Scan barcode
ireadb00ks's review
4.0
uncomfortable. the seemingly inane obsession. because it's inexplicable. doesn't feel entirely human. an aberration.
was much fun reading about her and her boyfriend afterward.
4 stars
was much fun reading about her and her boyfriend afterward.
4 stars
100reads's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-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
Love how the story is told. Beautiful and tragic and the same time. I won’t give it 5 ⭐️ s because of the r*pe/incest scene.
jimmylorunning's review
4.0
Pleasure and pain coming from the same source. Imagination and roleplay exactly as I remembered it. Before dark was dark. Before I understood that I should turn away from certain things, shamefacedly. The confusion of not having any boxes to put things, and just having to hold it all in your limited number of hands. Loved the spare-spare prose where another would have written tomes. Loved the distance and intimacy combo of the third person. Every word matters here, and is well placed.
schumacher's review
4.0
Another book in my collection of incredibly uncomfortable literature. Excellent.
(by the way, The Games of Countess Dolingen is an excellent film adaptation of this book)
(by the way, The Games of Countess Dolingen is an excellent film adaptation of this book)
fearandtrembling's review
3.0
This particular point made by the translator, Caroline Rupprecht, in her introductory essay, strikes me as the most useful:
"Clearly, Zurn was not oblivious to the power of images. From 1933-1942, she worked as a dramaturge in the advertising department of the Nazi film industry. Her knowledge of the medium is apparent in both The Man of Jasmine and Dark Spring, where the little girl's masochistic fantasies tend to be fueled by images of popular culture."
The intersections of fascism and bourgeois patriarchy in German society is what needs to be foregrounded in this extremely short but affecting story about a young girl's sexual development; the key elements in this story are the distant father (Zurn's own father was in the military), distant mother (Zurn's mother was apparently the same), the older brother who rapes her when she is ten, and the spectre of German nationalism.
"Clearly, Zurn was not oblivious to the power of images. From 1933-1942, she worked as a dramaturge in the advertising department of the Nazi film industry. Her knowledge of the medium is apparent in both The Man of Jasmine and Dark Spring, where the little girl's masochistic fantasies tend to be fueled by images of popular culture."
The intersections of fascism and bourgeois patriarchy in German society is what needs to be foregrounded in this extremely short but affecting story about a young girl's sexual development; the key elements in this story are the distant father (Zurn's own father was in the military), distant mother (Zurn's mother was apparently the same), the older brother who rapes her when she is ten, and the spectre of German nationalism.
jasminenoack's review
4.0
I read this book because greg told me to and I am highly susceptible to peer pressure, mainly because Greg has yet to recommend a book that I did not think was very good, and I even have his copy so it cost me no money and only about an hour of my time.
The book itself was infact like reading a disturbing peanuts cartoon. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this character is 12 except perhaps for it's effect, because it certainly has the problems of the adult author that it mirrors.
It is one of the few books that I think on some level loses a star for not being enough. The story has so much potential that seems lost perhaps in the inability of words to truly provoke emotion.
The book itself was infact like reading a disturbing peanuts cartoon. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this character is 12 except perhaps for it's effect, because it certainly has the problems of the adult author that it mirrors.
It is one of the few books that I think on some level loses a star for not being enough. The story has so much potential that seems lost perhaps in the inability of words to truly provoke emotion.
inesparis's review
4.0
It has been a while, if ever, that I had to close my eyes due to the images I was seeing while reading. Animalistic, dark, worryingly beautiful.
akeehan's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
4.25
The author Unica Zurn described this novella as "the erotic life of a little girl based on my own childhood."
The unnamed protagonist is introduced as a young child who adores and idealizes her "exotic" and often absent father. In fact, she makes heroes of many mysterious, "noble", and dashing men throughout the book, the majority of which are fictional book characters (Captain Nemo), adventure movie actors (Douglas Fairbanks), imaginary handsome robbers or otherwise unattainable men (her married teacher) who are very dissimilar to the awkward and incapable young men around her.
Early on she comes to loathe her aging and frustrated mother, who is being abandoned not only by her beauty and youth, but also by her husband who has found a "beautiful and elegant" lover. Her mother is powerless, bitter, selfish, and ultimately uninteresting. The mother comes to represent everything the child hates about her mundane, anti-climatic life. "She is overwhelmed by the sheer misery of her ten-year-old life."
The loneliness caused by the frequent absences of her father and her great disdain for her dull and unexciting life breeds in her a romantic and violent imagination, along with a fixation on onanism. The novella has ample imagery of "locks and keys", "knives stabbing wounds", or the tentacles of the octopus from 20,000 thousand leagues under the sea "forcing their entry into the submarine." There is an emptiness inside, a void, she seeks to fill both figuratively and literally. She feels certain this wholeness, this feeling of being complete can only come from a man.
In an attempt to satisfy these longings she plays dangerous games with other children that involve humiliation and physical pain, or enact grossly melodramatic plays envolving howling grief and brutal murder. She has an obsession with all people and things "exotic" or foriegn to her. Her fantasies and imagination center around being tortured and violently ravaged, but yet she finds herself ashamed and disappointed when she realizes the male figures she admires (her father and her teacher) have sexual needs and desires as well. Upon this realization they fall from their noble and god-like status in her eyes.
I think one can easily come to this conclusion that the child protagonist hates women. I do not think this is so. I think she despises her mom because she is the embodiment of her mundane, boring life and also because she largely contributes to her loneliness by brushing off the child's attempts at showing affection. In fact, the child is in complete awe of the young maid earlier in the novella. To the girl this maid was exciting and beautiful. I also think the part of femininity she hates is this perceived powerlessness or weakness of being a woman. "She is sorry she has to be a girl. She wants to be a man in his prime... But she is only a little girl whose body is bathed in sweat from fear of discovering the terrible gorilla in her room, under her bed. She is tortured by fears of the invisible."
The unnamed protagonist is introduced as a young child who adores and idealizes her "exotic" and often absent father. In fact, she makes heroes of many mysterious, "noble", and dashing men throughout the book, the majority of which are fictional book characters (Captain Nemo), adventure movie actors (Douglas Fairbanks), imaginary handsome robbers or otherwise unattainable men (her married teacher) who are very dissimilar to the awkward and incapable young men around her.
Early on she comes to loathe her aging and frustrated mother, who is being abandoned not only by her beauty and youth, but also by her husband who has found a "beautiful and elegant" lover. Her mother is powerless, bitter, selfish, and ultimately uninteresting. The mother comes to represent everything the child hates about her mundane, anti-climatic life. "She is overwhelmed by the sheer misery of her ten-year-old life."
The loneliness caused by the frequent absences of her father and her great disdain for her dull and unexciting life breeds in her a romantic and violent imagination, along with a fixation on onanism. The novella has ample imagery of "locks and keys", "knives stabbing wounds", or the tentacles of the octopus from 20,000 thousand leagues under the sea "forcing their entry into the submarine." There is an emptiness inside, a void, she seeks to fill both figuratively and literally. She feels certain this wholeness, this feeling of being complete can only come from a man.
In an attempt to satisfy these longings she plays dangerous games with other children that involve humiliation and physical pain, or enact grossly melodramatic plays envolving howling grief and brutal murder. She has an obsession with all people and things "exotic" or foriegn to her. Her fantasies and imagination center around being tortured and violently ravaged, but yet she finds herself ashamed and disappointed when she realizes the male figures she admires (her father and her teacher) have sexual needs and desires as well. Upon this realization they fall from their noble and god-like status in her eyes.
I think one can easily come to this conclusion that the child protagonist hates women. I do not think this is so. I think she despises her mom because she is the embodiment of her mundane, boring life and also because she largely contributes to her loneliness by brushing off the child's attempts at showing affection. In fact, the child is in complete awe of the young maid earlier in the novella. To the girl this maid was exciting and beautiful. I also think the part of femininity she hates is this perceived powerlessness or weakness of being a woman. "She is sorry she has to be a girl. She wants to be a man in his prime... But she is only a little girl whose body is bathed in sweat from fear of discovering the terrible gorilla in her room, under her bed. She is tortured by fears of the invisible."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
mstracho's review
4.0
Four and five star ratings are a rare thing for me. I picked this book up by chance from somewhere I can't remember and am glad I did. It was haunting, yet so real and tangible. The duality of the girl's emotional maturity and yet childish tendencies and thought processes make the character so interesting. Although simple, the writing itself is wonderful in its honesty and starkness, especially because it goes places many authors are afraid to go. As someone with mental health and familial issues, the little girl's longings are both relatable and unique. In long grief we have those thoughts we think no one else can understand. Beautiful piece of art.
More...