Reviews - The Charioteer | The StoryGraph

344 reviews for:

There's so much reading between the lines one must do with this book that it made me feel a bit like a (somewhat incompetent) detective. But Renault's prose is, as always, as crisp and delicious as a freshly picked apple. Here are some excerpts:

"He felt, evident as the sunlight, a great shining inevitability, and the certainty that something so necessary must be right."

"In seven years, thought Laurie, every cell in one's body has been replaced, even our memories live in a new brain. That is not the face I saw, and these are not the eyes I saw with. Even our selves are not the same, but only a consequence of the selves we had then. Yet I was there and I am here; and this man, who is sometimes what I remember and sometimes a stranger I met at a party the other day, is also to himself the I who was there: his mind in its different skull has travelled back to a place his living feet never visited; and the pain he felt then he can feel again."

"You can't make a good wine in a bathtub in the cellar, you need sun and rain and fresh air, you need a pride in the job you can tell the world about. Only you can live without drink if you have to, but you can't live without love."

blandrea_reads's review against another edition

5.0

Ok. I'm dead now.

You know when you find a book and you just roll around in it like a hippo in mud? No? Just me? Watching Laurie's journey, hearing his thought process on love, war, pacifism, faith, relationship and masculinity. Just *chef kiss*

Anyway read another review if you want a synopsis. Here's my take away: this is a story that happens in subtext, it happens in "..." and in unspoken words. To be able to write that is an extraordinary gift.

Also an Adelaide shout out! Was Renault probably talking about the Adelaide in South Africa? Probably. Still counts!

sjames's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

btrz7's review against another edition

4.5

emotional slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

jkeonemon's review against another edition

4.0

challenging reflective 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: No

jogojam's review against another edition

5.0

[head exploding emoji] for so much of the book I felt like i was reading it through a telescope like a whole bunch of mirrors reflecting the words until they were so oblique had no idea what was being said at all. UNTIL THE END!!!!!!! I’m so pleased with how it ended though sad of course . But still. WOW!!