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chrustyslice's review against another edition
3.0
A couple sections really wowed me, but the impact seemed to be either well-tread in the self-consciousness department, or another entry in the playwright/artist-in-metropolitan-city-trying-to-figure-it-all-out canon.
abigailrbooks's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kaetiii's review against another edition
3.0
I really like Sheila Heti (see: http://www.sheilaheti.net/whygoout.html ). And there was a lot about the cadence and rhythm of the book that I loved, moments of clarity, and her curious look at our relationship with life, art, etc.
That said, it felt void of emotional depth. Nothing visceral about it (at least for me).
That said, it felt void of emotional depth. Nothing visceral about it (at least for me).
retrotrash's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
bookchew's review against another edition
2.0
Sloppy, unwieldy with its many themes left under-treated. Has some potential (I underlined a passage or two) and reflects a (very self-aware) artistic choice, but without a cohesive and successful result.
michellelfang's review against another edition
3.0
This is one of those books where things happen but also nothing really happens. Extensive use of allegory, metaphor, and imagery were sometimes cool but mostly very confusing. It got really weird in the middle for a while, so much so that I stopped reading for more than a week — but I went back and finished it, and still enjoyed the last third. I enjoyed the observations about our relationships with others and ourselves, human nature, love, what it means to be human, what it means to love, and how a person should be.
frozen_tangerine's review against another edition
challenging
dark
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
mariaulatowski's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
5.0
Right from the start I really loved this book. It made me sit in lots of discomfort at times and comfort in being seen in others. It led to having a really vulnerable conversation with my best friend where we shared so many things. Whatever this book was, it made me feel so many things, that whenever I think about it, it will make me feel a twinge in my body that will always remind me of how much it struck me. Sure there were aspects I didn’t like specifically the man she dates and the meanderings on that, but I looked past it for the whole. I couldn’t believe how many reviews were horrible, and how I like it so much when others thought it insufferable. But I guess just like people not everyone or everything is loved by everyone but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hold value for others, and love doesn’t have to come from everyone but the ones who are there are special. Maybe my mind is just as insufferable, either way I’m glad I read this.
janiev's review against another edition
2.0
I am sure there will be many who love this book and may relate to the characters, for me, however it was not the case. I started out really interested and wanted to see where it would go, but about a third of the way through I realized I was not the targeted market.
cdlindwall's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. It's bizarre, witty, and deeply relatable, a metafictional/autobiographical play-about-a-novel-about-a-play. I know this book has a polarizing effect, among both men and women. But I fall firmly on Heti's side.
She writes from the perspective of herself (kinda), a lost artist asking herself and those around her what she believes is the most important question – how should a person be? Her character is struggling to write a play she doesn't believe in while navigating challenging relationships with her friends/lovers. Specifically, she forms a deep friend-love with a woman Marguax and a troubling sexual relationship with a man named Isaac. All the while, she continues to ask– how do we shape ourselves; whom do we model ourselves after; what is the ideal; is asking ourselves all this really narcissistic anyway?
I found Heti's character to ring so true. In many ways, she comes off as deeply vain and troubled. And this is where I think many readers write Heti off. They look at this flawed character and think Heti is holding women up as petty and self-obsessed and superficial. When of course the answer is yes! yes they sometimes are! And examining the reasons we find ourselves mired in those neuroses, unsure how best to transcend them, can still make smart, compelling literature! I read one reviewer who said this book somehow validated their worst fears about young, pretty, shallow, city-dwelling women. Perhaps! But this woman is broken and the story is about her searching for some sense of truth.
She feels this deep self-consciousness about forming her own identity. She finds that traits which look good on others ring hollow on her. She is obsessed with the perfection of herself. She wants to be some platonic ideal of a human, something admired and reveled in and never scorned. Like a celebrity, but a "life of undying fame that I don't have to participate in." She wants to be beautiful, to men especially. And the whole time she's reaching and becoming, becoming and reaching. That's what this book is about, and Heti does it phenomenally.
I found one passage in particular to be powerful, where she lets go of needing to be wanted. She purposefully does something she knows Isaac will find unappealing and would "strip every last filament of gold from my skin, all the gold I had put there.": "What I had done in the night – it felt like the first choice I had ever made not in the hopes of being admired. I had not done it to please him. It was not to win someone's regard. Then, from the inside of me came a real happiness, a clarity and an opening up, like I was floating upward to the heavens." It was a shift in her character's journey and let her finally make headway in her writing. I found the entire storyline about Isaac to be spot-on. The mental burdens women take on to make themselves more attractive to men can weigh down entire lives, can drain all joy.
The whole book deals in the battling of perceptions, really. How do others view Heti? How do men view her? How do people view her work as an artist? What will make them view her in a better light? How does she view herself? But she's challenged by how she should prioritize these, whether they are related, and whether we can rise above them. Ultimately, when we ask ourselves, "how should a person be," we have to ask who it's all for. But it's an unwinnable game when you want to be loved by all, infallible, above criticism, perfect.
I felt Heti's self-consciousness and vulnerability in my bones. She's laying out the vulgarity and sadness and beauty in the way we're always reaching for our place here, for acceptance, and for the truest version of ourselves. The whole point is that it can be painful to watch at times.
She writes from the perspective of herself (kinda), a lost artist asking herself and those around her what she believes is the most important question – how should a person be? Her character is struggling to write a play she doesn't believe in while navigating challenging relationships with her friends/lovers. Specifically, she forms a deep friend-love with a woman Marguax and a troubling sexual relationship with a man named Isaac. All the while, she continues to ask– how do we shape ourselves; whom do we model ourselves after; what is the ideal; is asking ourselves all this really narcissistic anyway?
I found Heti's character to ring so true. In many ways, she comes off as deeply vain and troubled. And this is where I think many readers write Heti off. They look at this flawed character and think Heti is holding women up as petty and self-obsessed and superficial. When of course the answer is yes! yes they sometimes are! And examining the reasons we find ourselves mired in those neuroses, unsure how best to transcend them, can still make smart, compelling literature! I read one reviewer who said this book somehow validated their worst fears about young, pretty, shallow, city-dwelling women. Perhaps! But this woman is broken and the story is about her searching for some sense of truth.
She feels this deep self-consciousness about forming her own identity. She finds that traits which look good on others ring hollow on her. She is obsessed with the perfection of herself. She wants to be some platonic ideal of a human, something admired and reveled in and never scorned. Like a celebrity, but a "life of undying fame that I don't have to participate in." She wants to be beautiful, to men especially. And the whole time she's reaching and becoming, becoming and reaching. That's what this book is about, and Heti does it phenomenally.
I found one passage in particular to be powerful, where she lets go of needing to be wanted. She purposefully does something she knows Isaac will find unappealing and would "strip every last filament of gold from my skin, all the gold I had put there.": "What I had done in the night – it felt like the first choice I had ever made not in the hopes of being admired. I had not done it to please him. It was not to win someone's regard. Then, from the inside of me came a real happiness, a clarity and an opening up, like I was floating upward to the heavens." It was a shift in her character's journey and let her finally make headway in her writing. I found the entire storyline about Isaac to be spot-on. The mental burdens women take on to make themselves more attractive to men can weigh down entire lives, can drain all joy.
The whole book deals in the battling of perceptions, really. How do others view Heti? How do men view her? How do people view her work as an artist? What will make them view her in a better light? How does she view herself? But she's challenged by how she should prioritize these, whether they are related, and whether we can rise above them. Ultimately, when we ask ourselves, "how should a person be," we have to ask who it's all for. But it's an unwinnable game when you want to be loved by all, infallible, above criticism, perfect.
I felt Heti's self-consciousness and vulnerability in my bones. She's laying out the vulgarity and sadness and beauty in the way we're always reaching for our place here, for acceptance, and for the truest version of ourselves. The whole point is that it can be painful to watch at times.