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naju's review against another edition
I wanted to like it so bad — and I didn't think it was uninteresting, let me be clear —, but it was just a drag to read for the semester. The deadline has passed and I have other reading to get to.
alciewms's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
2.75
This was a tough one. Reading it was like listening to an old woman mumble to herself for way too long. There were interesting parts, but it was also over the top with unnecessary details, and without much in the way of engaging style.
sylveondreams's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.0
Nothing happened they just met people...
lelia_t's review against another edition
1.0
I can’t say I enjoyed this book. Before reading it and after reading it, I had the impression of someone who’d co-opted her life partner’s voice for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. To make matters worse, the book is boring. Gertrude Stein writes about Picasso and Hemingway and Matisse and World War I and life in Paris - sounds intriguing, right? - in mind-dulling ramblings. Presumably she was imitating Alice B. Toklas’ voice, but the minutia is unbearable. For example, “We come in in the street car because it is difficult to get a taxi in Boulogne and we go back in a taxi. Well we came in as usual and didn’t notice anything and when we had finished our shopping and had had our tea we stood on a corner to get a taxi.”
Maybe people who knew Toklas and Stein would have smiled at inside jokes and speech patterns that are “so Alice,” but for someone outside that magic circle, it’s difficult to appreciate.
There were a few moments where I was struck by Stein’s cleverness at giving such an external view of herself when, in reality, she only knows herself from the inside. She writes of her theory of poetry and prose, “Nor should emotion itself be the cause of poetry or prose. They should consist of an exact reproduction of either an outer or inner reality.” And I suppose that’s what she’s given us, an exact reproduction of her outer reality without the clutter of emotion. But it makes for very dry reading. I also wondered if she was imitating Hemingway’s style, but Hemingway conveys powerful emotions in his short descriptions of outer reality.
Every now and then there was a sentence that made me smile - or kind of like Gertrude Stein: “She had little note-books full of phrases that pleased her…”
I’m glad I treated myself to the Maira Kalmon illustrated edition - the drawings are great - but I don’t share Kalman’s romanticized view of the Stein/Toklas relationship. Stein using Toklas’s voice to talk herself up seems self-centered and controlling.
To do Toklas justice, I want to read The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. In the introduction, Ruth Reichl writes, “I can’t help wondering if the cookbook might have been a way for this unforgiving woman [Toklas] to get a bit of her own back.”
Originally published on brightwingswellness.com.
Maybe people who knew Toklas and Stein would have smiled at inside jokes and speech patterns that are “so Alice,” but for someone outside that magic circle, it’s difficult to appreciate.
There were a few moments where I was struck by Stein’s cleverness at giving such an external view of herself when, in reality, she only knows herself from the inside. She writes of her theory of poetry and prose, “Nor should emotion itself be the cause of poetry or prose. They should consist of an exact reproduction of either an outer or inner reality.” And I suppose that’s what she’s given us, an exact reproduction of her outer reality without the clutter of emotion. But it makes for very dry reading. I also wondered if she was imitating Hemingway’s style, but Hemingway conveys powerful emotions in his short descriptions of outer reality.
Every now and then there was a sentence that made me smile - or kind of like Gertrude Stein: “She had little note-books full of phrases that pleased her…”
I’m glad I treated myself to the Maira Kalmon illustrated edition - the drawings are great - but I don’t share Kalman’s romanticized view of the Stein/Toklas relationship. Stein using Toklas’s voice to talk herself up seems self-centered and controlling.
To do Toklas justice, I want to read The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. In the introduction, Ruth Reichl writes, “I can’t help wondering if the cookbook might have been a way for this unforgiving woman [Toklas] to get a bit of her own back.”
Originally published on brightwingswellness.com.
casspro's review against another edition
1.0
Oh how I dislike Stein. I want to love her, I do! She stands for individuality, bohemianism, jazz age and all the things I like. But the writing! I can't do stream of consciousness. And while I understand its one of the quintessential jazz age works, I couldn't get more than 20 pages in due to mental collapse.
brannonkrkhuang's review against another edition
This book is about a bunch of famous painters and writers hanging out in Paris and I am not interested in this subject. This is perfect for Paris and art geeks, though! I’ll give Stein another try later - probably give Three Lives.