Reviews

Coup de Grace by Marguerite Yourcenar

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ireneneb27's review

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

hagbard_celine's review

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4.0

Jesus. Went in blind, got punched in the throat.

camilleconstance's review

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dark reflective tense slow-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

3.5

I really liked Yourcenar's writing style, however I couldn't give more than 2 stars to this book, which left me really sad.

I couldn't, for the love of me, understand Conrad and Sophie's relationship.

That she was obsessively and ridiculously in love with him was plain to see but Conrad's feeling were confused as hell.

I thought this was a story about unrequited love and what it does to one person, when one can't move on with one's life, but there were times when Conrad seemed to love Sophie back.

But if Conrad didn't really feel something more for Sophie like it seemed to be the case most of the time, I thought it was of bad taste and a bit cruel the fact that he didn't keep his distance from her.

Don't you think that the healthy thing to do when you know someone is madly in love with you and you just can't return the feeling is being honest with that person, set things straight and then keep your distance and move on?

What's the point in spending lots and lots of time with that person to the point when you are actually strengthening your relationship? You're just giving her false up and making everything harder for both of you.

Also, I didn't like that Conrad was always talking about how much Sophie loved him, how she did everything to have him, how she suffered without him and so on.

It came to the point when it felt like bragging to me and that was so not tasteful.

If the story was different, I would have loved the book, but things just as they were just didn't make it my cup of tea.

nemrac23's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

pjv1013's review against another edition

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4.0

No rescaldo da primeira Guerra Mundial, e no meio dos conflitos fronteiriços no Báltico, no pós Revolução de Outubro, este pequeno romance de Yourcenar revisita uma velha ideia romanesca: um trio amoroso, os desencontros e as obsessões dos amores.

Com beleza da escrita de Yourcenar e utilizando uma estratégia da autora de escrever na primeira pessoa, e de colocar na voz de uma das personagens principais o desenrolar da narrativa este é mais um exemplo da razão porque Yourcenar ainda nos conquista como leitores.

Em pouco mais de 100 páginas Yourcenar apresenta os devaneios da guerra, a imbecilidade da violência armada, a violência sexual como arma de guerra... Será de referir que o livro foi escrito em 1938, e que se inicia com referências à guerra civil espanhola.

Efectivamente se, inicialmente, este livro é uma revisitação do triângulo amoroso, parece ser igualmente um libelo demonstrativo de como a Guerra nos impede de sermos, amorosamente, felizes.

A edição que li tem um belo e instigante prefácio de Agustina Bessa Luís.

É assim. Mais uma vez Yourcenar me encantou. Desta vez fazendo companhia numa noite de lareira nesta Páscoa bairradina.