Reviews

The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir

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kpcrossy's review against another edition

2.0

2/5 ⭐️: pretentious and a bit boring. I really wanted to like this! Found it difficult to get through- couldn’t relate to the stories of the women. Didn’t find them very empowering, and it felt awfully ‘white feminist’- no intersectionality here. I imagine it’s a product of its time, and maybe I should have tried harder with it for that reason. But having read a few dodgy things about de Beauvoir, I can’t bring myself to give this book a higher rating. It just didn’t grab me.

wikxoxo's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

the monologue is insane. i love her. she's the worst parts of me. the woman destroyed is frustrating. age of discretion is unrelatable as of yet.

lenawilmak's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

pagesandproses's review against another edition

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5.0

“I continually called his face, his voice, to mind, and I blew on the fire of the furious resentment that was burning me up. It was like one of those illnesses in which you manufacture your own suffering—every breath tears your lungs to pieces, and yet you are forced to breathe.”

This book is *chef's kiss*. The aforementioned quote is just the tip of iceberg wherein the iceberg is the genius of Simone de Beauvoir. This book is the personification of female rage. It contains three stories of three different women, first talks about age and youth, second is a monologue; chaotic and full of blinding hot red rage, where the protagonist is plagued and pained by her loneliness, and third
is about 'The Woman Destroyed' by infidelity of her husband.
Leafing through the pages, I believe, that every woman will see a reflection of hers in these women, indicating how deeply we are all joined by womanhood. These women, whose raging, helpless selves we will find within ourselves as well, not only make us feel for THEM but also make us feel for OURSELVES, reminding us of how we were wronged by people in our lives. I would go so far as to say it will give women the courage to stand up for themselves; they will definitely want to stand with the women in the book.

Don't get me wrong, the protagonists have their flaws, but they're time and time again, misled which makes them question everything. At times, they are completely unhinged, which was kind of funny, not in haha funny way, but rather in a satirical way.

Simone has captured and tapped into a plethora of emotions. We don't feel completely happy or totally devastated, these are the emotions that are always accompanied by other emotions (like nostalgic and happy, devastated yet hopeful etc.) but anger, rage, loneliness- these can be felt completely, with no other emotion to accompany them. They can blind one to the point of insanity, as is evident in the book.

I still have a lot to say about it, but I'm not sure I can pen it down. Maybe will talk about it at length while having tea with the ladies ;)

Well, safe to say that 'The Woman Destroyed' destroyed this woman (aka me) (and perhaps everyone who reads it)