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230 reviews for:
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Lauren Elkin
3.54 AVERAGE
230 reviews for:
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Lauren Elkin
3.54 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I've had this on my TBR almost since it came out and I wish I read it sooner. I really enjoyed it. It rang similarly to Women I Think About at Night, which was my favorite read last year.
I'm not sure how other readers can be surprised and dismayed that a book about wandering is also somewhat wandering. Although I do think that this might also be called English 305: Women and Outdoor Space bound together with the professor's own autobiography.
It's an interesting book that I think works well as an audiobook where one can listen and be swept away by the prose but the ending is somewhat heavy handed. It probably should have ended with, "reader, I got French citizenship" and just stopped there. To extend the book's metaphor, it's like that last leg of a long journey that needs to be endured rather than enjoyed, exhaustion and familiarity numbing all sensations.
It's an interesting book that I think works well as an audiobook where one can listen and be swept away by the prose but the ending is somewhat heavy handed. It probably should have ended with, "reader, I got French citizenship" and just stopped there. To extend the book's metaphor, it's like that last leg of a long journey that needs to be endured rather than enjoyed, exhaustion and familiarity numbing all sensations.
A little more academic than I was expecting I think and somewhat repetitive. Liked it anyways though, especially the Varda chapter
this is my favourite sort of non-fiction! a lovely mash-up of cultural history, art criticism and personal memoir, as well as being an ode to the joys and sorrows of urban life.
Flâneuse починається, як досить пізнавальна і захоплива штука (мене спочатку зовсім не турбували вкраплення описів власного досвіду Лорен Елкін гуляння містами, навпаки - вони здавалися дуже логічними і зрозумілими), але вже десь після третини вона перетворюється на мішанину ниття Елкін про своїх бойфрендів і ліричних відступів в чортзна-які дєбрі. Найбільше шкода, що ближче до кінця книги власне про flâneuserie говориться все менше й менше, ну і те, що таки говориться - дууууже поверхнево.
2,5 з 5
2,5 з 5
medium-paced
It was hard to rate this book. There were parts that really dragged on and I completely lost interest. But the parts I did enjoy, I LOVED. She has very flowery and romantic writing, as well as attitude, so be warned. But I loved that.
They were like love letters to every city and whether it was me reminiscing with her or vicariously through her, it was fun.
And I also thoroughly enjoyed reading her perspective of how it is that women are free/limited in how we move through the world and its streets.
They were like love letters to every city and whether it was me reminiscing with her or vicariously through her, it was fun.
And I also thoroughly enjoyed reading her perspective of how it is that women are free/limited in how we move through the world and its streets.
This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Some parts were really interesting and informative, but too much of it was just personal reflections from an absurdly privileged person. It was almost like she had the concept but not the content to fill up a book without going on about her boring life.
Both an academic exploration and memoir reflecting on what it means to walk the streets as a woman: what it means to be anonymous (as one of the crowd) but also seen (as pinned under the male gaze and the public eye). Flâneuse asks questions of identity, like what it means to navigate the city as a local or an immigrant or a prodigal retournée, as well as what cities have meant to famous female writers, film makers, and photographers as places of both freedom and restriction. As someone who best enjoys traversing cities by foot and who has wandered some of the cities that the author mentions, I really enjoyed this book. Would recommend to any fellow female flâneuse!
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced