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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
When I was about twelve, someone gave me this book. I wish I could remember who it was. It was an adult, but someone younger than my parents. It could have been a friend of my eldest brother, or a relative of one of my parents’ younger friends. Whoever he was, I remember him saying, “I think you’ll like this.” And he was right - I loved it and read it many times over, and rereading it now, 35 years later, I find that there are whole sentences that I remembered word for word.
And I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I love chess; I played it quite a bit in college, and even studied a few books about it, largely propelled by the same kind of affection for it that comes across in this book. I stopped playing because I felt I could never play it well enough to do it justice. I can’t see the board in my head as Beth, the protagonist of The Queen’s Gambit, can. I can’t look ahead more than three or maybe four ply, and even then I miss things. My brother, who taught me to play, was forever pinning me in knight forks. (I now know that I am generally terrible at all kinds of things that require visualizing spatial relationships.)
And so Beth’s love for the game, and how it drives her, I can completely understand. Being excellent at something without any effort, and the complete existential despair that comes when you reach a level at which it finally and inevitably becomes difficult, is something else I understand. Tevis captures these things simply and clearly in the novel. I do mean simply - the book is an astonishingly quick read because of its great simplicity and straightforwardness. There are no subtle metaphors, no arresting images; nothing but simple declarative sentences and literal, journalistic accountings of emotional experiences. Beth was afraid. Beth felt good. Beth was elated. Beth was relieved.
And it’s probably a bit too simplistic, in a few ways: its treatment of addiction (which Beth overcomes by force of will; her rock bottom isn’t really all that low on the scale of what one can see in literature and in life) and its presentation of Beth’s savant-level gift for chess. And while I do appreciate Tevis trying to put himself in a young girl’s shoes and write a real dimensioned female protagonist, I fear he vastly underestimates how much sexism, sexual harassment, and overt hostility a teenaged girl would have faced in the world of competitive chess in the 1960s.
But the emotional arc is sound, the matches are exciting, and Tevis doesn’t let Beth’s gift do all the work for her - she still has to study incredibly hard and practice and think and face setbacks and get help from other people. And she finds within herself the discipline to do all that, which is really quite lovely. It’s just a fine, engaging, sympathetic, and durable novel. I’m going to have to pay forward the gift that the man I can’t quite remember gave to me, and find a twelve-year-old to whom I can say, “I think you’ll like this.”
And I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I love chess; I played it quite a bit in college, and even studied a few books about it, largely propelled by the same kind of affection for it that comes across in this book. I stopped playing because I felt I could never play it well enough to do it justice. I can’t see the board in my head as Beth, the protagonist of The Queen’s Gambit, can. I can’t look ahead more than three or maybe four ply, and even then I miss things. My brother, who taught me to play, was forever pinning me in knight forks. (I now know that I am generally terrible at all kinds of things that require visualizing spatial relationships.)
And so Beth’s love for the game, and how it drives her, I can completely understand. Being excellent at something without any effort, and the complete existential despair that comes when you reach a level at which it finally and inevitably becomes difficult, is something else I understand. Tevis captures these things simply and clearly in the novel. I do mean simply - the book is an astonishingly quick read because of its great simplicity and straightforwardness. There are no subtle metaphors, no arresting images; nothing but simple declarative sentences and literal, journalistic accountings of emotional experiences. Beth was afraid. Beth felt good. Beth was elated. Beth was relieved.
And it’s probably a bit too simplistic, in a few ways: its treatment of addiction (which Beth overcomes by force of will; her rock bottom isn’t really all that low on the scale of what one can see in literature and in life) and its presentation of Beth’s savant-level gift for chess. And while I do appreciate Tevis trying to put himself in a young girl’s shoes and write a real dimensioned female protagonist, I fear he vastly underestimates how much sexism, sexual harassment, and overt hostility a teenaged girl would have faced in the world of competitive chess in the 1960s.
But the emotional arc is sound, the matches are exciting, and Tevis doesn’t let Beth’s gift do all the work for her - she still has to study incredibly hard and practice and think and face setbacks and get help from other people. And she finds within herself the discipline to do all that, which is really quite lovely. It’s just a fine, engaging, sympathetic, and durable novel. I’m going to have to pay forward the gift that the man I can’t quite remember gave to me, and find a twelve-year-old to whom I can say, “I think you’ll like this.”
This was good but also felt like a typical, depressed but get back to it and win kinda story, was still enjoyable
as a chess lover, this book was a dream.
a brilliant exploration of feminism and the patriarchy, without it feeling forced. i LOVE a third person narrative and this book perfected it, whilst allowing the audience to also understand the inner workings of beth. i loved reading about her trials and tribulations; the path to the greatest whilst hurdling the struggles of being a neglected orphan and woman. the correct amount of romance was intertwined in a realistic and necessary way without it being the focal point, like many books with a FMC tend to lean upon. my only true critique is the chess jargon- personally it was mildly overwhelming and i likely wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who has never played chess. at times, i felt like the chess moves dominated most the narrative.
overall, as an ex member of my schools chess club and current chess.com player, i loved this book. shoutout to the girls who were criticised for their love of the sport!!
a brilliant exploration of feminism and the patriarchy, without it feeling forced. i LOVE a third person narrative and this book perfected it, whilst allowing the audience to also understand the inner workings of beth. i loved reading about her trials and tribulations; the path to the greatest whilst hurdling the struggles of being a neglected orphan and woman. the correct amount of romance was intertwined in a realistic and necessary way without it being the focal point, like many books with a FMC tend to lean upon. my only true critique is the chess jargon- personally it was mildly overwhelming and i likely wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who has never played chess. at times, i felt like the chess moves dominated most the narrative.
overall, as an ex member of my schools chess club and current chess.com player, i loved this book. shoutout to the girls who were criticised for their love of the sport!!
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
inspiring
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
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes