Reviews

Damn this book was really ahead of its time in regards to the prose, it reads just like a fitzcarraldo -- but unfortunately, as I feel about most fitzcarraldo's, it was bordering on incomprehensible at points. The obsessive yet detached attitude of the narrator really worked for me, and it is probably the best literary translation of a portrait ever written.

ktrain3900's review

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3.0

Odd but endearing, surreal and mundane, this novel is both captivating and sluggish. It's not for everyone, but if you're looking for something outside the usual plot and action, something both of the world and a little out of it, this tale of an introverted young woman's voyeurism and detached interaction may be what you're looking for.

stacialithub's review

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1.0

I just couldn't connect with this one. While I can appreciate all the analysis & supposed merit of this work, it still doesn't mean I actually enjoyed or even liked this book. It felt like work to read it, to wade through her sentences. I didn't really care whether the situation was real or imagined to the protagonist; it was boring & repetitive... (& maybe that's part of the point the author was making). It's supposedly a gothic tale, a take on some of the rigid roles women were once consigned to, & more. Reading so many rave reviews & deep thoughts about it make me think I probably missed some spark, some great train of thought, some revelation, some feeling. I felt like I was crawling over clumsy sentences that went nowhere.

Ultimately, I found it boring & pointless. I couldn't even take pleasure in the writing itself because I didn't like her writing style.

monika_monia's review

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challenging dark

4.0

oliwiapre's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

"Will you miss me?"

"It's our duty"

nghia's review

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3.0

People in the Room is a short (200 pages) novel originally published in 1950 by Argentine author Norah Lange. She was a contemporary and friend of Argentine authors like Jorge Luis Borges but this is not "magical realism". Though it predates them both substantially, I was reminded of Sofia Coppola's movie The Virgin Suicides and Peter Jackson's movie Heavenly Creatures. From The Virgin Suicides it has the same sense of confinement, claustrophobia, of being irresistibly fascinated by (female) neighbors, and of all the adults carrying on like nothing has happened. From Heavenly Creatures it has the same sense of (overly) intense friendship, wildly emotional (over)reactions and detailed fantasy worlds.

And at that moment—as if everything had been prepared for me to attend this meeting with my appointed destiny—I saw them for the first time

The story isn't much but that's not the point. A young woman, 17? 18? years old, notices that there are three women living across the street. They apparently never leave the house and every evening she sees the three of them sitting in the drawing room. She becomes intrigued, then fascinated, then obsessed. She eventually contrives a way to meet them, to be invited into their home, and eventually spends a lot of time with them.

“We are always at home,” as if they were absentmindedly comforting me, as if inviting me to keep spying on them, stealing their habits, pieces of their words.

And then, after four months, they are gone. It is an open question whether any of it is real or actually happened. Her family gives no real awareness of either the neighbors or her alleged many visits to them. Despite spending many hours with them over four months, she never learns their names or where the come from or why they live in the house or why they never leave the house.

Perhaps he was in love with one of them, but was afraid to show it? Perhaps all three were in love with him, and would have to decide that evening which of them was strongest? Perhaps her death hinged on his words?

Instead she lets her imagination run wild. The three are widows, despite all three being just 30 years old. The three are criminals in hiding. One has a terminal illness. One is suicidal. They are sisters. They are merely acquaintances.

Nothing is ever made clear. That's a large part of the charm of the novel. Haven't we all, at some point, come across some stranger in our life and imagined a life story for them? Either to simply fill idle time or to try to make sense of them?

Perhaps I didn’t understand them, but I watched them, God knows I watched them until piece by piece they invaded me, scratching at me, walking through me.

I liked parts of this. Scenes and sentences and phrases. But it was just a little bit too claustrophic and the protagonist a little too wrapped up in herself for me to really emotionally connect with anything that was happening.

nighttimereading's review

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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