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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
At times the timeline jumping made the pacing inconsistent, but her beautiful writing carried it through. Potentially my love for Hamnet made me want to like this more than I actually did.
dark
tense
medium-paced
When discussing historical women, an air of acceptance is every and bland. We conclude the otherwise terrifying, doomed stories with "Well, that's what happened to young women back then." Here, however, Maggie O'Farrell shows that women, internally, did not conclude their she-tragedies with generalizations and sorrowful, bland footnotes. O'Farrell contrasts women in restriction with that of beasts, tigresses, their bars not cages but camouflage. Lucrezia summons resistance, timid at first, but later calling upon the reader to feel this denial, this fevered opposition.
The prose is beautiful, examined as though through a magnifying glass for its sharpness. The whole thing, if you're invested enough (which you should be!) feels like standing on a ledge with one foot off the ground. Something about the writing is so crystalline. This crystal-quality is compared to O'Farrell's take on these Renaissance women, whose countenances were once blurred in history books (unless queens) and has made them into dynamic vivisections, taking the suffocation from their lives and giving it a name; terror. Terror of being born to marry, terror of living with a man you do not know, terror of suppression at the altar.
Nothing is forgotten by O'Farrell. A shared hue of the hair, honey water, stone martens upon tavolo. Everything comes back, everything is important, necessary for each level of this story.
I will never forget this book. The imagination of it, the clarity of a once dusty, blurred scene--- to quote Assosciated Press's review, "O'Farrell has taken a historical footnote [...] and added imaginative strokes that paint a different picture."
Or, an underpainting, richer than the layers washed away in vinegar.
The prose is beautiful, examined as though through a magnifying glass for its sharpness. The whole thing, if you're invested enough (which you should be!) feels like standing on a ledge with one foot off the ground. Something about the writing is so crystalline. This crystal-quality is compared to O'Farrell's take on these Renaissance women, whose countenances were once blurred in history books (unless queens) and has made them into dynamic vivisections, taking the suffocation from their lives and giving it a name; terror. Terror of being born to marry, terror of living with a man you do not know, terror of suppression at the altar.
Nothing is forgotten by O'Farrell. A shared hue of the hair, honey water, stone martens upon tavolo. Everything comes back, everything is important, necessary for each level of this story.
I will never forget this book. The imagination of it, the clarity of a once dusty, blurred scene--- to quote Assosciated Press's review, "O'Farrell has taken a historical footnote [...] and added imaginative strokes that paint a different picture."
Or, an underpainting, richer than the layers washed away in vinegar.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Beautifully written and a very interesting subject. But it was long and dragged on for me.
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This was wildly interesting…but I could not sit with how Amelia was murdered and that was left as just that..
dark
informative
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
love love love! such a wonderfully descriptive book, flowery language. super interesting to learn about these real people, the author makes history fun and intriguing.
This was a selection for book club last month, but I was unable to get this in time due to a long queue at the library. I still wanted to read this, though, and what a gem of a book.
Not much is known about Lucrezia de Medici's short life, save for a few basic facts, and a rumor that persists that she died not of a "putrid fever," but was in fact poisoned by her husband.
O'Farrell reimagines Lucrezia's history, and weaves a story to fill in those gaps. The descriptions are lush, the story beautiful and harrowing by turns. Recommended.
Not much is known about Lucrezia de Medici's short life, save for a few basic facts, and a rumor that persists that she died not of a "putrid fever," but was in fact poisoned by her husband.
O'Farrell reimagines Lucrezia's history, and weaves a story to fill in those gaps. The descriptions are lush, the story beautiful and harrowing by turns. Recommended.