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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
lighthearted
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:
Complicated
Cait had lived a fairly isolated life in County Limerick until personal tragedy leads to her needing to rely on a friend-that's-not-really-a-friend, Baba. These two girls have grown up together but their outlooks on life and personalities couldn't be more different. When they leave home to attend upper school at a convent, their experiences with life and love will only continue to shape the paths they take.
This book is so very short, WHY was it so hard for me to read? It was slow moving, I think that's part of it, but it's well thought out and some of the language really is beautiful. Baba is both annoying and sometimes funny, it's rather painful to watch how Cait has to try so hard to keep being her friend. There is a thread with an older gentleman that is a huge part of the book that feels creepy on one hand and yet, knowing Cait and what's she been through, understandable on the other. Their naiveté is not just because they are "country girls" but because they are young and have been raised in a very repressive culture - Cait's interactions with the world are so clearly impacted by this.
I can see why it was very shocking back in the 60s when it was published and I do think it's an intimate portrait of a place and time, it was just a bit too gloomy for me right now, maybe.
This book is so very short, WHY was it so hard for me to read? It was slow moving, I think that's part of it, but it's well thought out and some of the language really is beautiful. Baba is both annoying and sometimes funny, it's rather painful to watch how Cait has to try so hard to keep being her friend. There is a thread with an older gentleman that is a huge part of the book that feels creepy on one hand and yet, knowing Cait and what's she been through, understandable on the other. Their naiveté is not just because they are "country girls" but because they are young and have been raised in a very repressive culture - Cait's interactions with the world are so clearly impacted by this.
I can see why it was very shocking back in the 60s when it was published and I do think it's an intimate portrait of a place and time, it was just a bit too gloomy for me right now, maybe.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Country Girls / Edna O’Brien
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~ She had always thought that people who had once loved one another kept the faintest trace of it in their being, but not him. He was free of her. Marked of course, but free in a way that she was not. She was still joined by fear, by sexual necessity, by what she knew as love… ~
In July 24, we lost the great Edna O’Brien. One of Ireland’s foremost novelists. It was a shame that I never read any of her material before she passed, so now was the time to change that. And what better way than to go with ‘The Country Girls’, her debut, the book that caused such a commotion when published that Ireland banned its publication.
This is such an important read, one that still has hallmarks today. The story of Cait and Baba, each with their own trials, is some read. Cait is the idealistic one, the one who has such promise having come from nothing, and Baba her foil, coming from wealth but squandering it at Cait’s disadvantage.
The sexual nature of this all, how Ireland was so repressed and so backward. O’Brien was very much ahead of her time.
You felt for Cait throughout, through family, through the nuns, through the Gentleman’s, the end is heartbreaking but raw.
I want to continue the trilogy, but also now read more EOB.
Audiobook Length: 7hrs, 19mins
Narrator: Edna O’Brien
- Read: 20/11/24 - 04/12/24
- Release Date: 1960
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Really enjoyed this. Was so controversial in its day and I can imagine it led to a lot of pearl clutching when it first came out. The characters were so real and I can’t wait to read the next book.