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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
I last read this around 30 years ago and had remembered that Gervaise's main downfall was her lack of will. This time, it was those assholes she ended up with, particularly her first baby daddy. They sucked the life out of her starting from a first pregnancy at 14. Zola's world of the working class as they're tearing down the old to make way for the new, replacing artisans with machines, and keeping the eau-de-vie flowing is another testament to Parisian life. Who knew there were so many French words for person of ill repute?
I can appreciate Zola's significance in his role of using writing to highlight the invisible poverty of 1800s Paris for sure, and you can see an eye for detail and a genuine passion in his descriptions of impoverished neighbourhoods and various different trades and jobs. However, this book feels more like poverty porn. The characters are two-dimensional and do not seem to have motivations for their actions or personalities, and there's little commentary on structural or systematic injustices: characters' poverty are frequently attributed to laziness, greed or poor money management. And frankly this book was just boring.
Okay. Great read!
I still don't have the best words to talk about it. I have the feeling there are so many things I didn't see or didn't realise. The writing style is amazing and the narrative construction is so relevant to the story.
We follow the everyday life of a young laundress, Gervaise. Her ambition in life is simple : she just wants to have a roof on her head, some food in her plate, a good education for her children, a non-violent partner and to die in her bed. But things won't happen this way.
The end of the novel is aboslutely stunning, especially a beginning that can appear a bit long and boring. We follow the working-class everyday life, with their fights and their struggles, but also their relations, their small success and illusions of success.
I still don't have the best words to talk about it. I have the feeling there are so many things I didn't see or didn't realise. The writing style is amazing and the narrative construction is so relevant to the story.
We follow the everyday life of a young laundress, Gervaise. Her ambition in life is simple : she just wants to have a roof on her head, some food in her plate, a good education for her children, a non-violent partner and to die in her bed. But things won't happen this way.
Spoiler
Coming from a violent family, she became a hard-working young mother of 2. At 22, her partner, a lazy man, left her for another woman. She meets Coupeau, a roofer and lives her best years. Both of them work, they have a daughter, Nana, and they manage to save money. But one day, Coupeau falls from a roof and his behaviour changes. Then, a long series of unfortunate events starts...The end of the novel is aboslutely stunning, especially a beginning that can appear a bit long and boring. We follow the working-class everyday life, with their fights and their struggles, but also their relations, their small success and illusions of success.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Anni dopo è rimasto uno dei miei libri preferiti. Una storia cruda e imprevedibile abbinata ad uno stile di scrittura equilibrato e ben curato.
4.5 stars. How does Zola manage to do it? Novel after novel, time and again, he writes with verve and vibrancy, painting life in all its enthralling color and subtleties. His awareness of the small details that frame a setting or define a character’s day-to-day existence and inner struggles is unparalleled. His language is closely attuned with painting in this regard, which makes the chapter featuring the wedding party touring the Louvre a memorable one in this novel filled with many such moments.
This is the thirteenth novel in Zola’s recommended reading order of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, and somehow the novels just seem to get better, which is stunning considering the quality of the cycle to this point. (And to think that I haven’t even gotten to Zola’s most acclaimed masterpieces, yet!) Previously, we have traced our way through the Rougon family’s upper class aspirations and bourgeois failings, before transitioning to the working class Macquart side of the family. With L’Assommoir, we are entering into the grimy and depressing world of the lower working class, for which Zola is perhaps most justly famous in chronicling, and which will take us through the final seven novels in the cycle.
Zola loves to use animals and locations as visual cues to his characters. In the opening chapter, we are introduced to Gervaise (granddaughter of Tante Dide from [b:The Conquest of Plassans|22913305|The Conquest of Plassans|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407958483l/22913305._SY75_.jpg|803050], way back in the first novel of the cycle) who literally lives between a slaughterhouse and a hospital. Zola’s descriptions of the dreary lives of the working class during the Industrial Revolution evoke empathy and pity, so that we view their dependence on alcohol as a horrible symptom of a disease beyond which they have no control (poverty and inequality), but which society as a whole could address if it so desired.
We are further introduced to Gervaise’s children -- Claude, Etienne, and Nana -- who will appear in subsequent novels. The most fully-developed and memorable character of the three is clearly Nana, whose early life of beatings, neglect, and emotional abuse lead her down the path to prostitution that will be explored in the later novel bearing her name.
Two-thirds of the way through the recommended reading order of Zola's cycle, L'Assommoir announces that we are now entering the darkest and most famous stretch of novels in Zola's career. Although this has already been an incredible reading experience for me over the past four years, I can't help but think that the best has yet to come from Zola.
This is the thirteenth novel in Zola’s recommended reading order of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, and somehow the novels just seem to get better, which is stunning considering the quality of the cycle to this point. (And to think that I haven’t even gotten to Zola’s most acclaimed masterpieces, yet!) Previously, we have traced our way through the Rougon family’s upper class aspirations and bourgeois failings, before transitioning to the working class Macquart side of the family. With L’Assommoir, we are entering into the grimy and depressing world of the lower working class, for which Zola is perhaps most justly famous in chronicling, and which will take us through the final seven novels in the cycle.
Zola loves to use animals and locations as visual cues to his characters. In the opening chapter, we are introduced to Gervaise (granddaughter of Tante Dide from [b:The Conquest of Plassans|22913305|The Conquest of Plassans|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407958483l/22913305._SY75_.jpg|803050], way back in the first novel of the cycle) who literally lives between a slaughterhouse and a hospital. Zola’s descriptions of the dreary lives of the working class during the Industrial Revolution evoke empathy and pity, so that we view their dependence on alcohol as a horrible symptom of a disease beyond which they have no control (poverty and inequality), but which society as a whole could address if it so desired.
We are further introduced to Gervaise’s children -- Claude, Etienne, and Nana -- who will appear in subsequent novels. The most fully-developed and memorable character of the three is clearly Nana, whose early life of beatings, neglect, and emotional abuse lead her down the path to prostitution that will be explored in the later novel bearing her name.
Two-thirds of the way through the recommended reading order of Zola's cycle, L'Assommoir announces that we are now entering the darkest and most famous stretch of novels in Zola's career. Although this has already been an incredible reading experience for me over the past four years, I can't help but think that the best has yet to come from Zola.
Settimo romanzo della saga dei Rougon - Maquart e spietata denuncia dell'allucinante stato di degrado nel quale si dibattono gli operai della Parigi di fine Ottocento.
Con il più crudo naturalismo che caratterizza le sue opere, Zola ci descrive le inumane condizioni di vita alle quali essi vengono spinti dalla miseria e dall'alcolismo attraverso la storia di Gervaise (la madre della Nanà che diverrà protagonista del romanzo successivo) che in seguito ad innumerevoli disgrazie finirà per precipitare in un baratro di povertà, ubriachezza e violenza.
Non un bel libro ma sicuramente da leggere.
Con il più crudo naturalismo che caratterizza le sue opere, Zola ci descrive le inumane condizioni di vita alle quali essi vengono spinti dalla miseria e dall'alcolismo attraverso la storia di Gervaise (la madre della Nanà che diverrà protagonista del romanzo successivo) che in seguito ad innumerevoli disgrazie finirà per precipitare in un baratro di povertà, ubriachezza e violenza.
Non un bel libro ma sicuramente da leggere.
L'Assommoir loosely translates as "The Dram Shop," but there isn't a direct translation into English. It's essentially a bar that sell cheap liquor that was present in France in the 19th century.
Gervaise, is a young woman recently moved to Paris, with her two sons and boyfriend, Lantier. Lantier frequently stays out all night, spends all their money, and beats her upon returning. She is hopeful that he will marry her, since the children are his.
It's a clue right there that Gervaise doesn't have the strongest sense of self or confidence.
Although she tries to be good and devoted, Lantier leaves her anyway. There is an epic thrashing in a laundry between Gervaise and another woman, Virginie, who she thinks had something to do with him leaving. It's a reality tv level cat-fight. Scratching, throwing water, and at one point beating each other with some sort of laundry tool. I was very entertained.
Although Gervaise feels ruined at this point, she meets another man, Coupeau, and they soon marry. Coupeau doesn't drink and he works hard. She diligently saves their money and opens her own laundromat (not sure what the true term was in this time period), and dreams of having a nice life.
It doesn't happen. Coupeau has an accident at work, turns to drinking, and he becomes utterly useless. L'Assommoir focuses on the evils of alcoholism and how it makes you a terrible person. All of the men who drink abuse their wives and families, and there are some horrible beatings in the story.
It made me angry reading some of the passages, how all the neighbors were so passive, but I get that it was a product of the times.
In the beginning, I felt truly sorry for Gervaise. She is really trying to do better, but the men in her life keep messing it up. However, near the end she becomes lazy and complacent. There's a continual theme of her being too timid to speak up for herself, and she lets her husband do whatever he wants, essentially ruining them.
I can't say that Gervaise has no culpability, but at the start she is dealt a terrible hand. Probably if she had married a good man, things would have turned out differently for her.
The ending is sad and depressing. What did you expect about a 19th century working class French novel?
Gervaise, is a young woman recently moved to Paris, with her two sons and boyfriend, Lantier. Lantier frequently stays out all night, spends all their money, and beats her upon returning. She is hopeful that he will marry her, since the children are his.
It's a clue right there that Gervaise doesn't have the strongest sense of self or confidence.
Although she tries to be good and devoted, Lantier leaves her anyway. There is an epic thrashing in a laundry between Gervaise and another woman, Virginie, who she thinks had something to do with him leaving. It's a reality tv level cat-fight. Scratching, throwing water, and at one point beating each other with some sort of laundry tool. I was very entertained.
Although Gervaise feels ruined at this point, she meets another man, Coupeau, and they soon marry. Coupeau doesn't drink and he works hard. She diligently saves their money and opens her own laundromat (not sure what the true term was in this time period), and dreams of having a nice life.
It doesn't happen. Coupeau has an accident at work, turns to drinking, and he becomes utterly useless. L'Assommoir focuses on the evils of alcoholism and how it makes you a terrible person. All of the men who drink abuse their wives and families, and there are some horrible beatings in the story.
It made me angry reading some of the passages, how all the neighbors were so passive, but I get that it was a product of the times.
In the beginning, I felt truly sorry for Gervaise. She is really trying to do better, but the men in her life keep messing it up. However, near the end she becomes lazy and complacent. There's a continual theme of her being too timid to speak up for herself, and she lets her husband do whatever he wants, essentially ruining them.
I can't say that Gervaise has no culpability, but at the start she is dealt a terrible hand. Probably if she had married a good man, things would have turned out differently for her.
Spoiler
I really her to run away with Goujet! I understand that Zola wants to show life as it often happens, rather than making a fairytale ending in which Gervaise gets to escape everything.The ending is sad and depressing. What did you expect about a 19th century working class French novel?
4,5
Marquant.
Rien de moins.
Mon avis sur le blog:
http://moncoinlecture.com/2017/04/lassommoir-emile-zola/
Marquant.
Rien de moins.
Mon avis sur le blog:
http://moncoinlecture.com/2017/04/lassommoir-emile-zola/
WOW. What a cool book to compare with Madame Bovary. Depressing through and through......transports you to someplace frightful and so realistic that it could chill YOU to death.
Everything is terrible and nothing matters. That's the message I took from this book and I loved every second of it. Zola's not afraid to get dark--really dark--and no character is safe. Any time you think something can't possibly get worse, it does. Perhaps Zola was a little heavy-handed with the whole alcohol=bad thing, but the book is beautifully written and I was entranced by every page.