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jeninmotion's review against another edition
2.0
It's not badly written and I didn't hate Marie, despite her incredible passivity, but it felt like nothing tied together. OK, her grandpa had that wild day at the museum...and? Like, the whole through-line of suffragette didn't seem to go anywhere, and while I got , it doesn't have any emotional impact, in part because there's no reason to care about most of the characters, who come across as wallpaper and decoration for Marie's ennui.
2 stars, not for a passive protagonist or even the basic plot, but mostly because nothing sparks imagination or interest due to meh characterization of everyone else and heavy thematics that don't quite connect.
Spoiler
that when the wild man scratches Marie's face, it's like the mirror of the wild suffragette slicing up the painting2 stars, not for a passive protagonist or even the basic plot, but mostly because nothing sparks imagination or interest due to meh characterization of everyone else and heavy thematics that don't quite connect.
shimmer's review against another edition
5.0
Chloe Aridjis' first novel, Book of Clouds, featured a lyrical, deeply engaging narrative voice but ultimately left me feeling like it hadn't quite "gone" anywhere (which wasn't dissatisfying). Her second, Asunder, is equally if not more lush in its prose but this time the novel — while hardly plot- or event-driven — does more with the many images, ideas, and tensions set in motion. Narrator Marie works as a museum guard in London's National Gallery, a life she has chosen for the way it allows her to exist in the margins of being near to but not herself being subject to notice. Marie, and Asunder, are very much concerned with the weight of gazes (upon bodies and artworks alike, particularly the masculine gaze upon women in both regards) and how they pin down, distort, and destroy what they take in. The novel creates a strange sensation of gazing in its own right, because while not much "happens" the prose takes on its momentum and made me often ask, "What am I looking at here? Why is this 'nothing' under my readerly gaze so engaging?" Those same questions arose as I read Aridjis' earlier book, but this time, in her second, the novel delivers more powerfully upon them.
alicecharlotte's review against another edition
2.0
God, I really didn't like this, which is surprising as people I value the opinions of gave it five stars... the writing was undeniably quite brilliant, but I don't think I have ever found a character more boring than Marie. Obviously, she is intended to be passive, but I just couldn't get into caring about a character who barely cares about doing ANYTHING herself.
catmeme's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Tedious
leda's review against another edition
4.0
A woman those work, as a museum guard, appears to offer her the life she always wanted, that of invisibility and quiet contemplation, surrounded by a world of beauty and heritage. It looks as she has withdraw from the foreground, "just like those distant bluish landscapes in old paintings, so discreet you only notice them later." But after nine years, she begins to feel the tug of restlessness. It’s not just the passivity of her profession, in a way it seems that the mythological figures in the artworks, often nudes, begin to affect her psychology.
Haunting, captivating and strange.
Haunting, captivating and strange.
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