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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
For me, reading this was like finally tasting some very particular kind of chocolate that I had suspected for years I would really enjoy, and then having it surpass my expectations. I can't believe no one has ever made me read Nin before; I couldn't put it down and it was entirely due to how she was writing, not the plot, which is a pretty rare occurrence in my reading life. There's a certain streak of violent heterosexuality that is disturbing but accurate; interesting explorations of femininity, masculinity, and female friendship/competition; and simply beautiful, unexpected, original metaphor. Prose poetry, basically. FYI, this book contains hella exoticizing, fetishizing, weird racist descriptions of people, starting in literally the first paragraph.
Dramatische verkenning van intense (afhankelijkheids)relaties
I think Anais Nin understands people really really well. She describes thoughts, feelings, and motivations with a perceptive insight. She doesn't explain these things as if she is talking about human nature, but just her intuition of how people are. My favourite quote from the book:
"He had the appetite of the age of giants. He could read the fattest books, tackle the most immense paintings, cover the vastest territories in his wanderings, attack the most solemn system of ideas, produce the greatest quantity of work. He excluded nothing: everything was food. He could eat the trivial and the puerile, the ephemeral and the gross, the scratchings on the wall, the phrase of a passerby, the defect on a face, the pale sonata streaming from a window, the snoring of a beggar on a bench, flowers on the wallpaper of a hotel room, the odour of cabbage on a stairway, the haunches of a bareback rider in the circus. His eyes devoured details, his hands leaped to grasp. His whole body was like a sensitive sponge, drinking, eating, absorbing with a million cells of curiosity."
"He had the appetite of the age of giants. He could read the fattest books, tackle the most immense paintings, cover the vastest territories in his wanderings, attack the most solemn system of ideas, produce the greatest quantity of work. He excluded nothing: everything was food. He could eat the trivial and the puerile, the ephemeral and the gross, the scratchings on the wall, the phrase of a passerby, the defect on a face, the pale sonata streaming from a window, the snoring of a beggar on a bench, flowers on the wallpaper of a hotel room, the odour of cabbage on a stairway, the haunches of a bareback rider in the circus. His eyes devoured details, his hands leaped to grasp. His whole body was like a sensitive sponge, drinking, eating, absorbing with a million cells of curiosity."
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Soft DNF, couldn’t get in to it before I had to return to the library
