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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sometimes hard to keep track of given the names but overall really good. You can see his wife’s influence. Zero peppers.
dark
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I found this book quite Shakespearean in plot, character and setting. Lewis has adapted and expanded on the myth quite significantly while keeping the original plot. At times the dialogue of the characters was too uniform which made the characters similar. This book did very well in its portrayal of relationships. Orual is a gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.
It was confusing. I may have to read it again someday. However, an excellent choice for book club! I have a zillion questions!
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.”
“I was with book, as a woman is with child.”
“I was with book, as a woman is with child.”
“It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from.”
“Are the gods not just?" "Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were?”
“I felt ashamed."
"But of what? Psyche, they hadn't stripped you naked or anything?"
"No, no, Maia. Ashamed of looking like a mortal -- of being a mortal."
"But how could you help that?"
"Don't you think the things people are most ashamed of are things they can't help?”
"But of what? Psyche, they hadn't stripped you naked or anything?"
"No, no, Maia. Ashamed of looking like a mortal -- of being a mortal."
"But how could you help that?"
"Don't you think the things people are most ashamed of are things they can't help?”
"When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about the joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”
“But now I discovered the wonderful power of wine. I understood why men become drunkards. For the way it worked on me was not at all that it blotted out these sorrows, but that it made them seem glorious and noble, like sad music, and I, somehow great and revered for feeling them.”
“What began the change was the very writing itself. Let no one lightly set about such a work. Memory, once waked, will play the tyrant.”
I remember reading this in High School and really liking it. But I definitely couldn't remember why. Recently a friend (who were you!?) was raving about it so I figured I'd read it again and see what its about.
Frankly, for 90% of the book I was so annoyed at Oriel and the whole premise of the story. She's trying to defend her actions and why she got her beloved sister, Pysche, exiled from her husband, the God Cupid.
It's a symbolic myth. I can see some of the layers of sacrifice, atonement, changing from one person to someone who can abide a more divine presence, but all of those things barely come out in the last 10 pages of the story.
Oriel lives a life full of self-deception and blame. I have compassion for why she was the way she was, but at the same time, very little patience for people and characters like that. CS Lewis must have to defend why he chose this retelling, and why the characters were the way they were when I meet him at lunch in Heaven.
I'm going to adjust the rating from my youthful 5 stars to 3 stars.
Frankly, for 90% of the book I was so annoyed at Oriel and the whole premise of the story. She's trying to defend her actions and why she got her beloved sister, Pysche, exiled from her husband, the God Cupid.
It's a symbolic myth. I can see some of the layers of sacrifice, atonement, changing from one person to someone who can abide a more divine presence, but all of those things barely come out in the last 10 pages of the story.
Oriel lives a life full of self-deception and blame. I have compassion for why she was the way she was, but at the same time, very little patience for people and characters like that. CS Lewis must have to defend why he chose this retelling, and why the characters were the way they were when I meet him at lunch in Heaven.
I'm going to adjust the rating from my youthful 5 stars to 3 stars.
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this book. It's a great great retelling from a different perspective. It wrestles with faith, gods, and ourselves but in an agnostic way It is a reflection of who we are and how we see ourselves and how that reflects upon the world itself. We cannot know who we are until we see ourselves.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a startling book, a much different feel from anything else your likely to read. It explores complex themes of religion & belonging, beauty & hope in a way that leaves you ready to think more and in a way that, though unique, is impossible not relate to. Any human will relate with the main character, and Jack puts words into emotions that you've never before really described to yourself. An amazing read, and a startlingly convincing story of how one woman would not let station and her looks define her.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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