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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
No
Wow. How this book was able to pair hope and curiosity with acknowlegding a bleak reality is unmatched. I feel like the narrator is a real person and while we both have questions about the world, sometimes in life you don’t get the answer, or the answers don’t make sense, and that is the way things work.
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This really wasn’t what I expected, but I am so happy to have read this! It was a really beautiful novel and while it leaves me with more questions than I’d normally like, I can really appreciate that - the feeling of something unknown. It’s very fitting.
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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:
Complicated
I ... have no memories of my own childhood. Perhaps that’s why I’m so different from the others. I must be lacking in certain experiences that make a person fully human. [loc. 1546]
We first encounter the nameless narrator near the end of her solitary life, determined that her story will not die when she does. Gradually we discover her history: that her first memories are from an underground prison where she, and thirty-nine adult women, were held captive for years. She can't recall anything from before the prison, and none of the women can tell her much: just screams, flames, a stampede... The guards are all male, and don't speak to or interact with the prisoners, except to pinish them for talking, for touching.
Then a siren blares, the guards flee, and the women escape. (It is not as simple as that.) They find themselves in an empty world; they find other bunkers, where all the prisoners are dead; they argue about whether this is Earth, about why they were imprisoned, about what happened. And eventually there is only our narrator, much younger than the others, alone in a refuge of her own.
In some ways this is a bleak novel: in others, it's surprisingly uplifting. I admired the narrator's pragmatism, and her ability to fantasise. It's clear that she does love, and does suffer, even if not in the same ways as the older women. (I could make an argument for her being something other than human, but that interpretation feels too glib.)
Translated from the French, this was a novel for the Prix Femina in 1995. Jacqueline Harpman was a Belgian Jew whose family fled the Nazis (many of her relatives died in Auschwitz): later in life she became a psychoanalyst. I'd like to read more of her work.
The reader and I thus mingled will constitute something living, that will not be me, because I will be dead, and will not be that person as they were before reading, because my story, added to their mind, will then become part of their thinking. [loc. 2358]
2.75
Ja, która jest wściekła że nie dostała dosłownie ŻADNYCH wyjaśnień.
Sama książka była dla mnie cholernie ciekawa, ale nie rozumiem czemu, CZEMU autorka zostawiła nas bez jakiegokolwiek wyjaśnienia.... mam w głowie tyle pytań i mnie to męczy.
Co było powodem izolacji kobiet? Co się stało z wszystkimi mężczyznami? Gdzie jakiekolwiek dzieci? Czy gdzieś jeszcze było normalnie? Skąd strażnicy brali jedzenie i przedmioty dla kobiet skoro one w ciągu tylu lat podróży nie znalazły nic nowego?! plssss i need answers :'(
nie wiem może po prostu jestem za głupia, a ta książka miała głebokie inne przesłanie którego nie udało mi sie wyczytać - bo jeśli nie to jaki był cel tej książki? co autorka chciała nam dokładnie przekazać?
mam też wrażenie ze było tu troche luk fabularnych i błędów logicznych....
mam focha na tą książke.
Ja, która jest wściekła że nie dostała dosłownie ŻADNYCH wyjaśnień.
Sama książka była dla mnie cholernie ciekawa, ale nie rozumiem czemu, CZEMU autorka zostawiła nas bez jakiegokolwiek wyjaśnienia.... mam w głowie tyle pytań i mnie to męczy.
Co było powodem izolacji kobiet? Co się stało z wszystkimi mężczyznami? Gdzie jakiekolwiek dzieci? Czy gdzieś jeszcze było normalnie? Skąd strażnicy brali jedzenie i przedmioty dla kobiet skoro one w ciągu tylu lat podróży nie znalazły nic nowego?! plssss i need answers :'(
nie wiem może po prostu jestem za głupia, a ta książka miała głebokie inne przesłanie którego nie udało mi sie wyczytać - bo jeśli nie to jaki był cel tej książki? co autorka chciała nam dokładnie przekazać?
mam też wrażenie ze było tu troche luk fabularnych i błędów logicznych....
mam focha na tą książke.
dark
emotional
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
it took me a while to really get into it. once the main event happened, i managed to finish the book within 24 hours. I kind of love and hate that the questions arent answered. it allows for interpretation and imagination, but i crave explanations