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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gore Vidal did NOT write my version's introduction, which features a James prelude and a Singer Sargent cover illustration. Yes please.
This is the story of a marriage and the struggles of jealousy, priorities, and close family relations. James does delve into the psyche of each member of the story. But the story seems to be a bit drawn out.
I've read this twice now, and I have to say that the second time through, I found the first half of the book PURE TORTURE--inscrutable, infuriating, classic late James. But I'm happy to say that I found the second half as amazing as I remembered it. Maggie's transformation is so powerful, perhaps the more so because the pace is so slow that it almost feels like perfect stillness. (I still can't help but think that if anyone had said what they were thinking to the people that mattered, this whole thing could have ended 250 pages ago, but still...)
Me encanta la complejidad de la escritura de Henry James. Demorar en terminar un libro es una buena señal... pero no siempre. En este caso, se me hizo difícil acabarlo porque, sinceramente, no me podía conectar con la historia. En ciertos momentos creí que el problema de los personajes era la falta de comunicación entre ellos. Sin las conversaciones esquivas y la desesperante pasividad de los protagonistas (por supuesto, el hecho de que la narración se concentre en sus pensamientos ayuda a elaborar esa sensación), el libro hubiera durado mucho menos. Haría una relectura, pero será para un momento en el que esté despejada.
I love Henry James, and have yet to read anything of his that I didn't love - until now. I won't discuss the plot (there are lots of very good reviews here that do that better than I could), but I will say that I had a difficult time reading this book. Instead of torturing and guilting myself into reading it every possible spare moment that appeared I downloaded the audio version. Much better! I liked this book, and would like to re-read it down the road when my brain can better handle it. Until then, I'll give this book 3 1/2 stars.
A couple of people gave up halfway through and only showed up to see what sort of person could actually finish the thing. Most of us did, and one of us even started rereading it, to look for the foreshadowing. One had trouble getting a copy at her local library and barely finished it before having to ship it back for its next hold. (She dearly wanted to reread it, and borrowed one of the paperbacks for that purpose.)
I found the book dense. Rich in metaphor and delving deep into the psyches of the members of this uniquely dysfunctional family. And obtuse, with convoluted sentences that toured themselves in knots and never got around to stating the facts. And very, very long. James may be a master at not saying what he meant. But I really wish that he had not said it in fewer words.
And what about the golden bowl? It's obviously a Symbol. But of what exactly? The flaw in the crystal could symbolize Charlotte and Amerigo's prior relationship, gilded over and concealed from their future spouses. But then what were the broken pieces, after Fanny had flung it to the floor? The married couples, sundered from each other by Charlotte and Amerigo's adultery, if indeed they actually consumated their affair? Or the couples sundered from each other, as father and daughter arranged to separate the lovers and to save their own marriages? And was the third piece - the stem - really Fanny, who had arranged both marriages and upon whom all of the relationships rested?
I'd downloaded the book from Gutenberg and had alternated between reading the text and plugging in my earbuds and having the mechanical voice read it to me. Someone said that the best way to read James was to have it read to you. By a human, who had parsed the sentences and could use tone of voice to differentiate the causes and subclauses and bring out the meaning of the text. The voice that merely paused so long on periods and so long on commas (of which there were a multitude) just didn't give me that.
I found the book dense. Rich in metaphor and delving deep into the psyches of the members of this uniquely dysfunctional family. And obtuse, with convoluted sentences that toured themselves in knots and never got around to stating the facts. And very, very long. James may be a master at not saying what he meant. But I really wish that he had not said it in fewer words.
And what about the golden bowl? It's obviously a Symbol. But of what exactly? The flaw in the crystal could symbolize Charlotte and Amerigo's prior relationship, gilded over and concealed from their future spouses. But then what were the broken pieces, after Fanny had flung it to the floor? The married couples, sundered from each other by Charlotte and Amerigo's adultery, if indeed they actually consumated their affair? Or the couples sundered from each other, as father and daughter arranged to separate the lovers and to save their own marriages? And was the third piece - the stem - really Fanny, who had arranged both marriages and upon whom all of the relationships rested?
I'd downloaded the book from Gutenberg and had alternated between reading the text and plugging in my earbuds and having the mechanical voice read it to me. Someone said that the best way to read James was to have it read to you. By a human, who had parsed the sentences and could use tone of voice to differentiate the causes and subclauses and bring out the meaning of the text. The voice that merely paused so long on periods and so long on commas (of which there were a multitude) just didn't give me that.
challenging
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
