Reviews

Green Girl by Kate Zambreno

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phantomwifi's review against another edition

5.0

reading green girl was exciting to me because it combines ideas seen in alt lit selfie writing (marie calloway) and terrible books written by out-of-touch men (steve martin's shopgirl, for instance). the sociological influences are nuanced and made my heart beat a little faster

sholmstedt's review against another edition

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4.0

When a young man goes abroad and beds many women and becomes lost, it is such a common story line that it's a trope, really... But for a young woman to do the same, it's just like the Bell Jar? Pathologized. Do you wonder why?

anotherdayreading's review against another edition

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4.0

I picked this up after hearing Roxane Gay give it such a glowing review in her book, Bad Feminist. I have read a lot of British chick lit - books about 20-something woman living in London. But while this book was about a 20-something Londoner, it was definitely not chick lit. This one was not cheery with a happy ending. This one was about a lost girl, a young woman who doesn't know who she is supposed to be or who she wants to be. She just moves through her life, experiencing things, but not really controlling anything that is happening to her - and of course ending up much more unhappy and lost for it. It is not a life I could ever tolerate living but it is much more realistic than all the happy ending fluff. Would love to discuss this one with a book group. There is a lot there and I feel I have barely scratched the surface.

littleblueecho's review against another edition

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4.0

Beautiful. Haunting. Complex. My heart is full for and broken by the heroine at its center. She is stumbling on her way to Become.

dreamofsky's review against another edition

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3.0

A tough book to rate. In some ways I experienced this book as a painfully honest look into the internal world of one young woman. Relatable in part to many. But perhaps it was too painfully honest or maybe I can tolerate only so much ennui at one time. At another time I suspect I could have rated it 4 stars fairly easily.

ms_tiahmarie's review against another edition

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– Perhaps without a mother one can no longer be young. –

– British food was the current catastrophe of Ruth's life. –

– The agony of becoming. This is what she experiences. The young girl. She would like to be someone, anyone else. She wants, vaguely, to be something more than she is. But she does not know what that is, or how one goes about doing such things. –

–Celebrity is a drug we take, only afterwards we realize we are ugly and no one loves us. –

– Being a girl is like always being a tourist, always conscious of yourself, always seeing yourself as if from the outside. –

– He bought her the books he thought she should read, which were mostly the obvious books, because he wasn't that well-read either, but liked to see himself as her brilliant tutor. –