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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
When you’re young some books change your life in brutal ways
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
'To read this poem one must have myriad eyes.'
The Waves is a difficult read. It is poetry disguised as prose. This epic poem, for that is what it is, is best read lingeringly. Each phrase, each chaotic moment and thoughts, often eventually contradicting, of the four 'speaking' characters, there are five main characters in this book, and a splendor of supporting ones, is eloquent and elaborate.
But through the chaos that Bernard, Neville, Louis, Sarah, Jinny and Rhoda incite, there is a calm. Woolf, with careful hand and print, controls the state of affairs even when it seems that the aforementioned have run off with their own variant of self-interpretation. The character always returns; to phrases, the nile, the accent, the family, to love, to boats on water.
However, the books final chapter rather than including the group of six as it started with ends with the phrase-maker, suitably the story-teller, who runs down the markers of each characters life, including the pivotal but silent Percival. Although it is fitting that this man, Bernard, should outlast his companions and have the last word, as it so so much him. The reader however was cheated of the death, the suicide, of Rhoda, and the ends of all the other characters. Although, if a book can create such frustration than evidently it is an overwhelming and succulent novel about life.
The Waves is a difficult read. It is poetry disguised as prose. This epic poem, for that is what it is, is best read lingeringly. Each phrase, each chaotic moment and thoughts, often eventually contradicting, of the four 'speaking' characters, there are five main characters in this book, and a splendor of supporting ones, is eloquent and elaborate.
But through the chaos that Bernard, Neville, Louis, Sarah, Jinny and Rhoda incite, there is a calm. Woolf, with careful hand and print, controls the state of affairs even when it seems that the aforementioned have run off with their own variant of self-interpretation. The character always returns; to phrases, the nile, the accent, the family, to love, to boats on water.
However, the books final chapter rather than including the group of six as it started with ends with the phrase-maker, suitably the story-teller, who runs down the markers of each characters life, including the pivotal but silent Percival. Although it is fitting that this man, Bernard, should outlast his companions and have the last word, as it so so much him. The reader however was cheated of the death, the suicide, of Rhoda, and the ends of all the other characters. Although, if a book can create such frustration than evidently it is an overwhelming and succulent novel about life.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
reflective
medium-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
I didn't think I'd ever give a Woolf novel a 3.5 (and it could definitely be some early-onset grad school burnout talking, or simply this was the wrong book at the wrong time) but I do feel that despite it's short length, this is a book that cannot and should not be marathoned (which is what I tried to do to meet a deadline). There is little to no plot, which is I'm usually fine with, and each character tells part of their own story, which is a format I was initially intrigued by. As the novel progresses, however, the format becomes tiresome. I fully recognize that that's an unpopular opinion; I stand by it. There are some absolutely beautiful lamentations on life and writing and equally beautiful, albeit sparse, world-building (which is why I rounded up), but it's almost too much, which is definitely part of the point, but did not make for an enjoyable reading experience. I loved Rhoda and her inability to connect to others despite wanting to. To Woolf's credit, one of Rhoda's first paragraphs is one of my all-time favorite descriptions of character. I even liked Susan's willful descent into an intense and drawn-out motherhood, even if I didn't really care about what happened to her afterward. But the other characters are /very/ hard to relate to or even care about because so little about their lives are actually given, besides their opinions about Percival and each other. (Do not even get me started on Percival). Neville, who should have been one of the most interesting, fell flat for me, as did Louis and Jinny, which is partly because their narratives are essentially dropped to focus on Bernard, who I felt was the most difficult to sit with. He takes up a majority of the book waxing poetic about his would-be novel-thing and I just couldn't force myself to care about it. The fact that he's the one that summarizes the lives of the other characters didn't help my reading experience. The writing is, as per Woolf's usual, absolutely stunning, but unlike Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, the prose alone simply could not carry me through the story. I really, really wanted to love this the way I loved the aforementioned titles, and I see this as a book that I'd like to come back to, but I was left ultimately frustrated and antsy throughout the entire experience. All in all, :/
What Woolf did here is amazing. The writing is beautiful, the vision astounding, but it wasn't as entertaining as I wanted. I preferred To The Lighthouse.
No lo pude acabar. Quizás no era el momento para mí.
I did it. I finally finished this book. It took me over two months because I could only read like five pages at a time. It seems weird to even review this book because of course it’s good it’s Virginia Woolf. I wanted to like it more because Mrs. Dalloway is one of my all time favourite books but this one was more difficult and dense than that one. Also there were a lot of characters to follow and they all sounded the same in their narration which made it somewhat difficult to follow. My favourite line of the book is: “And you wish to be a poet; and you wish to be a lover” (59). I might get that tattooed honestly. Yes, also there are definitely parts of this book that are racist/problematic (especially towards India) because the time period it was written in. Overall my reading experience was wasn’t the best but I’m glad I read it!