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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
I was a little disappointed in this book to be honest. I'd heard such great things about it, but I didn't find it that impactful. I think that had more to do with my way of reading it (i.e., very rushed in the two hours before class started) than the book itself. I didn't really know what themes I was supposed to be looking for, which made it difficult to really engage with the book since so much of the book is about the messages/philosophies themselves above and beyond the story and the characters. I also think this book would mean more to me if death was more on my mind - which thankfully right now it's not. I'd be interested to see how this book lands for me under other reading and general life circumstances.
a never pleasant reminder that following the path you are “supposed” to follow and doing the “right” thing for you to do can lead to an agonizingly boring and rather painful life and death :) happy reading!
Death – what a subject! It’s been on my mind lately, and even the recent books I’ve picked up seem to revolve around it. A profound yet unsettling topic, but one we can't avoid. Here, Tolstoy tackles with remarkable insight ,the uncomfortable reality of mortality, the elusive nature of happiness, and the emptiness of societal norms. As always, Tolstoy is masterful—brutally honest yet graceful in confronting these truths. He makes us genuinely feel for Ivan Ilych, empathizing deeply with his mental and physical suffering.
“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?”
“False. Everything by which you have lived and live now is all a deception, a lie, concealing both life and death from you.”
“It can't be that life is so senseless and horrible. But if it really has been so horrible and senseless, why must I die and die in agony? There is something wrong!”
“It occurred to him that he had not spent his life as he should have done. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false.”
“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?”
“False. Everything by which you have lived and live now is all a deception, a lie, concealing both life and death from you.”
“It can't be that life is so senseless and horrible. But if it really has been so horrible and senseless, why must I die and die in agony? There is something wrong!”
“It occurred to him that he had not spent his life as he should have done. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false.”
"Talvez eu não tenha vivido como se deve - acudia-lhe de súbito à mente. - Mas como não, se eu fiz tudo como é preciso?"
será que estamos vivendo a vida que devia ter sido ou a vida que outros consideram correta? ou melhor, aquela de que nós mesmos nos convencemos ser a correta?
será que estamos vivendo a vida que devia ter sido ou a vida que outros consideram correta? ou melhor, aquela de que nós mesmos nos convencemos ser a correta?
Read for the 2018 Popsugar challenge - "book mentioned in another book" prompt. This book was mentioned in Atul Gawande's "Being Mortal" (which I read for the "book about death or grieving" prompt). This book would, obviously, fit for either category. I am in total agreement with what Gawande found remarkable about this short but profound story - that one of Ivan's few comforts in his last days was the presence of someone who was not trying to cure him, and not acting as though he was going to get better. His greatest comfort came from someone who was simply willing to sit with him, to be there and do what small physical act might be comforting for that moment. Someone willing, in other words, willing to be present with him in those long tedious and painful hours as he faced his own mortality.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
p.120 "It's as though I had been going steadily downhill while I imagined I was going up. That's exactly what happened. In public opinion I was moving uphill, but to the same extent life was slipping away from me."
p. 127 "His official duties, his manner of life, his family, the values adhered to by people in society and in his profession--all these might not have been the real thing. He tried to come up with a defense of these things and suddenly became aware of the insubstantiality of them all. And there was nothing left to defend."
p. 127 "His official duties, his manner of life, his family, the values adhered to by people in society and in his profession--all these might not have been the real thing. He tried to come up with a defense of these things and suddenly became aware of the insubstantiality of them all. And there was nothing left to defend."
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes