Scan barcode
wbain's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
anywiebs's review against another edition
1.0
This was a strange read. It was only 100 pages but it was so hard to get into for me. The writing felt inconsistent. Some sentences were beautiful, some were super short, some long and convoluted, but all felt disconnected at times. It was so hard to just get lost in the writing. Which I think would've been necessary for such a slow going novella.
The story is mainly short episodes of a summer visitor to a small coastal town. There's a lot of daily life, gossip and family history.
Nothing really happens and it is a wonderful close look at a time and people past from a contemporary position. But the writing made this almost unbearable for me.
I finished due to pure stubbornness alone.
The story is mainly short episodes of a summer visitor to a small coastal town. There's a lot of daily life, gossip and family history.
Nothing really happens and it is a wonderful close look at a time and people past from a contemporary position. But the writing made this almost unbearable for me.
I finished due to pure stubbornness alone.
drkshadow03's review against another edition
2.0
The Country of the Pointed Firs is a short novel that is an example of regionalism. It tells a series of sketches from the perspective of an writer visiting Dunnet Landing for the summer to the enjoy the quaint charm and isolation of a small Maine fishing town. Despite searching for solitude, presumably to write, she soon finds herself befriending and developing a deep intimacy with her landlady and local village herbalist, Mrs. Todd, and many of the other locals. of the book involves meeting new characters who they visit or come to visit them who then recall stories about family members from the past. While there is some good writing on a sentence level, this short novel really doesn’t have much of a plot and there is no real conflict to interest the reader. It is mostly the unnamed writer meeting people in the village or some of Mrs. Todd’s family and enjoying quiet domestic life as they recall family, spouses, and others who have since passed away. There is a sense of nostalgia for a past that is slowly fading and intense intimacy of small villages that pervades the writing, which has a soothing and meditative quality, but with a narrative that is soporific and boring.
After the novel is a series of Jewett’s short stories, which were more interesting. “The White Heron” is about a little girl living with her grandmother who prevents a bird hunter from finding the nest of a rare white heron. She chooses the beauties and riches of nature over the material riches that the hunter offers to provide for her help. “Marsh Rosemary” deals with an older thrifty woman who marries a good-for-nothing lazy younger man only for him to run off on a merchant ship as tensions arise over his laziness and not offering anything in the relationship. News come that he dies on the ship, only for her to discover later he never went on the ship and skipped town where he married another woman in secret. The main character recognizes her folly for marrying a useless lazy man and someone so much younger than herself. Sometimes losing someone or marrying the right person makes us better people by giving us an ideal. Our feelings can too easily override our rational common sense. In “The King of Folly Island” a successful businessman tired of his quotidian existence of civilization and commerce seeks a change by taking a vacation on an isolated island where he meets the owner who lives with his sickly daughter and bought the island to live a life away from people he dislikes and resents. The protagonist soon grows tired of the boring life on the island, but also realizes his life of wealth and commerce is folly and meaningless. A marriage proposal to the sickly daughter is proposed, but never acted upon. It’s a story about how we want what we don’t have, but also it’s hard to break habits and the way we often live others dreams and hopes.
After the novel is a series of Jewett’s short stories, which were more interesting. “The White Heron” is about a little girl living with her grandmother who prevents a bird hunter from finding the nest of a rare white heron. She chooses the beauties and riches of nature over the material riches that the hunter offers to provide for her help. “Marsh Rosemary” deals with an older thrifty woman who marries a good-for-nothing lazy younger man only for him to run off on a merchant ship as tensions arise over his laziness and not offering anything in the relationship. News come that he dies on the ship, only for her to discover later he never went on the ship and skipped town where he married another woman in secret. The main character recognizes her folly for marrying a useless lazy man and someone so much younger than herself. Sometimes losing someone or marrying the right person makes us better people by giving us an ideal. Our feelings can too easily override our rational common sense. In “The King of Folly Island” a successful businessman tired of his quotidian existence of civilization and commerce seeks a change by taking a vacation on an isolated island where he meets the owner who lives with his sickly daughter and bought the island to live a life away from people he dislikes and resents. The protagonist soon grows tired of the boring life on the island, but also realizes his life of wealth and commerce is folly and meaningless. A marriage proposal to the sickly daughter is proposed, but never acted upon. It’s a story about how we want what we don’t have, but also it’s hard to break habits and the way we often live others dreams and hopes.
silvae's review against another edition
5.0
brb going to be sad for a while that I have already read all of the longer works of an author that I can now consider a favorite of mine. A lovely successor to Deephaven, a bit more maritime (and filled with a bit less wonder), but stunning nonetheless. I am greatly looking forward to all the short stories I will be reading next.
e_l_bee's review against another edition
racist but quaint and beautiful. very cottagecore lesbian.
swish18's review against another edition
I thought it was a bit slow and it didn’t grip me like a Wendell Berry novel would.
andresreading's review against another edition
3.0
"Jewett herself felt that her strengths as a writer lay not in plot development (...)" (introductory note), and truly, if there is a plot, per se, it's very hard to find. It feels like a series of sketches portraying the landscape, the people, the customs, of coastal Maine around 1896 (the date of publishing). Of course the lack of a clear plot reduces interest in this work, but it's still written in a beautiful way, and we do get a clear picture of the time and place. It's simple, and that simplicity is the key to appreciating this book.
booksmellers's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
neolx's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
4.5
This little novella (or novelette?) is a series of vignettes detailing the events of a woman's extended stay in a small Maine fishing village. The encounters are mostly heartwarming, the writing light on plot and heavy on description (this would make a great Miyazaki film!). A theme that runs throughout is isolation/loneliness, as many of the characters the unnamed narrator befriends are widows or widowers, and most are isolated either by distance, sea, or trade. But this is countered by an emphasis on the importance and pleasures of community, visits from old friends, etc. Though the text is short (my copy is only 88 pages), I found it a difficult and slow read at times, with some characters speaking in dialect, and some vignettes heavy with local vocabulary of the time for which I could not easily find definitions. Overall, this was a moving little book--several passages brought me to tears--with beautiful writing, lovable characters, and touching scenes.
Rating: Rave
(I use the BookMarks by LitHub rating scale--Rave, Positive, Mixed, Pan--which expresses my opinion about a book better than a star rating can)
Rating: Rave
(I use the BookMarks by LitHub rating scale--Rave, Positive, Mixed, Pan--which expresses my opinion about a book better than a star rating can)