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Reviews tagging 'Sexism'
Crónica do Pássaro de Corda by Maria João Lourenço, Haruki Murakami
15 reviews
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, War
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Having never read Murakami, I feel that this book touches every critique I’ve heard from others that have read Murakami’s books. Sexism, excessive gore and violence, and overwrought excess scenes. For the good, anyone interested in surrealist, dreamlike mysteries this is a deep dive into these themes. Murakami weaves Twin Peaks-esque mystical surrealism and his complex, flawed, and confused narrator to create a novel that feels meaningful and profound yet superficial and easy to consume, much in the same way a dream feels just after you wake up. Ultimately, I have never read a book quite like this and am happy to have finished it but would not recommend it to a reader unless they’re interested in the specific qualities I’ve mentioned here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, War
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
oh well. what a trip this book has been. oh dear.
took me like 10 days to process it and finally leave a review. i’m not even really a review person, but i felt like i had to take my time with this one.
took me like 10 days to process it and finally leave a review. i’m not even really a review person, but i felt like i had to take my time with this one.
long story short: derealization fever dream. (that’s what i’ve been calling it ever since i picked it up!)
the novel’s split into 3 parts, and for the first two, i wasn’t reading for the plot. not at all.
i was reading for the feeling it gave me — this hazy, tranquil state. not walking between the lines with ur eyes, just floating through the fog, trying to catch whatever words drifted close enough.
that mood was constantly interrupted by sexual scenes. nothing irks me more than descriptions of intercourse through that pervy male gaze. it was too much. i almost quit the book because of it, ngl.
the novel’s split into 3 parts, and for the first two, i wasn’t reading for the plot. not at all.
i was reading for the feeling it gave me — this hazy, tranquil state. not walking between the lines with ur eyes, just floating through the fog, trying to catch whatever words drifted close enough.
that mood was constantly interrupted by sexual scenes. nothing irks me more than descriptions of intercourse through that pervy male gaze. it was too much. i almost quit the book because of it, ngl.
but then part 3 hit me. somewhere around chapter 45, i had a real eureka moment. suddenly it all clicked — the characters, their stories, the meaning woven into the layers. it struck me hard.
and just as quickly, i realized why i stuck around: maybe because i was feeling it too.
gut-wrenching, terrifying grief. the freezing-over that happens after. all of it, represented in these details.
the well is where u go when u'r thinking about your trauma. the isolation, the suffocating feeling, the sense of almost dying. u don’t even know why you dive so deep — but u do. every time. voluntarily. funny, isn’t it?
the cat is fleeting happiness. comes and goes whenever it wants. never stays.
my favorite symbol is
people notice. they point it out. they get weird about it. they don’t know what to say. it’s tragic — u were normal just yesterday. maybe it’s the lack of words that makes them pull away. and yeah, i get it. not everyone wants to look directly at someone in that kind of strange, altered state.
and when i started seeing grief through the book’s symbolism, the war storyline made sudden sense.
what better metaphor is there for loss, for the unbearable weight of grief? even if you survive, war kills off your spiritual self.
toru didn’t live through war, but he saw himself in the veteran. that’s the point — they were connected by the same kind of suffering.
it’s really not the greatest book i’ve ever read. and yet i stared into the void for at least an hour after finishing it.
i kept returning to this review section, bumping my rating up. 3.25, then 3.5. 3.75. i’m giving it a 4.25 now.
a lot of thoughts.
i kept returning to this review section, bumping my rating up. 3.25, then 3.5. 3.75. i’m giving it a 4.25 now.
a lot of thoughts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Grief, War
Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual violence, Blood, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexism, Vomit
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
really felt like a chronicle... loved episodes of this story and sections but didn't really come together but maybe that's the point... also he is quite sexist tbh... think it is worth reading though
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Will be placed on my Siberia-shelf, whereto male, chauvinist writers are banned. A shelf that is, unfortunately, home to a lot of well-written books.
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I am gonna attempt to get back into book reviews, just for my own enjoyment. We’ll see how that goes.
This 600 page monster was definitely an endeavor, recommended to me by a friend who later revealed she had never finished it. I’m not going to give it a star rating because I feel so conflicted about it. Cause on the one hand, yes, interesting. And on the other, ew, no, why.
I’ll do a nice little pros/cons list.
Pros:
The atmosphere, surreal and uneasy, was very effective and unique. At least, unlike anything I have read before. It felt like the kind of dream that wasn’t necessarily bad, but you feel weird the rest of the day. I definitely think I *felt* the way i was intended to.
The writing itself was witty and vivid, although quite redundant. It felt a bit like reading a Wes Anderson sex dream. I was drawn in by the interwoven stories, primarily the WWII plots (they felt a bit like episodes of the Magnus Archives, to me). I found the themes of dissociation/alienation from the body, sense of unreality, free-will questions, all that jazz, compelling enough I *wanted* to keep reading.
Cons:
Mr Murakami does not write women well. With the exception of Nutmeg, every female character is in some way a sexual fantasy for either the protagonist or author. And there are a lot of female characters, all of whom, for some reason, wanna bone bland-ass Toru Okada with his weird magical face. Why do all of them have the same body? It was distracting, icky, and definitely impeded me from being able to say “yeah I like this book” or to recommend it.
Neutral:
This feels like a book report book. It’s very complex, with repeated theming and parallels between characters, etc. I think if I chose to make the effort to reread and analyze more intentionally, I’d find some interesting stuff. Just reading it, however, with my typical thinking cap, was a bit like wading through a fog (back to the dreamlike nature of the book). I was usually interested in whatever was happening, but what was it actually *about*? I’m not 100% sure. The water was bad, so he killed the bad guy in his mind, and now the water is good? This conflict between the good vibes and bad vibes is very old, maybe related to Mongolia, and it took this guy being unemployed to fix the problem of that house’s bad vibes? And all women have a freaky thingy in them that what seems to be essentially Reiki (/j) will calm down (may or may not be water related). And the wind up bird dictates whether anyone has the power to fix the vibes at all. Because free will isn’t real, so you can’t kill the Russian, you can’t save the zoo animals, but this guy can kill his brother-in-law psychically.
I’d love to have a conversation with someone about this, see what perspectives I may be missing. I’m sure there’s a lot of symbolism and meaning to be dredged up. But, at the same time, if you enjoy women being written as people—like me—maybe pass.
In conclusion, I’m really glad this man found his cat. Happy to have read the work of such a renowned author, and to know I probably won’t pick it up again.
This 600 page monster was definitely an endeavor, recommended to me by a friend who later revealed she had never finished it. I’m not going to give it a star rating because I feel so conflicted about it. Cause on the one hand, yes, interesting. And on the other, ew, no, why.
I’ll do a nice little pros/cons list.
Pros:
The atmosphere, surreal and uneasy, was very effective and unique. At least, unlike anything I have read before. It felt like the kind of dream that wasn’t necessarily bad, but you feel weird the rest of the day. I definitely think I *felt* the way i was intended to.
The writing itself was witty and vivid, although quite redundant. It felt a bit like reading a Wes Anderson sex dream. I was drawn in by the interwoven stories, primarily the WWII plots (they felt a bit like episodes of the Magnus Archives, to me). I found the themes of dissociation/alienation from the body, sense of unreality, free-will questions, all that jazz, compelling enough I *wanted* to keep reading.
Cons:
Mr Murakami does not write women well. With the exception of Nutmeg, every female character is in some way a sexual fantasy for either the protagonist or author. And there are a lot of female characters, all of whom, for some reason, wanna bone bland-ass Toru Okada with his weird magical face. Why do all of them have the same body? It was distracting, icky, and definitely impeded me from being able to say “yeah I like this book” or to recommend it.
Neutral:
This feels like a book report book. It’s very complex, with repeated theming and parallels between characters, etc. I think if I chose to make the effort to reread and analyze more intentionally, I’d find some interesting stuff. Just reading it, however, with my typical thinking cap, was a bit like wading through a fog (back to the dreamlike nature of the book). I was usually interested in whatever was happening, but what was it actually *about*? I’m not 100% sure. The water was bad, so he killed the bad guy in his mind, and now the water is good? This conflict between the good vibes and bad vibes is very old, maybe related to Mongolia, and it took this guy being unemployed to fix the problem of that house’s bad vibes? And all women have a freaky thingy in them that what seems to be essentially Reiki (/j) will calm down (may or may not be water related). And the wind up bird dictates whether anyone has the power to fix the vibes at all. Because free will isn’t real, so you can’t kill the Russian, you can’t save the zoo animals, but this guy can kill his brother-in-law psychically.
I’d love to have a conversation with someone about this, see what perspectives I may be missing. I’m sure there’s a lot of symbolism and meaning to be dredged up. But, at the same time, if you enjoy women being written as people—like me—maybe pass.
In conclusion, I’m really glad this man found his cat. Happy to have read the work of such a renowned author, and to know I probably won’t pick it up again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Torture
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, War
Minor: Abortion
I did like it, even though there were disturbing scenes of violence and it was deeply sexist. It was just such a work of imagination and so unselfconscious. He's a product of a sexist culture (as am I, as are most of us), so of course since he writes in such an unpurposeful and non-deliberate manner, his writing will reflect that. In an interview he said "I’m not a thinker, or a critic, or a social activist. I’m just a novelist. If someone tells me that my work is flawed when viewed through a particular ism, or could have used a bit more thought, all that I can do is offer a sincere apology and say, 'I’m sorry.' I’ll be the first guy to apologize."
I do feel like my curiousity about his work has been satisfied and don't care to read more as this is reputed to be his masterpiece (and least sexist novel). I do want to read his short story "Sleep" sometime because I read that the first person narrator was a well-developed female character and that it was a wonderful story.
I do feel like my curiousity about his work has been satisfied and don't care to read more as this is reputed to be his masterpiece (and least sexist novel). I do want to read his short story "Sleep" sometime because I read that the first person narrator was a well-developed female character and that it was a wonderful story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At face value this is an exceptionally well written book with a plot that lulls in spots and diverges in increasingly bizarre ways, but is ultimately kept interesting by the overarching mystery and the intrigue of its characters. As is ever the case, there is unc mfortable amounts of sexism and misogyny from both our narrator and murukami, as he introduces and incorporates women into the book. Not every thread of this expansive narrative is drawn together in a satisfying, clear cut conclusion, and as with other works by murukami, this is typically by design.
I've read some other of his works and what I've found is that the themes of the book precede the narrative. What matters in this book are the themes of fate vs rebirth, light vs dark etc. and how our characters grapple with them.
In finishing the book I was initially left somewhat disappointed in the lack of a conclusive plot, however I find the excitement of his novels come from how you, as the reader, deconstruct the plot based on your interpretation of his themes. You are always left guessing because there are never clear answers and the freedom to organise a plot by feeling like your solving a mystery is an experience that is rare and ultimately rewarding.
I've read some other of his works and what I've found is that the themes of the book precede the narrative. What matters in this book are the themes of fate vs rebirth, light vs dark etc. and how our characters grapple with them.
In finishing the book I was initially left somewhat disappointed in the lack of a conclusive plot, however I find the excitement of his novels come from how you, as the reader, deconstruct the plot based on your interpretation of his themes. You are always left guessing because there are never clear answers and the freedom to organise a plot by feeling like your solving a mystery is an experience that is rare and ultimately rewarding.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, War
Reads like incel fiction with a strange outlook on every woman so far - sexualized and/or stiff and inhuman. The male gaze is in full force here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Suicide attempt
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Sexism
I wish Murakami would be able to write a female character without describing their boobs for once!