she chooses on pure desire. For the rest of the novel, it’s as Jacqueline Novak put so eloquently: “I, too, hear the jingle of bells upon my hat.”
At her most foolish, most irrational and unwise, Rachel is so sympathetic. Her bitterness starts to melt away and, finally with a life of her own to deal with, she becomes less critical of everyone else. Slowly, she sees how her terrible insecurity is killing her inside out:
“Go on, Rachel. Apologize. Go on apologizing for ever, go on until nothing of you is left. Is that what you want the most?”
and…
“No, I have no pride. None left, not now. This realization renders me all at once calm, inexplicably, and almost free. Have I finished with façades? Whatever happens, let it happen. I won't deny it.”
Rachel realizing the futility of living for anyone but yourself is extremely gratifying to read because it’s such a relatable trap. We have literally all been there. We’ve all had these growing pains. Rachel’s second adolescence is just happening a little later than she might have wished.
“God’s mercy on reluctant jesters. God’s grace on fools,” the final lines of the book, one of my favourite lines of prose of all time. It’s just so deeply true!!! I could scream it from rooftops.
brittn's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-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
4.5
kate66's review against another edition
2.0
All I can really say is thank goodness that's finished. It should be 1.5 stars because I finished it and it did give me a headache but only one.
I don't books that don't really go anywhere. I don't mind slow and thoughtful books. I don't mind strange characters. What I loathe is ditherers and procrastinators, of which the narrator, Rachel Cameron is a prime example. An unmarried teacher of small children, living in the small town where she was born, I the same house she has always lived in with a mother who plays on her heart problems in order to elicit sympathy from Rachel.
It's only 234 pages long but it felt like twice that. The style of speech was infuriating with things not said and sentences finished with a dash as yet another apology was poured forth.
Margaret Atwood referred to this as an "almost perfect novel". I disagree. I found it dull, monotonous, irritating and far from perfect. I'll not be rushing to read another Margaret Laurence no matter who says she's great.
Not for me.
I don't books that don't really go anywhere. I don't mind slow and thoughtful books. I don't mind strange characters. What I loathe is ditherers and procrastinators, of which the narrator, Rachel Cameron is a prime example. An unmarried teacher of small children, living in the small town where she was born, I the same house she has always lived in with a mother who plays on her heart problems in order to elicit sympathy from Rachel.
It's only 234 pages long but it felt like twice that. The style of speech was infuriating with things not said and sentences finished with a dash as yet another apology was poured forth.
Margaret Atwood referred to this as an "almost perfect novel". I disagree. I found it dull, monotonous, irritating and far from perfect. I'll not be rushing to read another Margaret Laurence no matter who says she's great.
Not for me.
mattgroot1980's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
slc54hiwi's review against another edition
4.0
The second in the Manawaka trilogy, this book was later made into the movie "Rachel, Rachel" with Joanne Woodward. The book is darker than the movie but is not as good, IMO, as its predecessor (The Stone Angel) or its successor (The Diviners).
ddejong's review against another edition
3.0
Well-written but claustrophobic. I never felt particularly warmly towards the protagonist and narrator, Rachel Cameron, and found her mind a stressful place to spend time. I think it’s a well crafted book that I probably should have appreciated more but I just didn’t enjoy it that much.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 STARS
"In this celebrated novel, Margaret Laurence writes with grace, power, and deep compassion about Rachel Cameron, a woman struggling to come to terms with love, with death, with herself and her world.
Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness - her own and that of others - Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Through her summer affair with Nick Kazlik, a schoolmate from earlier years, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable." (From Amazon)
I loved the movie Rachel, Rachel starring Joanne Woodward (and directed by her sexy husband, Paul Newman). The novel and book are both a must read/watch. Rachel is a "spinster" teacher who dreams of a more exciting life and living with her mother over the funeral parlour is starting to weigh down her spirit. Enters a handsome boy from her past.
"In this celebrated novel, Margaret Laurence writes with grace, power, and deep compassion about Rachel Cameron, a woman struggling to come to terms with love, with death, with herself and her world.
Trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness - her own and that of others - Rachel longs for love, and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Through her summer affair with Nick Kazlik, a schoolmate from earlier years, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable." (From Amazon)
I loved the movie Rachel, Rachel starring Joanne Woodward (and directed by her sexy husband, Paul Newman). The novel and book are both a must read/watch. Rachel is a "spinster" teacher who dreams of a more exciting life and living with her mother over the funeral parlour is starting to weigh down her spirit. Enters a handsome boy from her past.
missmelia's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0