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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"Ma mémoire commence avec ma colère"
i have so many thoughts. some caveats before i begin.
1. i do not read post-apocalyptic stories. they get under my skin so i tend to avoid them. however, i feel very confident in the fact that my feelings towards this book are completely independent from the fact that this is not my preferred genre.
2. i read this book in its original french and while i am completely fluent, french has always been more of an academic language for me and is not one i read in often for pleasure. i find that i sometimes lack the emotional connection with it that i find so easily in english and farsi. That being said, I have read a lot of books in French throughout my life and have developed a deep emotional attachment to many of them. so once again, while it might not have helped my enjoyment, i do not think its what caused my misery.
3. the writing is good.
all that being said, reading this book was like running a marathon. it wasn't a particularly long race but it felt like it lasted 64 years. i'm crying, there's sweat running down every corner of my body, there's dirt caked in my feet and there is piss running down my leg. i finished this marathon more exhausted than i've ever been, and i wasn't even handed a participation medal.
this is a story that tells you from the very beginning that it is going to be desolate and miserable and will have no plot. she literally tells you in the first chapter that nothing has ever happened to her and she is not exaggerating. it's a story that asks questions for the sake of asking them and begs you to sit with the silence and your loneliness so that you may discover something about yourself or about the world you inhabit. i discovered nothing. i wouldn't have even minded the lack of plot and answers if the discussions had actually evoked some thought and emotion in me! this book felt like when 30-year-old men have a "groundbreaking discovery" that is just a thought you had when you were 12. it didn't make me think anything particularly new, and even if it did ask a question i had never thought to ask before, it was never a profound one.
there is also a shocking amount of binary and borderline misogynistic themes? i realized after finishing the book that this was released in the 90s which explains a lot but i do not get why people refer to this as feminist literature when it's kind of the opposite. so often the book centered around this binary perception of gender and sexuality and there was such an unnecessary focus on men that i do not get. this book could have been about so many things but from the title to the very last page, we come back to this absence of men like who cares !! our narrator is even surprised when she sees two of the women develop a romantic relationship but had no problem imagining one with men, even when she has never known them like i just don't get it?
the author succeeded in making me feel the desperation and hopelessness that this book evokes. but when i felt no connection to the narrator or the few connections she does develop, i just cannot understand how the desperation i felt was worth it. i've been going through a lot of the positive reviews and i still just don't understand what it is exactly that makes people love this so much. i've come to the simple conclusion that this is either for you or it just simply is not.
having felt nothing, thought nothing, and learned nothing, this was not for me. my opinion is clearly a dissenting one so feel free to give this a try.
"Je ne suis pas capable de déplorer ce que j'ai ignorer"
i have so many thoughts. some caveats before i begin.
1. i do not read post-apocalyptic stories. they get under my skin so i tend to avoid them. however, i feel very confident in the fact that my feelings towards this book are completely independent from the fact that this is not my preferred genre.
2. i read this book in its original french and while i am completely fluent, french has always been more of an academic language for me and is not one i read in often for pleasure. i find that i sometimes lack the emotional connection with it that i find so easily in english and farsi. That being said, I have read a lot of books in French throughout my life and have developed a deep emotional attachment to many of them. so once again, while it might not have helped my enjoyment, i do not think its what caused my misery.
3. the writing is good.
all that being said, reading this book was like running a marathon. it wasn't a particularly long race but it felt like it lasted 64 years. i'm crying, there's sweat running down every corner of my body, there's dirt caked in my feet and there is piss running down my leg. i finished this marathon more exhausted than i've ever been, and i wasn't even handed a participation medal.
this is a story that tells you from the very beginning that it is going to be desolate and miserable and will have no plot. she literally tells you in the first chapter that nothing has ever happened to her and she is not exaggerating. it's a story that asks questions for the sake of asking them and begs you to sit with the silence and your loneliness so that you may discover something about yourself or about the world you inhabit. i discovered nothing. i wouldn't have even minded the lack of plot and answers if the discussions had actually evoked some thought and emotion in me! this book felt like when 30-year-old men have a "groundbreaking discovery" that is just a thought you had when you were 12. it didn't make me think anything particularly new, and even if it did ask a question i had never thought to ask before, it was never a profound one.
there is also a shocking amount of binary and borderline misogynistic themes? i realized after finishing the book that this was released in the 90s which explains a lot but i do not get why people refer to this as feminist literature when it's kind of the opposite. so often the book centered around this binary perception of gender and sexuality and there was such an unnecessary focus on men that i do not get. this book could have been about so many things but from the title to the very last page, we come back to this absence of men like who cares !! our narrator is even surprised when she sees two of the women develop a romantic relationship but had no problem imagining one with men, even when she has never known them like i just don't get it?
the author succeeded in making me feel the desperation and hopelessness that this book evokes. but when i felt no connection to the narrator or the few connections she does develop, i just cannot understand how the desperation i felt was worth it. i've been going through a lot of the positive reviews and i still just don't understand what it is exactly that makes people love this so much. i've come to the simple conclusion that this is either for you or it just simply is not.
having felt nothing, thought nothing, and learned nothing, this was not for me. my opinion is clearly a dissenting one so feel free to give this a try.
"Je ne suis pas capable de déplorer ce que j'ai ignorer"
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A journey about a what-if. Kind of creepy, kind of crazy.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I want answers which means I missed the point of this book