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skrrtvonnegut's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I really did not enjoy this book. The narrator was deeply unlikeable and I really didn't care what direction her life was going or if she would actually write a play.
keight's review against another edition
4.0
I might have skipped this semi-autobiographical novel entirely if I’d only read James Wood’s rather negative opinion in his New Yorker review. Luckily a friend pointed me toward Johanna Fateman’s Bookforum review, and I reconsidered. It’s a strangely tricky book, as I suspect readers will either relate or entirely not-relate to the character Sheila’s ambition to be the best person she can be. But those who do relate may enjoy how she explores this conceit, while others may be disgusted by the ugliness of it and what that, indirectly, says about them. Read more on my booklog
hannahmadeline's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
kathrynhmm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ficklefever's review against another edition
4.0
sheila heti is incredible and i can't believe i'm taking a craft seminar with her this month!!!
mlautchi's review against another edition
We tried not to smile, for smiling only encourages men to bore you and waste your time. 5
I was determined to start the task I had long been putting off , having for too long imagined it would take care o of itself, without my paying attention to it all, all the while knowing in my heart that I was avoiding I'd, trying to patch myself together with the admiration for the traits I saw so clearly in everyone else. I said to myself sternly, *It's time to stop asking questions if other people. It is time to just go into a cocoon and spin your soul.* 5
I had spent so much time trying to make the play I was writing—and my life, and my self—into an object of beauty. It was exhausting and all I knew. 13
As we walked, I told Misha my fears. Then, after listening for a long while, he finally said, "The only thing I ever understood is that everyone should make the big mistakes." So I took what he said to heart and got married. Three years later I was divorced. 20
We don't know the effects we have on each other, but we have them. 20?
One night, in a bar on a boat that was permanently docked at the harbor, I sat beside an old sailor. He had been watching me steadily as I drank. Then we started discussing children; he'd never had any, and I said I thought I would not, as I was certain my kid would be a bad kid. He said, bewildered, "How could anything not good come from you?"
I felt so moved then —shivering at the thought of a divine love that accepts us all, in our entirety. The bar around us became rich and saturated with color, as if all the molecules in the air were bursting their seams—each one insisting on its perfection too.
Then the moment was gone. I saw him just as an old 21 man. 22
Women always have to confirm with each other, even after so many years: We are still all right. But in the exaggeration of their effusiveness, you know that things are not all right between them, and that they never will be. A woman can't find rest or take up home in the heart of another woman-not permanently. It's just not a safe place to land. I knew the heart of a woman could be a landing ground for a man, but for a woman to try to land in another woman's heart? That would be like landing on something wobbly, without form, like trying to stand tall in Jell-O. Why would I want to stand tall in Jell-O?
Yet there were things in Margaux's email I could not resist. I admired her courage, her heart, and her brain. I envied the freedom I suspected in her, and wanted to know it better, and become that same way too. 33
For so long I had been looking hard into every person I met, hoping I might discover in them all the thoughts and feelings I hoped life would give me, but hadn't. There are some people who say you have to find such things in your-self, that you cannot count on anyone to supply even the smallest crumb that your life lacks.
Although I knew this might be true, it didn't prevent me from looking anyway. Who cares what people say? What people say has no effect on your heart. 38
As Margaux and I sat there, I tried to be compassionate. I thought about how difficult it is to live in this world without any clothes on. I know it's the gods who determine who among us is fated to go through life with her clothes off. When the gods gather around a baby in its cradle and dole out their gifts and curses, this is one aspect of things they consider.
Most people live their entire lives with their clothes on, and even if they wanted to, couldn't take them off. Then there are those who cannot put them on. They are the ones who live their lives not just as people but as examples of people. They are destined to expose every part of themselves, so the rest of us can know what it means to be a human. 60 Most people lead their private lives. They have been given a natural modesty that feels to them like morality, but it's not-it's luck. They shake their heads at the people with their clothes off rather than learning about human life from their example, but they are wrong to act so superior. Some of us have to be naked, so the rest can be exempted by fate. 61
I was determined to start the task I had long been putting off , having for too long imagined it would take care o of itself, without my paying attention to it all, all the while knowing in my heart that I was avoiding I'd, trying to patch myself together with the admiration for the traits I saw so clearly in everyone else. I said to myself sternly, *It's time to stop asking questions if other people. It is time to just go into a cocoon and spin your soul.* 5
I had spent so much time trying to make the play I was writing—and my life, and my self—into an object of beauty. It was exhausting and all I knew. 13
As we walked, I told Misha my fears. Then, after listening for a long while, he finally said, "The only thing I ever understood is that everyone should make the big mistakes." So I took what he said to heart and got married. Three years later I was divorced. 20
We don't know the effects we have on each other, but we have them. 20?
One night, in a bar on a boat that was permanently docked at the harbor, I sat beside an old sailor. He had been watching me steadily as I drank. Then we started discussing children; he'd never had any, and I said I thought I would not, as I was certain my kid would be a bad kid. He said, bewildered, "How could anything not good come from you?"
I felt so moved then —shivering at the thought of a divine love that accepts us all, in our entirety. The bar around us became rich and saturated with color, as if all the molecules in the air were bursting their seams—each one insisting on its perfection too.
Then the moment was gone. I saw him just as an old 21 man. 22
Women always have to confirm with each other, even after so many years: We are still all right. But in the exaggeration of their effusiveness, you know that things are not all right between them, and that they never will be. A woman can't find rest or take up home in the heart of another woman-not permanently. It's just not a safe place to land. I knew the heart of a woman could be a landing ground for a man, but for a woman to try to land in another woman's heart? That would be like landing on something wobbly, without form, like trying to stand tall in Jell-O. Why would I want to stand tall in Jell-O?
Yet there were things in Margaux's email I could not resist. I admired her courage, her heart, and her brain. I envied the freedom I suspected in her, and wanted to know it better, and become that same way too. 33
For so long I had been looking hard into every person I met, hoping I might discover in them all the thoughts and feelings I hoped life would give me, but hadn't. There are some people who say you have to find such things in your-self, that you cannot count on anyone to supply even the smallest crumb that your life lacks.
Although I knew this might be true, it didn't prevent me from looking anyway. Who cares what people say? What people say has no effect on your heart. 38
As Margaux and I sat there, I tried to be compassionate. I thought about how difficult it is to live in this world without any clothes on. I know it's the gods who determine who among us is fated to go through life with her clothes off. When the gods gather around a baby in its cradle and dole out their gifts and curses, this is one aspect of things they consider.
Most people live their entire lives with their clothes on, and even if they wanted to, couldn't take them off. Then there are those who cannot put them on. They are the ones who live their lives not just as people but as examples of people. They are destined to expose every part of themselves, so the rest of us can know what it means to be a human. 60 Most people lead their private lives. They have been given a natural modesty that feels to them like morality, but it's not-it's luck. They shake their heads at the people with their clothes off rather than learning about human life from their example, but they are wrong to act so superior. Some of us have to be naked, so the rest can be exempted by fate. 61
thishannah's review against another edition
Did I like this? Yes, mostly...but I am having trouble saying why, and am not even fully convinced of my own liking it.