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231 reviews for:
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Lauren Elkin
3.54 AVERAGE
231 reviews for:
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Lauren Elkin
3.54 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
Elkin answers the question on whether one can do a book-length literature review on authors. Somewhat interesting, but not really what was promised.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Fantastic blend of personal essay, literary/art criticism, and meditations on urban spaces. Would highly recommend to any girlies that enjoy being smart, reading books, and taking walks
This is one of the most disappointing and most misleading books I have read in a very long time. Actually, I don't think I have ever been so mislead by a book before. The full title is
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London but very little of the book is actually about the art of walking. Really, this book is a history of several women writer's lives of the past with a mishmash of topics thrown in between them, including but not limited to: immigration, feminism, writing, protests, marching, travel, and romantic relationships. There was even a section that had page after page of a detailed retelling of a movie. WHY???
There is a ton of quoting the featured women's books or book about them and most of it is regarding the rights and freedoms (or lack thereof) of women in the particular decade that they came from.
What I wanted going into this book - a first-person view of "flâneusing" - we actually got very little of. There are a few paragraphs of the author's time spent in Paris or Venice that I quite enjoyed but 90% of the book was page after page of history and information about these women and none of it has anything to do with FLANEUR. Not only was it not about the flâneur, what it is comprised of is such a mishmash it's hard to make sense of anything.
2/5 Stars (I have given it 2 stars because I did enjoy what few words there were on the title topic)
I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London but very little of the book is actually about the art of walking. Really, this book is a history of several women writer's lives of the past with a mishmash of topics thrown in between them, including but not limited to: immigration, feminism, writing, protests, marching, travel, and romantic relationships. There was even a section that had page after page of a detailed retelling of a movie. WHY???
There is a ton of quoting the featured women's books or book about them and most of it is regarding the rights and freedoms (or lack thereof) of women in the particular decade that they came from.
What I wanted going into this book - a first-person view of "flâneusing" - we actually got very little of. There are a few paragraphs of the author's time spent in Paris or Venice that I quite enjoyed but 90% of the book was page after page of history and information about these women and none of it has anything to do with FLANEUR. Not only was it not about the flâneur, what it is comprised of is such a mishmash it's hard to make sense of anything.
2/5 Stars (I have given it 2 stars because I did enjoy what few words there were on the title topic)
I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A flâneur, according to the author, is "one who wanders aimlessly" through the city, observing his surroundings and using the urban setting as his muse. The flâneur is an oft-examined and oft-employed literary trope, and yet, Elkin notes, what of the women? Hence her invention of "the flâneuse," the female urban wanderer.
As soon as I read the premise of the book, I felt a sense of kinship with the author. I, too, have lost many an afternoon on an urban stroll. I feel at home in the noise and bustle of the city. And Elkin's prose is most convincing--and compelling--when she focuses on her own urban walks, her own lived experience in the city. Somewhat less entertaining to me were Elkin's side journeys to explore the flâneuse in literary canon, and the experience of famous (or, famous-in-certain-circles) flâneuses such as George Sand and Virginia Woolf. Martha Gellhorn and Agnes Varda's stories were compelling; many of the others, less so. I found myself leafing tediously through some of the side stories such as a digression on French protests, hoping that Elkin would return to her own experiences wandering the city.
And yet. I still find myself charmed by the book. Anyone who has wandered in the city knows, sometimes you follow a path only to discover the end point isn't nearly as compelling as you'd hoped it would be. But the journey still held your attention for an afternoon. Such is Elkin's Flâneuse. "There's a small pleasure in seeing how well I've come to know the city through my wanderings on foot, crossing through different neighborhoods of the city, some I used to know quite well, others I may not have seen in a while, like getting reacquainted with someone I once met at a party." If you've ever fallen in love with a city, and its walks, you'll find moments of recognition in Flâneuse.
As soon as I read the premise of the book, I felt a sense of kinship with the author. I, too, have lost many an afternoon on an urban stroll. I feel at home in the noise and bustle of the city. And Elkin's prose is most convincing--and compelling--when she focuses on her own urban walks, her own lived experience in the city. Somewhat less entertaining to me were Elkin's side journeys to explore the flâneuse in literary canon, and the experience of famous (or, famous-in-certain-circles) flâneuses such as George Sand and Virginia Woolf. Martha Gellhorn and Agnes Varda's stories were compelling; many of the others, less so. I found myself leafing tediously through some of the side stories such as a digression on French protests, hoping that Elkin would return to her own experiences wandering the city.
And yet. I still find myself charmed by the book. Anyone who has wandered in the city knows, sometimes you follow a path only to discover the end point isn't nearly as compelling as you'd hoped it would be. But the journey still held your attention for an afternoon. Such is Elkin's Flâneuse. "There's a small pleasure in seeing how well I've come to know the city through my wanderings on foot, crossing through different neighborhoods of the city, some I used to know quite well, others I may not have seen in a while, like getting reacquainted with someone I once met at a party." If you've ever fallen in love with a city, and its walks, you'll find moments of recognition in Flâneuse.
Very fascinating read about women, walking, art, and carrying a sense of self between the various borders of the external and internal globe. Lots of looks into the world of writers/artists, as well as memoir-esque musings on the author’s life as a flaneuse. A friend of mine said we are each born with a little flaneuse in us, and I agree. Happy to have had this look into the topic.
Enjoyable read and the kind of thing that leads you to other books, so it's a win for that reason alone.
I loved Laura Elkin's writing in "Flâneuse," and found it to be a thoroughly interesting and inspiring book which prompted further research into the lives of some of the brilliant women she referenced in its pages. I agree with some of the other reviewers on Goodreads regarding the book's title/synopsis being somewhat misleading. It's not really a study of the history of the flâneuse per se, but more a memoir which plays off and discusses the lives and work of some important female literary/art/film figures who walked and explored their respective cities in relation to the author Lauren Elkin's life. However, this didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book.
I found myself underlining passages, stopping to consider them before I continued reading. I know I am reading a good book when it prompts such pauses for reflection. I've always considered myself a flâneuse; I take great pleasure in walking alone and contemplating my environment. I love to daydream about what and whom has come before me and what is yet to come. Elkin writes of these sort of preoccupations so well that I felt it were my thoughts, the sort of dreamt, reflective passages I write in my journal, appearing on the pages of her book. "Slow down: it's the only way to guarantee your immortality" she writes in the chapter "Children of the Revolution"- it's one of many great sentences in "Flâneuse."
An excellent book that I am sure I will find myself returning to for the rest of my flâneusing days.
Sidenote: Some readers had an issue with Agnes Varda's film "Cléo from 5 to 7" being explored in detail in one chapter. Though I agree it did disrupt the flow of the book somewhat, I was overjoyed to see Varda and 'Cléo' being discussed in the context of the flâneuse, as it is a favourite film of mine and Varda is so wonderful and warrants more celebration.
I found myself underlining passages, stopping to consider them before I continued reading. I know I am reading a good book when it prompts such pauses for reflection. I've always considered myself a flâneuse; I take great pleasure in walking alone and contemplating my environment. I love to daydream about what and whom has come before me and what is yet to come. Elkin writes of these sort of preoccupations so well that I felt it were my thoughts, the sort of dreamt, reflective passages I write in my journal, appearing on the pages of her book. "Slow down: it's the only way to guarantee your immortality" she writes in the chapter "Children of the Revolution"- it's one of many great sentences in "Flâneuse."
An excellent book that I am sure I will find myself returning to for the rest of my flâneusing days.
Sidenote: Some readers had an issue with Agnes Varda's film "Cléo from 5 to 7" being explored in detail in one chapter. Though I agree it did disrupt the flow of the book somewhat, I was overjoyed to see Varda and 'Cléo' being discussed in the context of the flâneuse, as it is a favourite film of mine and Varda is so wonderful and warrants more celebration.
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
inspiring
slow-paced