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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
A frequently gutting, supremely affecting study on/of grief, all the more poignant for those of us who are parents, for those of us who have some inkling, some imagined understanding that, "There are moments that the words (can't) reach...(a) suffering to terrible to name...(as) we push away the unimaginable." - Lin-Manuel Miranda, HAMILTON.
O'Farrell is a demon of a writer, a master wordsmith who captures, in powerful prose and arresting images, the unimaginable; and who breathes life into 16th century England in a manner that combines research and realism, an homage to the actual history, with a sense of modernity and timelessness.
My only criticism is that, at times, the weight of the grief and the author's descriptive/accompanying words and images are almost too much, meaning almost as much a burden to read as the feelings are for the characters to bare. It was like trudging through muck or waist deep water at times...reading the sheer number of images used for one moment, one feeling, one setpiece. Then again, such is the case with grief I guess. Perhaps that's the point...or rather the author's purpose.
O'Farrell is a demon of a writer, a master wordsmith who captures, in powerful prose and arresting images, the unimaginable; and who breathes life into 16th century England in a manner that combines research and realism, an homage to the actual history, with a sense of modernity and timelessness.
My only criticism is that, at times, the weight of the grief and the author's descriptive/accompanying words and images are almost too much, meaning almost as much a burden to read as the feelings are for the characters to bare. It was like trudging through muck or waist deep water at times...reading the sheer number of images used for one moment, one feeling, one setpiece. Then again, such is the case with grief I guess. Perhaps that's the point...or rather the author's purpose.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
i was lent this after raving about the marriage portrait and being told i absolutely had to read it. i’ll be totally honest, the beginning was hard work. sometimes it was me zoning out during long descriptions, sometimes i think it was the book.
but looking back, i actually think agnes was written to be deliberately jarring at first and we see her as others did: strange, unsettling, hard to grasp. and then the second half hits and it’s devastating. all the earlier distance makes the grief even more powerful, and i felt so guilty for having judged her.
it’s both sad and beautiful (i cried more than once) and i loved how it reframed the origins of hamlet through a woman’s perspective that history mostly overlooked.
a slower start than the marriage portrait, but so worth sticking with!