Reviews

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

torimontee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

brisingr's review

5.0

A woman is someone who gathers the threads of her life into her hands and goes onwards.

A book like a lost history at long last finally found. After Sappho follows the most famous poetess of the world in absolutely everything: the love and passion, the language, the erasure of history, the heart and the queerness of it - and it is a book made of fragments, like much of the Sappho's work in the modern days.

The whole of humanity is built on the communal and individual suffering of every woman who ever lived. I have never seen a book that so viscerally acknowledges this fact like this one. So enraging and brilliantly done, and I hope we will continue to be the chorus demanding the rights of half of this century's people. May our freedom become whole, may it include us in all our instances.

(I agree the style of this book will not be for everyone, it's literally a novel made of fragments and paragraphs and so very rarely, whole pages. I've been raised on fanfiction, this was exactly what makes my heart throb with enthusiasm. And for a book with such a huge cast of characters, woman after woman described in her amour and uniqueness and arts - it sheds such clear light on every single one of them).

ephedawn's review against another edition

hopeful informative relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

raywalmsley's review

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

darwinluvr's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

A wonderful read and insight to 19th-20th c. feminists and their continued passion for women, literature, and living. I thought the writing was, at times, a bit grandiose and failed to make something more cohesive. The vignette concept is beautiful and works wonderfully for this novel/book, but I fear that the attempt was, at times, too incoherent. Too many times I found myself paging through the book to figure out who and what the present story was about, but ultimately the emotions and moments provided to us was enough to stall the confusion, and thereby my connection to the characters, no matter how little I understood or recalled them, was solidified. I definitely think that, had I not had semi- or extensive knowledge about these writers/artists, many of the references would have been lost on me (for instance, the passages concerning Orlando by Woolf). I also think that there were too many characters being presented that it was hard to keep track, and for some of them, the names were used so interchangeably that I just blindly followed in fear of more confusion.
Though I say all this, I believe this book to be wonderful and a great read. Wonderful language and great call-backs throughout the novel. Beautiful musings on women and love. Definitely recommend sitting down and writing out each of the characters and their shtiks when you first meet them because it'll save you the headache. 

4/5, definitely would recommend!

chloe_cr's review against another edition

Soft DNF, I’m not in the mood rn

wollstonecrafty's review against another edition

i mean. sort of just like reading a bunch of wikipedia articles embellished by someone w a phd in english but work.

sarahlukee's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

arnoles's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I definitely liked the spirit of this book and learning about these women. However it just was a little ... Dull. I'm not really in my intellectual reading era right now so this book just didn't hit for me. Still, the writing was very beautiful and I appreciated the concept 

alnauman12's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

I found this very interesting, but I will say this book was not written for me.  I felt like the pace was super slow and I couldn’t get the connections at first.  Once the connections started being made, I found it much more interesting. It just wasn’t my style, but it’s one of the reasons I chose to read it.  Again, found it quite interesting about the lives of the characters. Just didn’t jive with the style and the pace.