Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I didn't think I would like this book but I really enjoyed it! There were also some really thought-provoking quotes.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
very lovely and powerful in a way bc books about older women are rarely so sympathetic or even written
"Si él, al decidir prepararse para ejercer la abogacía, era alabado y aplaudido, (…) ¿por qué debería ella, que quería ser pintora acobardarse tanto ante el anuncio de su decisión(…)? Había sin duda una discrepancia en alguna parte. Pero todo el mundo parecía estar de acuerdo, tan de acuerdo que el asunto ni siquiera se discutía: solo había un empleo al que pudieran acceder las mujeres."
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Death
reflective
sad
slow-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
I hoped I would like this book and I did - the writing is wonderful, the story is both of its time and timeless, and the characters are lovingly drawn and realized. What I did not expect, however, was to unsettle my husband as I read the last chapter on an airplane, wiping stray tears as I raced to finish before we landed.
"There there," he joked as the plane taxied to the gate. "It's all over now."
"Hush," I sniffled, head down. "Two pages to go."
-----
Sackville-West's writing grabbed me from the first page. It is beautiful without being flowery and it strikes on truths with the surety of a practiced ironsmith.
Characters are fleshed out in the usual away as well as through asides that are tiny yet enlightening.
The story is about a woman who, as the wife of a politician, put her own desires aside in order to be a respectable lady that is an asset to her husband's career. Her children, now elderly themselves, have only seen her this way. Now that her husband has died the offspring debate 'what to do with mother', not realizing that she may have plans of her own.
All Passion Spent was written almost 90 years ago but some aspects struck close to home. Women putting aside their own ambitions in order to fit more neatly into a man's idea of them. Women being questioned, doubted, or ignored when they are honest about how they want to spend their life. 'She's old, so let's decide this for her', 'she's young, she doesn't know her own mind, surely', 'she must not be a good judge of character, that guy is obviously fleecing her', 'she's not acting like herself, dad's death must've broken her'. Only one daughter gets that Lady Slane is a strong soul that has finally gained some freedom and is going to do what she damn well pleases with it, thank you:
I think the ending got to me as much as it did because the character work is so well done. Lady Slane is a woman I care about, am mad on behalf of, and root for the entire novel. And while sitting beside her as death approaches I can't help but think about my own old age, and who I will share it with.
Very nearly five stars.
edit September 2018: I'm pushing this up to five - it has stuck in my brain and I'm looking forward to rereading it some day. Good stuff.
"There there," he joked as the plane taxied to the gate. "It's all over now."
"Hush," I sniffled, head down. "Two pages to go."
-----
Sackville-West's writing grabbed me from the first page. It is beautiful without being flowery and it strikes on truths with the surety of a practiced ironsmith.
They all know that nobody cares for them; that's why they talk so loud.
Characters are fleshed out in the usual away as well as through asides that are tiny yet enlightening.
"Besides, dear Lady Slane," said Lavinia – she had never unbent sufficiently to address her mother-in-law by any other name....
The story is about a woman who, as the wife of a politician, put her own desires aside in order to be a respectable lady that is an asset to her husband's career. Her children, now elderly themselves, have only seen her this way. Now that her husband has died the offspring debate 'what to do with mother', not realizing that she may have plans of her own.
All Passion Spent was written almost 90 years ago but some aspects struck close to home. Women putting aside their own ambitions in order to fit more neatly into a man's idea of them. Women being questioned, doubted, or ignored when they are honest about how they want to spend their life. 'She's old, so let's decide this for her', 'she's young, she doesn't know her own mind, surely', 'she must not be a good judge of character, that guy is obviously fleecing her', 'she's not acting like herself, dad's death must've broken her'. Only one daughter gets that Lady Slane is a strong soul that has finally gained some freedom and is going to do what she damn well pleases with it, thank you:
Edith alone frolicked in her mind. She thought her mother not mad, but most conspicuously sane.
I think the ending got to me as much as it did because the character work is so well done. Lady Slane is a woman I care about, am mad on behalf of, and root for the entire novel. And while sitting beside her as death approaches I can't help but think about my own old age, and who I will share it with.
My point about the people I like, is not that they dwell morbidly on death, but that they keep continually a sense of what, to them, matters in life. Death, after all, is an incident. Life is an incident too. The thing I mean lies outside both.
Very nearly five stars.
edit September 2018: I'm pushing this up to five - it has stuck in my brain and I'm looking forward to rereading it some day. Good stuff.
3.5
I really enjoyed this first foray into Vita Sackville-West's writing and I certainly hope to read more of it. She has a really distinguished, sophisticated style, and while much of this book made me feel like an idiot, much of it was also incredibly beautifully written. Lady Slane is an incredibly well constructed character and I enjoyed reading about her so much. I wish there was an entire novel simply dedicated to her life, from beginning to end because I feel it would be so interesting. The contrast between her and her children, and their inability to comprehend that not everything has to be tied to money or convention to be genuine, was well written and there were a few amusing moments, although I do feel in places the attempts to be witty and intelligent reared up, only to fall a little flat (or maybe I'm just dumb lol). Another criticism I had of this book is that I found Part One to be slightly dull. Part Two was my favourite and yet it was the shortest (like I said, I wish there had been an entire novel dedicated to Lady Slane and her thwarted dream of being an artist). However, this book was overall a good experience and I'm really glad that I read it. If you want to read a retrospective look at a life lived not unhappily, but with perhaps a tinge of regret, along with musings over what it means to be young and old and how these periods of time become blurred and overlap, then I would definitely suggest picking this up.
I really enjoyed this first foray into Vita Sackville-West's writing and I certainly hope to read more of it. She has a really distinguished, sophisticated style, and while much of this book made me feel like an idiot, much of it was also incredibly beautifully written. Lady Slane is an incredibly well constructed character and I enjoyed reading about her so much. I wish there was an entire novel simply dedicated to her life, from beginning to end because I feel it would be so interesting. The contrast between her and her children, and their inability to comprehend that not everything has to be tied to money or convention to be genuine, was well written and there were a few amusing moments, although I do feel in places the attempts to be witty and intelligent reared up, only to fall a little flat (or maybe I'm just dumb lol). Another criticism I had of this book is that I found Part One to be slightly dull. Part Two was my favourite and yet it was the shortest (like I said, I wish there had been an entire novel dedicated to Lady Slane and her thwarted dream of being an artist). However, this book was overall a good experience and I'm really glad that I read it. If you want to read a retrospective look at a life lived not unhappily, but with perhaps a tinge of regret, along with musings over what it means to be young and old and how these periods of time become blurred and overlap, then I would definitely suggest picking this up.
The Lady Slane’s husband dies at the ripe age of 92, leaving her a widow with a small pension, six children (all over the age of 60), and innumerable grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Imagine her family’s surprise when this venerable and venerated old woman takes up a small house in London and asks her relatives not to visit her. It’s a quiet, beautifully told vignette of a woman’s last year of life. She had dreamt of being a painter, and retains an artist’s eye, but subsumed herself in her husband and children, as was expected of her, rather than buck convention. It’s a tragedy, but society is not blamed so much as her own love for her late husband.