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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Some parts were really interesting and informative, but too much of it was just personal reflections from an absurdly privileged person. It was almost like she had the concept but not the content to fill up a book without going on about her boring life.
Both an academic exploration and memoir reflecting on what it means to walk the streets as a woman: what it means to be anonymous (as one of the crowd) but also seen (as pinned under the male gaze and the public eye). Flâneuse asks questions of identity, like what it means to navigate the city as a local or an immigrant or a prodigal retournée, as well as what cities have meant to famous female writers, film makers, and photographers as places of both freedom and restriction. As someone who best enjoys traversing cities by foot and who has wandered some of the cities that the author mentions, I really enjoyed this book. Would recommend to any fellow female flâneuse!
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
I love walking in big cities. Although I prefer traveling with my husband, I love walking on my own. I'm interested in all the cities covered in this book and in several of the women she focuses on. But. This was somehow at once both too academic but not researched, not detailed enough yet too rambling, and I wondered how this ever became a book.
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
wonderful concept. some parts were stronger than others, and I dont have much patience for paris-supremacy, but overall, I loved this book. it really made me think about things differently, and open myself up to a whole new world of connections.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
as someone who has lived in two countries and loves to linger in the places where literature and history intersect, a lot of what elkin says resonated with me quite deeply. i too have walked around paris looking for things (both external and internal) and the familiarity of her perspective was nice.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I was not sure about picking up this book, especially after catching sight of some of the reviews. I am so glad I decided to give myself 50 pages to decide. I found this to be an interesting balance of travelogue, memoir, history and literature. Maybe it is the fact that I read it while quarantined and with an empty passport burning a hole in my lockbox but I loved the virtual journey Lauren just took me on from my living room.