Reviews

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

gadicohen93's review against another edition

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4.0

I'd give this book extra points for its rebelliousness. It's part stream-of-consciousness memoir, part academic treatise. Of course, it brings important conversations to the table. The relationship depicted in the book was *real* and the passages where Nelson chronicled the grittiness, the stresses of the relationship -- those were the most real, the best.

I feel very torn about the academic nature of the book. The quotes from scholars, scattered into the prose, were illuminating and served as foundational points for Nelson to jump off from and go into her own conjecturing. At some points, though, it felt forced, like someone sharing thoughts about a common object of banal conversation, cloaked in a radical terminology but really deep down still the fancies of a (really educated) muggle dumping her intellectually masturbatory thought processes into a journal.

However, it was riveting, in the way only reading a journal can be. We got a cross-section of Nelson's life and a sampling of her philosophy on it, and the writing was fresh and moving.

megkoz's review against another edition

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So many queer women I knew in college talked about this book as if it was one of the best books ever written. Now that I too am an out queer woman…I don’t get it.

jacyjean's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

butchbabe's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

3.0

savaging's review against another edition

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5.0

Delightful. My only complaint is that it the memoir story-line pushes me to breeze through the book, and at the end I haven't paid nearly enough attention to the theory she's addressing.

steelcutoats's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

delphi_oracle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

The reflective nature is this book is interesting and compelling but challenging as sometimes one can get lost in one’s train of thought and in Nelson’s. I like her carless and when necessary solemn approach to different topics. My only tough criticism is that the time line in the book is hard to get when one is audio format.

sarahh14's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

morganmalloy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

3.5

hjfritz27's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0